Dortmund kick off their campaign against Bayer Leverkusen

Borussia Dortmund will play out a tricky encounter with Bayer Leverkusen at the Westfalenstadion, with last season’s Bundesliga runners-up odds-on at 8/15 to overcome Roger Schmidt’s side, who are 9/2 for victory.

The two teams have strengthened heavily this summer, Jurgen Klopp’s Dortmund more out of necessity than anything else, having lost top striker Robert Lewandowski to fierce rivals Bayern Munich.

Ciro Immobile has been brought in from Torino, along with Colombian striker Adrian Ramos to fill the vacant void; though, with the latter injured, it is likely the 24-year-old Italian will start, and is 7/2 to open the scoring.

Marco Reus should resume his duties on the left of an attacking three following his return from injury in the German Cup last time out, and is 4/1 to net first. He has two in his last two starts against this opposition.

For Leverkusen, rising star Son Heung-Min could be the spark they will sorely need against a Dotmund rearguard that is hard to break down. He is 5/2 to score anytime, and add to his tally of 10 Bundesliga goals last term. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, at the other end, may well give Leverkusen something to think about. The away side don’t have the fastest defence, so Dortmund’s attacker has the pace to expose them on the counter attack, and is 9/2 to net first.

It is perhaps a couple of weeks too soon for Ilkay Gundogan and Nuri Sahin to return to the starting line-up after injury, however Sven Bender is likely to feature alongside Milos Jojic, while Henrikh Mkhitaryan will take up his number 10 role, having been prolific in pre-season.

Striker Stefan Kiessling could be Leverkusen’s best chance of scoring, having found the goal 15 times in 32 Bundesliga appearances last term. He is 7/1 to strike first, and 15/8 to get on the score-sheet anytime.

For the past couple of years, every other team in Bundesliga has been fighting it out for second place, with Bayern Munich dominating, however Klopp’s Dortmund will be keen wrestle the title back.