Bayern Munich come into this match off the back of a disappointing pre-season during which they lost three-nil to Napoli, drew against Ajax, lost to Cologne, and have already lost two-nil against Borussia Möchengladbach. They also had to cancel their first-round game of the DFB Pokal at Bremer SV due to Coronavirus.
It means Julian Nagelsman goes into the game on Friday not having won a single game with his new club.
In contrast, Mönchengladbach had a largely positive pre-season with wins over FC Metz, Bayern, and FC Groningen, as well as edging past FC Kaiserslautern on Monday to progress to the second round of the DFB Pokal. It means new head coach Adi Hutter and his team will go into Friday's match on the back of a rich amount of form.
Both sides have had relatively quiet summer transfer windows so far with many more outgoings. The most high-profile transfer that Bayern has completed so far is getting Dayot Upamecano for just £38 million from RB Leipzig.
Bayern also completed the signing of Omar Richards on a free transfer from Reading. One notable outgoing transfer that might come back to haunt Bayern is that of David Alaba going to real Madrid for free having decided not to sign a new contract with Bayern.
Gladbach have also had a quiet summer transfer window so far with them spending just £12 million on new players. Those being Hannes Wolf from Leipzig and talented 18-year-old German left-back Luca Netz from Hertha Berlin.
The most notable outgoing is that of long-time serving player Oscar Wendt who will be playing his football in his home country for IFK Göteborg.
Team news
Gladbach head coach Adi Hutter has major injury concerns going into the match on Friday with Mamadou Doucoure, Breel Embolo, Kouadio Kone, and Denis Zakaria, unavailable due to injury or match fitness, while Marcus Thuram, Ramy Bensabaini are also doubts for the match on Friday.
Nagelsman has far fewer injury concerns going into the match this Friday. Lucas Hernandez and Marc Roca are both out injured while Eric Choupo-Moting, Alphonso Davies, Omar Richards, and Coriten Tolisso are doubts due to injury or match fitness.
Predicted Lineups
Borussia Mönchengladbach: Sommer, Scully, Elvedi, Ginter, Lainer, Neuhaus, Kramer, Stindl, Herrman, Wolf, Plea
Bayern Munich: Neuer, Stanisic, Upamecano, Nianzou, Pavard, Goretzka, Kimmich, Sane, Gnabry, Lewandowski, Muller.
Ones to watch
The club captain had another exceptional season last year and played a crucial part despite Gladbach finishing 8th in the table. Stindl ended the season with 16 goals and ten assists to his name, he also created 49 chances for his teammates finishing second behind Jonas Hoffman who created 51.
With Stindl not selected for the euros or to represent the German football team at the Olympics, he focused purely on his preparations for his club going into the new season.
His hard work has payed off as he has hit the ground running scoring against Groningen and getting the vital goal as they scraped past Kaiserslautern.
Hutter and Gladbach will be hoping that Stindl plays at his best to help them upset the odds and beat Bayern.
In a Bayern team full of talented footballers there is really only one player everyone will be watching on Friday and that is Lewandowski.
After his ridiculous tally of 48 goals overall last season and 41 goals in the Bundesliga that meant he broke Gerd Muller's record, many people expected him to continue his domestic form into the euros.
however due to Poland having a lack of quality players he could only manage to score 3 goals and Poland subsequently went out in the group stages.
Having been given time off to recover after his exploits at the euro's, Lewandoski got an important 45 minutes under his belt against Napoli on Sunday, and will no doubt be rearing to go for the new season to try and beat his goal tally from last year.
Last time out
It was a bit of embarrassment for Bayern when they last played Gladbach two weeks ago as they lost two-nil. However, both teams fielded either youth players or fringe players due to most of the regular first-team players recovering from their euro exploits.
Bayern dominated from the start and created their first chance just under two minutes as Lazslo benes had to foul Malik Tillman, with Tobias Sippel in the Gladbach goal having to make a strong save from the subsequent free-kick from Eric Choupo-Moting. Bayern continued to have control during the first half with the only notable Gladbach chance coming from Joe Scally as he fired a shot past the Bayern goal.
After a period of calm Bayern turned up the heat on Gladbach again with Johsua Zirkzee hitting the side netting and Tanguy Nianzou scuffing his effort and as result, Bayern and Gladbach were stalemate going into halftime.
Gladbach played much better in the second half and just under the 60-minute mark they scored, Scally put a great ball into the box and Hannes Wolf was on the end of it to tap it harmlessly into the Bayern net. Bayern pushed for an Equalizer with Gnabry seeing his effort blocked.
However, Gladbach dealt Bayern a knockout blow in the 76th minute as Michael Wentzel tapped the ball home for Gladbach's second after Ron-Thorben Hoffman clawed away a dangerous cross. Bayern still created chances with Taylor Booth forcing Sippel into a fine save, Gnabry had the ball in Gladbach's net but the linesman flag was raised for offside and with no VAR the goal did not count.
How to watch
Fans in the UK will be able to watch the match at 7:30 on Friday via Sky Sports who have secured the rights to Bundesliga matches for the next four seasons. Fans in the United States can tune in to the match via the ESPN app.