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Ancelotti insists Bayern ready for Dortmund test

New season, old rivalry – but passion absolutely unchanged.

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“I am sure Mario will give them more in the future”.

The curtain comes up on the 2016/17 Bundesliga season with a titanic collision at SIGNAL IDUNA PARK on Sunday when heavyweights Borussia Dortmund and FC Bayern München go toe-to-toe for the new campaign’s first piece of silverware, the Supercup.

“The whole nation is looking forward to the duel between Bayern and Dortmund”, Thomas Muller said on Bayern’s website.

“Of course nobody wants to have injured players and we’ve had a bit of misfortune this summer, but the injured players will have the time to get fit again”.

Mueller scored what proved to be the victor when Bayern last won the title at Munich’s Allianz Arena in August 2012 with a 2-1 win over Dortmund.

During this period, Bayern have won eight times to Dortmund’s three, including the famous Champions League win in 2013, with the remaining five having ended in a draw.

However, the last two encounters between these two sides have ended as goalless draws, therefore history would count for nothing when the two sides take to the field on Sunday night. And no matter how the thing turns out – the important thing is that our friendship does not suffer. Hummels, a former Bayern youth product, joined the Westphalens in 2008 and spent eight years before returning home. Bayern have had a few defensive hiccups in preseason, but the players who made those hiccups – Holger Badstuber and Nicolas Feldhahn – are not going to be on the field.

Tuchel has to rebuild the side this season following the summer departures of key players Hummels, Ilkay Gundogan and Henrikh Mkhitaryan.

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Dortmund chief executive Hans-Joachim Watzke echoed Alaba’s sentiment and insists his team’s famously vocal supporters should not bear a grudge over Gotze’s time with their arch enemies.

Ancelotti Eyeing First Trophy Of His Reign When Bayern Meet Dortmund In Supercup