The Borussia Dortmund team had their final training session in one of the most beautiful stadiums in the Alps republic before their first competitive game of the season. The green keeper had just been to work on the pitch to make sure the much used pitch was in top condition.

Boris Rupert reports from Klagenfurt

The Austrian American Football final on the 11.July was played in torrential rain. This meant that there were very deep tread marks left behind by the players. And to add to that, there have been many football games in this stadium in the past few weeks. Large parts of the pitch were being patched up with rolled layers of grass on Tuesday and Wednesday.

However the grassroots have not caught yet and this could cause further problems for the team of Thomas Tuchel, who said on the evening before the match: “we are looking forward to this game. We are the favourites and so there will be a few adversities that we will have to overcome.”

Tuchel added: “we don’t have a lot to gain and we have a lot to lose. In addition there has always been a sporting rivalry between Germany and Austria. We have also only been back in training for four weeks, whereas Wolfsberg have already played four competitive games. It is our job to face these adversities, overcome them, take on our role and try to play our game as well as we can.”

He recommends that his team finds “a good mixture of tension and a certain amount of looseness.” Just as has been the case in all the pre-season friendlies so far. The Head Coach said: “we intentionally took every match very serious, so that we could grow together as a team as fast as possible and to make sure we all sung from the same hymn sheet.” The Head Coach avoided answering personal questions and had the following to say about Roman Weidenfeller and Roman Bürki: “regardless who plays tomorrow: that will not be a final decision regarding who plays in the league.” Erik Durm and Neven Subotic will be missing due to injuries.

Tuchel added: “Borussia Dortmund will play a team that have found their rhythm, who are very tight, who have been very disciplined in defence and have been very good at switching play in their two qualification matches so far, so you can see that they work together well. It is our duty to make sure we are well and prepared.” The match will kick-off tomorrow evening at 21:05hrs (live on Sport1 and in Netradio).