Saturday evening, the Wolkswagen Arena will host the 2015 DFL-Supercup, where the Bundesliga champions, Bayern Munich face DFB-Pokal champions, VfL Wolfsburg. The encounter will be the first meeting between the two in the Supercup, in-fact the first time Wolfsburg will officially be in the competition.
Borussia Dortmund currently hold the record for the most Supercup wins with five, courtesy of last year's 4-2 victory at the expense of Bayern themselves. However, Pep Guardiola's men can tie that record on Saturday evening with a win of their own.
Wolfsburg earned their place in the competition by beating current holders of the Supercup, Borussia Dortmund 3-1 in the DFB Pokal final. That happened to be the first time they've won the competition - having boasted a fantastic campaign all-round under Dieter Hecking, which was their best since winning the league itself back in the 2008-09 campaign.
As for Pep's Bayern, despite a few nervy performances near the end of the season, they romped to another Bundesliga triumph - thus qualifying for the Supercup. They'll no doubt be viewed as the favourites, but they've lost their last two consecutive Supercup fixtures and will be playing away, which is a slight disadvantage in itself.
New additions
Dieter Hecking has added three players to what is already a strong side. Defensive midfielder Carlos Ascues, youngster Francisco Rodríguez and the club's main signing thus far, Max Kruse from Borussia Mönchengladbach. Wolfsburg needed another goal getter within the team, despite Bas Dost impressing last season scoring 16 goals in 21 appearances in the league alone. Fourteen of those were after the winter break, meaning that he'd netted 14 in 15 appearances after Christmas - a superb stat for a relatively unknown forward up until then.
Kruse scored 13 and assisted 11 in all competitions and will definitely add something to the side, with the quality he possesses. He'll be keen to make his mark on his new side.
Bayern, again, have added quality to their side with the additions of versatile Brazillian creative midfielder Douglas Costa and another midfield option in Juventus' Arturo Vidal. Vidal, who seems to be the replacement for Manchester United's new signing Bastian Schweinsteiger, could feature at some stage during the match this weekend. He stressed he's ready to play if the coach wants him to, in the pre-match press conference.
You can see why they're favourites to retain the Bundesliga - the sheer talent they possess, a never-ending cycle of success within the squad.
Player Focus
Undoubtedly the best midfielder in the Bundesliga last season, the impressive Kevin de Bruyne. The Belgian is a hot transfer topic at the moment as Manchester City are reportedly interested in the Belgian playmaker. You can see why, when he netted ten goals and created the most assists in the whole of Europe last term, with an eyewatering 21 in Germany alone.
He pulls the strings for Hecking's side and if he plays to the standard that he's shown plenty of times that he can, Wolfsburg can undoubtedly beat the defending champions. He's an incredible player to watch and hard to tame, just ask Pep, whose side were outplayed by Die Wölfe in January. de Bruyne scored two and set up another in a 4-1 against the Bavarians.
For Bayern, it's difficult to choose a standout man as all of their players are extremely talented and it's difficult to predict who will start. Douglas Costa, if handed his debut, will be keen to impress. Mario Götze, dubbed the 'German Messi', found himself struggling last season with a few lacklustre displays but it could be the season to really impress and become one of the first names on the team-sheet. He's been linked with a move away this summer so really needs to show why Bayern paid £35million pounds for the youngster, who famously scored the winning goal in last summer's World Cup tournament to sink Argentina in extra time.
Then, there's Thiago. He's a talented, agile midfielder who has struggled with injuries of late but on-form, is a joy to watch. Arjen Robben, who returned to training this week, and Robert Lewandowski - who scored 25 goals in all competitions last term. Plenty of talent on show, for sure.
Team news
Wolfsburg should have a full squad available, apart from Brazillian defender Felipe who's still recovering from a stroke.
Bayern have three players on the injury list - Franck Ribery, Holger Badstuber and Jan Kirchhoff who are all sidelined ahead of the new campaign. Robben has returned to training along with Javi Martinez, Dante and Mehdi Benatia, but the aforementioned are unlikely to feature for sustained periods at least, in the fixture.
Officials
Marco Fritz (Referee)
Dominik Schaal (Linesman)
Marcel Pelgrim (Linesman)
Dr. Jochen Drees (4th Official)
Marco Fritz issued an average of 3.81 cards per match in the 16 Bundesliga matches he took charge of last season - statistically making him the tenth most lenient referee in the league (out of 23 currently). The 37-year-old is set to take the reigns once more for his seventh Bundesliga season as an official, and it doesn't get much bigger than a DFL-Supercup to kick the season off with.
Head-to-head
Played 39: Bayern (wins) Draw Wolfsburg (wins)
30 5 4
Predicted Line-ups:
Bayern München (3-4-3):
Neuer; Boateng, Benatia, Alaba; Bernat, Alonso, Lahm, Vidal; Costa, Müller and Lewandowski.
Wolfsburg (4-2-3-1):
Benaglio; Jung, Naldo, Knoche, Rodríguez; Guilavogui, Gustavo; de Bruyne, Schürrle, Perišić and Kruse.
The two best teams in the Bundesliga last season, collide at the Wolkswagen Arena and will certainly be interesting to see who kick-starts their starts their season with a Supercup win.
Can Hecking's side repeat January's successful result against Bayern this weekend? With the press reporting Guardiola will depart at the end of the season, will it affect their performance? Or will Bayern's new additions help them tie the record for the most DFL-Supercup wins?
Find out this Saturday, at 7.30PM UK time! We'll have all of the coverage live and exclusive, right here on VAVEL.