By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Current Bundesliga champions Bayer 04 Leverkusen will take on last season’s runners-up VfB Stuttgart in the DFL Supercup on Saturday 17 August, with kick-off at 8:30pm CEST.
Both sides will be eager to start the new season by adding some silverware to the trophy cabinet. Leverkusen will come into this game confidently as Bundesliga and DFB Cup winners, although Stuttgart had a sensational season of their own last time – going from narrowly avoiding relegation in 2022-23 to finishing second thanks to a series of brilliant performances.
The recent record between the sides reads two ways. Having gone through three tightly contested fixtures with Stuttgart last season unbeaten, Xabi Alonso’s side will be confident of extending their long unbeaten record against German teams dating back to May 2023.
No Bundesliga side provided as much of a test to the runaway champions last season as Sebastian Hoeneß’s Stuttgart, however. The teams shared two draws in the league, while Leverkusen shaded a DFB Cup quarter-final. It took a 90th-minute winner from Jonathan Tah to seal the cup encounter 3-2, while Robert Andrich’s 96th-minute strike salvaged a 2- 2 league draw in Leverkusen.
While failing to beat the eventual double winners will have frustrated Sebastian Hoeneß and his players, their performances highlighted an ability to create and convert chances against even the best sides, and they will be hoping for more of the same, with a slightly better outcome, this time around.
Both sides have made additions to their squad ahead of Saturday’s game. Stuttgart will welcome back Deniz Undav on a permanent basis after he spent last season on loan at the MHPArena, in addition to former FC Augsburg forward Ermedin Demirović, former 1. FC Cologne duo Jeff Chabot and Justin Diehl, as well as Bayern Munich loanee Frans Krätzig.
On the other side, Leverkusen have added Spanish midfielder Aleix García plus forward Martin Terrier and defender Jeanuël Belocian, who have both joined from Stade Rennes, to their invincible squad.
It will certainly be interesting to see how Stuttgart’s new strike duo of Demirović and Undav will work, and whether Undav can continue last season’s form, which saw him score 18 Bundesliga goals. Stuttgart winger Chris Führich scored in all three of last season’s encounters with Die Werkself and will no doubt be a source of concern for the Leverkusen defence once again.
Last season’s Bundesliga player of the year Florian Wirtz will surely be a threat, as will striker Victor Boniface, who scored 14 goals and recorded nine assists last season before injury disrupted the back end of his campaign. Leverkusen’s flying full-backs Jeremie Frimpong and Alejandro Grimaldo will also be ones to look out for, with the duo combining for a total of 19 goals and 24 assists last season.
Ahead of the Supercup, Leverkusen’s star man Wirtz heaped praise on Hoeneß’s side, saying: “In Germany they were definitely one of the best teams. I think we played them three times last season, twice in the Bundesliga and once in the cup. Every time it was a really good football game, quite evenly balanced and it wasn’t easy to win.”
Hoeneß is fully aware of the difficulty of the task at hand for his players, as he highlighted last season: “It’s difficult to trouble them when they’re in possession. We have to think about whether we limit their space at the back or go for it at the other end. It might make sense to do something in between”