Borussia Dortmund vs. Gladbach: Team News, Preview, Live Stream, TV Info

The two clubs come into the new season in good spirits. Dortmund, under new manager Thomas Tuchel, have a fresh breeze of optimism through their sails with new tactics, a few new faces and ultimately a slate wiped clean from the previous Jurgen Klopp campaign. For the first time in quite some time, the Black and Yellows look fresh in the face and light on their toes as the new Bundesliga campaign draws near. 

Gladbach, contrastingly, have spent the summer adding to their solid foundations with a few sharp deals in Josip Drmic, Nico Elvedi and the permanent signature of Thorgan Hazard to offset the departing Max Kruse to Wolfsburg and Christoph Kramer back to Bayer Leverkusen. 

Yet as ever the Foals will look to prove once again that collective brilliance can make up for any individual star that may have parted ways with the club. This is Lucien Favre's ethos at a club that finished third last season and exactly why Dortmund are in for a real contest on their first day back. 

Date: Saturday 15 August 2015

Time: 5:30 p.m. BST/12.30 p.m. ET

Venue: Westfalensation, Dortmund, Germany

TV Info: BT Sport Europe (UK Only)/Fox Sport 2 (U.S. Only)

Live Stream: BT Sport online (UK Only)/Fox Sport Go (U.S. only)

Team News and predicted Lineups

The main worry for Dortmund going into this game has been the fitness of both Neven Subotic and Erik Durm, with the latter still expected to miss out on Saturday's opening game of the season. 

Elsewhere in Tuchel's squad we can assume that Adrian Ramos still isn't fit to start the match, despite the likelihood of starting on the bench either way. Aside from that, we can expect a relatively clean bill of health for the new manager in his first Bundesliga match with Dortmund.

Favre has similar problems to deal with at the back as both Alvaro Dominguez and Martin Stranzl look as though they'll miss the first game back with niggling injuries. Add to that the red-card suspension carried over from last season for Havard Nordtveit and the Foals look a little light at the back before a ball has been kicked. 

Fortunately for Gladbach that seems to be where the unfortunate luck comes to an end, with a full roster of midfielders and attacking options available to the manager.

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Players to watch

Although Dortmund will always turn to their posterboy, Marco Reus, in such games it'll be worth watching Henrikh Mkhitaryan on the right wing throughout the match to see if he can continue his good form and show up with a couple of goals. 

The Armenian international has been knocking goals and assists in for fun over the course of the summer pre-season and looks like a new player under Tuchel's tactics and instructions. 

Similarly, Gladbach's own right winger Patrick Herrmann will undoubtedly be looking to impress in this opening-day test against Dortmund. 

The German midfielder picked up no less than 16 goals and seven assists in all competition last season (Transfermarkt) and was on top form when these two sides met in April. The Foals have a number of key attacking players but this wide-man may be their most likely route to goal. 

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Key Battle

With both sides hoping to play the ball on the ground and really try and bring their forward line in to the game, the middle of the park will be prime real estate for either side to dominate and lay claims to early on. 

Luckily for any spectators on Saturday evening, this game has two of the best central midfielders in the Bundesliga at the moment in Granit Xhaka and Ilkay Gundogan who know exactly how to kick lumps and jink past each other in the middle of the park.

Although individual battles will be playing out across the pitch the winner of this one in particular may go on to decide the outcome of the entire match. 

Odds

The odds for the game, at the time of writing, per Odds Shark are: 

Dortmund: 3/4

Draw: 3/1

Gladbach: 4/1