RB Leipzig head to the BayArena on Saturday to meet with Bayer Leverkusen as the two clubs kick off their Bundesliga campaign for the 2023/24 season with a fantastic matchup following on from Leipzig’s DFL-Supercup triumph.
Marco Rose’s men stormed to a DFB-Pokal win last season by scoring a combined 14 goals across the games that saw them defeat Eintracht Frankfurt 2-0 in the final in Berlin.
#Bundesliga loading...◾️◾️◾️◽️◽️ pic.twitter.com/MXxuD1DVwB— RB Leipzig (@RBLeipzig) August 16, 2023
#Bundesliga loading...◾️◾️◾️◽️◽️ pic.twitter.com/MXxuD1DVwB
Leipzig did, however, suffer stunning losses at times throughout the season, including an 8-1 loss in the Champions League round of 16 to Manchester City where they were smashed 7-0 away in England.
Nevertheless, they picked up another trophy by winning the DFB-Pokal for the second year in a row, as Rose also guided his side to a spot in third and another place in the Champions League for this season.
Leipzig got their season off to the perfect start last week when the club eased past Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena in the DFL-Supercup final.
Dani Olmo stole the show that day, as he scored a hat-trick in the game with a stunning finish in the first half before two more goals later on - he is the first man to score three goals in the DFL-Supercup this century.
Olmo was subject to a lot of transfer speculation this season, and despite such a great win over Bayern this past week, Leipzig fans may be slightly fearful this season after losing arguably their best three players from last season.
Christopher Nkunku has left for Chelsea and Josko Gvardiol has departed from centre-back for Manchester City, while Dominiki Szoboszlai has also gone to Liverpool.
In reality, no team across Europe has took such a beating and lost their best three players this summer.
Leipzig has managed to bring in Benjamin Sesko and Lois Openda into the forward roles, however, while also adding El Chadaille Bitshiabu and Castello Lukeba into defence and Nicolas Seiwald and Christoph Baumgartner come into the midfield ranks for the club.
As for Leverkusen, they smashed Teutonia Ottensen 8-0 in their DFB-Pokal first round encounter and they have also lost their player of last season, Moussa Diaby, who joined Aston Villa, while Mitchel Bakker has joined Atalanta.
Xabi Alonso has brought in the likes of Victor Boniface and Granit Xhaka, however, and also added Jonas Hofmann into the attack to replace Diaby.
Forebet predicts a win for Leipzig and for the game to see over 2.5 goals.