Saturday’s friendly represents Moenchengladbach’s final test before kicking off their 2014/15 campaign against FC Homburg in the DFB Pokal on the 16th of August. They play Spanish opposition in Athletic Bilbao, who are in action in the Champions League play off stage, albeit facing an arduous task in overcoming Napoli.  “We were paired with the most difficult side of the five we could have faced, Athletic are the strongest of them all, no doubt about that. They play good football and the great support of the 50,000 fans at the San Mames makes them difficult to beat for anybody. ” Rafa Benitez said after the draw.

Lucien Favre’s men have a relatively easy tie in the Europa League play off tie against Bosnian outfit FC Sarajevo. Nevertheless, both sides have shown over the last campaign their obvious qualities and are a good test for each other as the new season approaches.

Pre season form

Borussia: Victories over 1860 Munich and Rennes before a 1-1 draw against Premier League opposition Stoke City is how ‘Gladbach began their pre season games, then participating in the annual Telekom Cup, a Max Kruse double forcing the game against Bayern Munich to penalties, which the German champions won 7-6, before losing 3-1 in the third place play off to Hamburg. They recovered from this minor disappointment with a strong 4-1 victory against Dutch side FC Twente in their penultimate pre season fixture.

Bilbao: Ernesto Valverde’s team have had an indifferent pre season, collecting wins against Getxoko, Al Hilal, and Paderborn, drawing with Werder Bremen, with their only losses coming against Toulouse and Osasuna, not that the results will worry the manager too much. They go into the match against their opponents on Saturday having recently defeated Europa League finalists Benfica 2-0.

Of course, both sides have lost massive players in their teams, Moenchengladbach goalkeeper Marc Andre ter Stegen joining Barcelona whilst Bilbao’s Ander Herrera linked up with Manchester United, much to the annoyance of club president Josu Urrutia, who claims Herrera “deceived the club” by saying he was happy to stay put before leaving San Mames for Old Trafford. In contrast, Borussia were able to keep hold of one of their very important men, on loan World Cup winner Christoph Kramer, who will stay at Borussia Park for the remainder of his two year loan thanks to Bayer Leverkusen’s stance against entertaining any kind of offer from Napoli, the interested party in Kramer’s services.

However, the Basque side have been able to tie down defensive duo Mikel San Jose and Aymeric Laporte to long term contracts with buy out clauses of €35m and €40m respectively.

While Valverde and co. were working hard to make sure none of his stars would leave on the cheap, Gladbach acquired a number of talented individuals on a next to nothing basis- namely Fabian Johnson, who impressed many at the World Cup, from Hoffenheim as well as Andre Hahn for a ridiculous fee of €2.25m from Augsburg, and ter Stegen’s replacement, Basel’s Yann Sommer, for a rumoured €6m fee. “I can’t wait to play in front of my new fans for the first time,” said  Sommer. “It will be my first home game in Gladbach colours. I hope that lots of fans will be there,” added Ibrahima Traoré, another new summer recruit from VfB Stuttgart. Bilbao have added Borja Viguera from Alaves to add depth in the striking department, meeting his buy out clause of around €1m.

Prediction: A costless flowing game. 2-2 draw.