The schedule for the 2019/20 season will be released on Friday. Thomas Müller has scored the most opening day goals, but what else is there to know about Matchday 1 in the Bundesliga?
Bayern best marks
No team has a better record than Bayern for opening day results. The Bavarian juggernaut averages 2.1 points per game from Matchday 1 fixtures – a league best mark.
The record champions have celebrated the most victories (35) and scored the most goals (123) on Matchday 1. On 11 occasions, their opening day win was enough to send – and keep – them top.
Curiously, the team in second after the first matchday has been relegated just as many times as going on to become champion, though (11 times each).
Bayern boast the record Matchday 1 win, thanks to their 6-0 triumph over Werder Bremen in the 2016/17 season opener, in which Xabi Alonso scored a Goal of the Season contender.
The Bavarians have also been on the receiving end of the same scoreline. Back in the 1974/75 season, Udo Lattek took his European champions to Kickers Offenbach, who duly handed them a shock 6-0 thrashing.
A portent of things to come?
In the 55 Bundesliga seasons since 1963, 142 teams have been relegated. Just under a quarter – 23 percent – of those had kicked off their campaign with a win, though.
Four teams have started the season atop the Bundesliga standings, only to be relegated come the end of the season: Hansa Rostock in 1991/92, Karlsruher in 1997/98, Borussia Mönchengladbach in 1998/99 and most recently Arminia Bielefeld in 2002/03.
Northern rivals Bremen and Hamburg have played in the most opening-day fixtures (55 each). Bremen will take the record outright this season, with the Red Shorts having missed out on promotion last term.
Borussia Dortmund have conceded the most Matchday 1 defeats (22). Their Revierderby rivals Schalke have lost on the opening day 21 times.
No team has conceded more goals than the Royal Blues, though. Schalke have seen their net ripple on the opening day a record 87 times.
The opening day of the 1986/87 saw the most goals, with 42. The fewest came in 2016/17, when there were just 15, despite Bayern’s shellacking of Bremen.
Lewandowski laying down the law
Four players – Klaus Fichtel, Eike Immel, Manfred Kaltz and Karl-Heinz Körbel – have featured in 17 opening day fixtures in the Bundesliga.
Nobody has won as many times as Oliver Kahn, though, Der Titan, picking up all three points on 11 occasions.
Gerd Müller may have a Bundesliga record 365 goals to his name, but Klaus Fischer boasts the most opening day goals with 13.
Among active players, Robert Lewandowski has the most Matchday 1 goals with seven. The Pole – top scorer in three of the last four seasons – is fifth all time in this regard.
There were seven penalties on the opening day of the 1987/88 campaign, a record high. There have only been two seasons without a penalty on Matchday 1, and the last time that happened was 1988/89.
A Bayern player has scored the first goal of a season a record 14 times. Dortmund are next best with eight… MSV Duisburg, currently in the third tier, are next on that particular list.
Lewandowski’s Bayern teammate Müller is the only player in history to have scored the first goal of the season three times (2010, 2014 and 2018). Timo Konietzka (Dortmund, 1963 and 1860 Munich, 1965) and Atli Edvaldsson (Dortmund 1980, and Bayer Uerdingen, 1986) have two apiece.
The highest average Matchday 1 attendance was recorded in 2011 (51,344). Dortmund, Bayern and Hertha Berlin – owners of the three biggest stadiums in the land – were all at home that day.
Lewandowski has won each of his last eight opening day fixtures in the Bundesliga, which is an all-time record.
