Last season's fourth-placed side Borussia Monchengladbach will be eager to pick up their first points of the new Bundesliga campaign after suffering a chastening 3-0 defeat away to Borussia Dortmund on matchday one.
Their opponents, Union Berlin, also kicked off their season with a loss, falling 3-1 at home to Augsburg and now face a tricky trip to Monchengladbach.
Match preview
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Gladbach seemed to be mounting a title charge in the first half of last season, winning 10 of their first 14 league games - including a 2-1 home victory over eventual champions Bayern Munich.
However, their form tailed off after that, claiming just the same number of wins across the last 20 games of the campaign as Bayern overtook them - and everyone else - to retain their Bundesliga crown yet again.
Marco Rose's side did earn Champions League qualification, though, and will be hoping to perform better in Europe this time around, having exited last season's Europa League at the group stage.
Despite their opening-day defeat, Gladbach may feel confident of kick-starting their season as they play their first home game of the campaign, having won the corresponding fixture 4-1 last season.
Union Berlin, in turn, will be eager to make amends for the disappointing result of their opening league fixture. The capital side were beaten at home by an Augsburg outfit that narrowly avoided relegation last season and cannot afford to drop points so frivolously throughout the rest of the campaign.
However, Urs Fischer's side gave a good account of themselves, despite being a newly-promoted team last term, finishing a comfortable 11th - only seven points off a Europa League spot and 10 points clear of the drop.
They struggled to adapt initially, losing five of their first seven Bundesliga games, but claimed five wins from their next seven outings and proceeded in a stop-start manner until the end of the campaign.
Union Berlin will be keen to address that patchy form this season, though, and produce on a more consistent basis throughout this season as they aim to consolidate their top-flight status.
Borussia Monchengladbach Bundesliga form: L
Union Berlin Bundesliga form: L
Team News
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Gladbach head coach Rose is without a number of players as he prepares for the visit of Union Berlin.
Breel Embolo, Louis Beyer, Valentino Lazaro and Laszlo Benes are all sidelined with various leg injuries, although none is long-term.
A boost for Rose is that Denis Zakaria has returned to training, but this game may still come too soon for the Swiss to be involved.
Fischer is not without his share of injury woes, although there are fewer Union Berlin players out of action ahead of this one.
Christian Gentner was forced off after less than half an hour against Augsburg, and he joins Anthony Ujah and Keita Endo on the treatment table.
Borussia Monchengladbach possible starting lineup:
Sommer; Ginter, Elvedi, Bensebaini; Lainer, Neuhaus, Kramer, Wendt; Wolf, Stindl, Hofmann.
Union Berlin possible starting lineup:
Luthe; Trimmel, Friedrich, Knoche, Lenz; Griesbeck, Andrich, Promel; Becker, Ingvartsen, Bulter.
We say: Borussia Monchengladbach 4-1 Union Berlin
Gladbach were bested by a dazzling Dortmund side but will be keen to right the wrongs and Union Berlin could find themselves on the wrong side of a heavy defeat as the hosts look to prove a point.
Top betting tip
Our expert tipster partners at Sporita.com are predicting under 3.5 goals in this match. Click here to find out what else they are predicting for this game and for more of their tried-and-tested football tips.Under 3.5:dataData Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Borussia Monchengladbach win with a probability of 57.34%. A draw had a probability of 22.4% and a win for Union Berlin had a probability of 20.26%.
The most likely scoreline for a Borussia Monchengladbach win was 1-0 with a probability of 10.39%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (9.91%) and 2-0 (9.73%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (10.58%), while for a Union Berlin win it was 0-1 (5.66%). The actual scoreline of 1-1 was predicted with a 10.6% likelihood.
