Bayern Munich kickoff the new Bundesliga season on Friday with a late trip to Frankfurt where they’ve lost two and won one in their last three visits.
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Looking to defend the league title for the eleventh season in a row, they will have to start without striker, Robert Lewandowski, who in the summer becomes the first player in history to join Barcelona from Bayern Munich.
The loss has not been replaced by a big name striker but Bayern did sign Senegalese forward, Sadio Mané from Liverpool while youngster Mathys Tel remains the only striker signed this summer.
Matthijs de Ligt, Ryan Gravenberch and Noussair Mazraoui have also joined the club this summer while Marc Roca, Omar Richards, Chris Richards, Corentin Tolisso and many other players have followed the exit door.
Their opponent and Europa League winner, Frankfurt have signed Lucas Alario, Mario Gotze, Jens Petter Hauge, Kristijan Jakic, Aurelio Buta and Hrvoje Smolcic this summer as they look to better their poor league form last season.
Borussia Dortmund will be in action on Saturday evening in the biggest fixture of round one when they entertain Bayer Leverkusen at the Signa Iduna Park in Dortmund.
Both side enjoyed a good run in the league last season as they finished second and third respectively and looking to build on that success will be challenging Bayern for the league title.
Their quest ha also been boosted with the departure of Robert Lewandowski from Bayern, who has been their best player over the years, scoring goals for fun and making away with the league’s top scorer award in all but one of his years in Bayern.
Niklas Sule, Karim Adeyemi, Nico Schlotterbeck, Marcel Lotka, Salih Ozcan Jayden Braaf, Alexander Meyer and Sébastien Haller have all been signed by Dortmund but unfortunately, Haller will not be part of the team anytime soon as he recovers from testicular tumor.
For Leverkusen, only Sardar Azmoun and Adam Hlozek have been signed while Florian Wirtz continues to recover from injury. Lucas Alario, Mitchell Weiser and Lennart Grill have all left the club this summer.
Leverkusen beat Dortmund in their last visit to the Signa Iduna Park last season, their only win away to Dortmund since 2014 but Dortmund, who have won all the other six games between that time will be hoping to return to winning ways in the final Bundesliga fixture on Saturday.
Coming up on Saturday before Dortmund host Leverkusen will be Union Berlin playing host to Hertha Berlin in the Berlin derby.
Hoffenheim travel to Moenchengladbach. Augsburg are at home against Freiburg. VFL Bochum entertain Mainz at the Vonovia Ruhrstadion. Wolfsburg are at the Volkswagen Arena to take on newly promoted Werder Bremen. All matches kicking off simultaneously in the afternoon.
On Sunday, Leipzig kickstart their season against Stuttgart at the Mercedes Benz Arena, home of Stuttgart. The Red Bull club have been one of the top teams in Germany since gaining promotion and like Dortmund and Leverkusen, they will fancy their chance at the league title this season.
They have a very good record against Stuttgart, winning seven and drawing one in eight meetings and have only ever conceded once on those games.
A winning start against a side that just managed to avoid relegation on the final day of last season should not be farfetched for Leipzig, but Stuttgart themselves are preparing for a brand new and different season from the last one.
They won all four of their preseason games and against Leipzig who won just one of the games played in the summer, they will be confident of getting a result at home though Leipzig still very much the favourite.
Later on Sunday, newly promoted Schalke travel to Koln in the final game of round one.
Author: Kehinde Hassan Afolabi
