U17s start against top favourites Leverkusen

The 40-year-old will be making his Bundesliga debut along with assistant coaches Marcel Schmelzer and Sahin Kösecik. “We’ve trained at a high intensity and are well prepared,” assured Lehmann. His confidence has been boosted by the performances against strong opponents such as Hoffenheim (2-2) and Mainz 05 (3-1) in the pre-season friendlies, in which he felt that his boys “defended with a lot of heart and clearly improved their play off the ball”. Lehmann explained: “The counter-pressing worked, we gave away no chances from open play and created a lot of switch-play moments.” However, he feels there is room for improvement on the ball. “That was good for one half in each of the matches, it can and must be better,” said Lehmann.

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Two completely different halves

Especially as he will be without three key performers for a prolonged period. Anas Mahjoubi has injured his shoulder so badly that an operation is inevitable. Len Wörsdörfer and Joshua Burstedde are suffering from torn lateral collateral ligaments and will only return to the squad over the course of the next month. “We will nonetheless field a strong team,” assured Lehmann. Defensive reinforcements are expected to come from the U19 squad. Elias Benkara – who along with Tyler Meiser – has been invited to attend the first training course for the new U17 national team next week, is expected to stabilise the defence in a central role.

While the majority of the BVB players are expected to make their Bundesliga debut, Leverkusen’s squad predominantly consists of talented youngsters who already featured in the Bundesliga team last year. Plus there are new signings Montrell Culbreath, an U16 Germany international who has joined from 1. FC Kaiserslautern, and Ukrainian Nikita Slavytkyi (most recently Fortuna Düsseldorf). “There’s some real quality coming our way,” explained Marco Lehmann, who has held many meetings to prepare his Black & Yellows for the opposition in meticulous detail.

The number one in the Bundesliga

In the final Bundesliga season, BVB will be looking to make an impact once again. They have written several chapters in the story of this division, which was founded in 2007. Borussia top the Bundesliga West’s “all-time table” with 805 points, ahead of Schalke 04 (758), no other club has won the regional pool more often (six times) and BVB are the record champions with three titles, ahead of 1. FC Köln and VfB Stuttgart (both two). Having failed to quality for the Final Round of the German Championship in both of the last two years, Marco Lehmann is targeting a place in the final phase once again. “The competition is strong, but we will give our best,” he promised.

Starting on Saturday against Leverkusen.

(wiwi)