Getty Borussia Dortmund midfielder Thorgan Hazard.
Borussia Dortmund will host Borussia Monchengladbach on Sunday in each side’s Bundesliga season opener.
Note: Heavy may earn an affiliate commission if you sign up via a link on this page
In the United States, the match (12:30 p.m. ET) won’t be on TV anywhere, but anyone in the US can watch Dortmund vs Gladbach live on ESPN+:
ESPN+ will have live coverage of every Bundesliga match in 20-21, as well as DFL Supercup, Bundesliga 2, Serie A, FA Cup, Carabao Cup, MLS and other live sports. It also includes every 30-for-30 documentary and additional original content (both video and written) all for $5.99 per month.
Or, if you also want Disney+ and Hulu, you can get all three for $12.99 per month, which works out to about 31 percent savings:
Get the ESPN+, Disney+ and Hulu Bundle
Once signed up for ESPN+, you can watch Dortmund vs Gladbach live on the ESPN app on your Roku, Roku TV, Amazon Fire TV or Firestick, Apple TV, Chromecast, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, iPhone, Android phone, iPad or Android tablet. Or you can watch on your computer via ESPN.com.
Dortmund vs Gladbach Preview
Both sides have already opened their 2020-21 campaigns, earning shutout victories in the first round of the DFB-Pokal.
Dortmund, who last year finished second on the league table and made round-of-16 exits in the domestic cup competition and the Champions League, bested third-tier MSV Duisburg 5-0 on the road on Sept. 14.
“It’s great to see the players we have in the team,” German defender Emre Can said, according to the official Bundesliga website. “We have a brilliant team with very, very young players up front. But they also put in hard work defensively — and that’s important for us.”
Among those youngsters are a pair of 17-year-old midfielders: American Giovanni Reyna and Jude Bellingham of England. Each one found the back of the net against Duisburg, along with English 20-year-old midfielder Jadon Sancho, Belgian 27-year-old midfielder Thorgan, and German 31-year-old forward Marco Reus.
Hazard noted Bellingham’s impact after the victory.
“He is only 17, but he plays like a man,” he said, per the league website.
“He is everywhere on the pitch, can score goals and defend. He is a very good player to keep the balance between attack and defence. He can help us a lot.”
Sunday will mark Dortmund’s first home game with fans since February, a spell prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic. After consulting with the city, the club will permit 10,000 fans at Signal Iduna Park, which can host roughly 81,000.
“Everyone is delighted that fans can come back into the stadium,” Dortmund head coach Lucien Favre said, according to the club’s official website. “It was a long time.”
On Sunday, Dortmund will meet a Monchengladbach squad that last year placed fourth in Bundesliga play and exited the DFB-Pokal and Europa League in the second round and group stage, respectively.
The Foals thumped FC Oberneuland 8-0 on Sept. 12 in the first round of the domestic cup tournament behind braces from German midfielders Patrick Herrmann and Florian Neuhaus.
Dortmund bested Monchengladbach in all three of the sides’ meetings last year, each time by a single goal.
“We’re expecting to face a strong Dortmund side that will look to attack often,” Foals manager Marco Rose said, according to the club’s official website. “We know what to expect and hold our opponents in high regard; however we still always believe that we can manage to get a result against them. Our games against Dortmund have been evenly matched of late. If you want to be rewarded against Dortmund, then you cannot allow yourself to make many mistakes over the course of those 90 minutes.”