3' CLOSE! A loose pass gifts Gladbach the ball in the Bayern third and Plea holds it up well under pressure before sending it forward to Herrmann on the edge of the box, but the winger's first-time snap-shot flies wide of Neuer's right-hand post!
1' The referee's whistle gets the 2021-22 Bundesliga season underway in Monchengladbach!
Bayern have lost 26 of their 106 Bundesliga games against Gladbach – no club has beaten them more often in the German top-flight (also 26 against Werder Bremen). Furthermore, no club has scored as many goals against Bayern as Gladbach have (134). Furthermore, Nagelsmann has won only one of his six Bundesliga games against Hutter (D2 L3). Of all the coaches Nagelsmann has faced at least five times in the Bundesliga, he has the lowest points-per-game average against Hutter (0.83).
For the first time since 2001, the reigning champion must start a Bundesliga season away from home. That was also the last time the reigning champions lost on opening day, with Bayern losing 1-0 away to Gladbach. However, Bayern haven’t lost any of their last nine opening league games in a Bundesliga season (W8 D1), the longest current streak in the Bundesliga.
Meanwhile, Julian Nagelsmann's first competitive game as Bayern manager features five changes from their final pre-season friendly - a 3-0 defeat to Napoli. Neuer, Kimmich and Muller replace benched trio Ulreich, Musiala and Coman, while Sule and Davies come in for Tanguy Nianzou and the injured Benjamin Pavard. Upamecano makes his official Bayern debut, while 21-year-old Stanisic makes just his second senior start at right-back.
New Gladbach boss Adi Hutter makes just one change from the side that beat FC Kaiserslautern 1-0 in the DFB-Pokal on Monday. Plea starts up front, with Benes dropping to the bench and Stindl shifting to a more supporting role behind the Frenchman.
Bayern Munich substitutes: Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting, Michael Cuisance, Jamal Musiala, Chris Richards, Kingsley Coman, Sven Ulreich, Tanguy Kouassi, Bouna Sarr, Omar Richards
Bayern Munich XI (4-2-3-1): Manuel Neuer, Josip Stanisic, Dayot Upamecano, Niklas Sule, Alphonso Davies; Joshua Kimmich, Leon Goretzka; Leroy Sane, Thomas Muller, Serge Gnabry; Robert Lewandowski.
Borussia Monchengladbach substitutes: Jonas Hofmann, Keanan Bennetts, Conor Noss, Tony Jantschke, Marcus Thuram, Luca Netz, Jordan Beyer, Tobias Sippel, Laszlo Benes.
Borussia Monchengladbach XI (4-2-3-1): Yann Sommer; Stefan Lainer, Matthias Ginter, Nico Elvedi, Joe Scally; Christoph Kramer, Florian Neuhaus; Patrick Herrmann, Lars Stindl, Hannes Wolf; Alassane Plea.
Bayern will be looking for a strong start to their title defence and their first opponents are a Gladbach side that will be hoping for a vast improvement on last season's disappointing eighth-placed finish.
Hello and welcome to our LIVE coverage of the Bundesliga curtain-raiser between Borussia Monchengladbach and reigning champions Bayern Munich at Borussia-Park.
