The new German football season gets underway for top-flight clubs this weekend, with the highlight seeing Bundesliga champions FC Bayern Munich and Senegalese superstar Sadio Mane travelling to DFB Cup winners RB Leipzig on Saturday July 30 for the DFL Supercup match.
Last year Bayern won the curtain-raiser before the start of the Bundesliga season and will be looking to repeat the feat for a record-extending 10th time with a new cast of attacking talents, all eager to make their mark at the Red Bull Arena on Saturday evening.
Chief among them is new Bayern signing Mane, who was named African Player of the Year last week after a stellar season in which he became an African champion with Senegal and won two trophies with Liverpool.
Mane has already got on the scoresheet as a Bayern player, netting in the 6-2 win over DC United on their US Tour. The 30-year-old will now be keen to make a big impact in his first competitive match for Julian Nagelsmann’s team.
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Dutch defender Matthijs De Ligt was also on target in America, and the Netherlands international is another recruit who looks right at home in Munich after his move from Juventus.
Another pair of former Ajax players – Ryan Gravenberch and Noussair Mazraoui – just as Mane, have also strengthened the champions this summer, while the usual cast still loom large. Canadian speedster Alphonso Davies and German stars like Manuel Neuer, Joshua Kimmich, Serge Gnabry, Leroy Sane and Thomas Müller should all be available this weekend as they look to add to their already vast trophy collections.
Leipzig, though, have the talent to beat Bayern. French attacker Christopher Nkunku was named as the Bundesliga Player of the Year for 2021/22 after getting 20 goals and 13 assists to help his side finish fourth in the Bundesliga. Crucially, he also scored an equaliser in the DFB Cup final, which Leipzig won on penalties against Freiburg to land their first major trophy.
Portuguese striker Andre Silva got 11 league goals in his first season at the club, and he and his teammates will be out to get one over Bayern and their former Leipzig players Dayot Upamecano and Marcel Sabitzer.
Captain and Hungary goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi has the ability to shut out the champions out at the other end, while his fellow countryman Dominik Szoboszlai as well as Emil Forsberg, Konrad Laimer and Dani Olmo could all have a part to play too.
The coaches will be worth keeping an eye on as well, since Leipzig boss Domenico Tedesco and Bayern counterpart Nagelsmann know each other well. They graduated from the DFB coaching school together in 2016, when Tedesco finished with top marks in the class.
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And the pair were evenly matched in the table following Tedesco’s arrival at the Red Bull Arena in December. Over the 20 matchdays he oversaw, Leipzig amassed 40 points – a total second only just to Bayern’s 43 – and boasted the Bundesliga’s meanest defence, with only 19 goals conceded (the champions followed next with 22). Die Roten Bullen were also the league’s form side in the Rückrunde.
However, Nagelsmann and Bayern won a thriller 3-2 when the sides last met in the Bundesliga in February, and he’ll be hoping for a similar outcome as both teams look to grab the first silverware of the season.
Due to their involvement in the Supercup, Leipzig’s DFB Cup defence won’t start until the end of August. There are several first-round fixtures in that competition down for decision this weekend, however, with Borussia Dortmund at third-tier TSV 1860 München a week out from their first Bundesliga fixture against Bayer 04 Leverkusen.
The new Bundesliga season will get underway on Friday 5 August when Bayern travel to UEFA Europa League winners Eintracht Frankfurt.
