The 2019/20 Regionalliga season will get under way on Friday (19:30 CET) when Borussia Dortmund's U23s travel to Hafenstraße in Essen-Bergeborbeck, where they will take on Rot-Weiss Essen in the opening match of the season.

With a tough and intensive pre-season now over, the Black & Yellows are primed and ready to make a successful start to the new season. "On the very first day, we're up against a team who I'm sure are one of the favourites for the title. Essen have signed a lot of new players, but we're prepared for that," said BVB boss Mike Tullberg of the Matchday 1 opponents. In actual fact, RWE have made 13 new signings and have an entirely new-look squad. Ayodele Adetula (Eintracht Braunschweig U23s), Amara Condé, Jan Neuwirt (both VfL Wolfsburg U23s), Hamdi Dahmani (SC Fortuna Köln), Jan-Lucas Dorow (VfR Wormatia Worms), Joshua Endres (Fortuna Düsseldorf U23s), Jakob Golz (Hamburger SV U21s), Dennis Grote (Chemnitzer FC), Alexander Hahn (FC 08 Homburg), Felix Herzenbruch (SC Paderborn 07), Oguzhan Kefkir (KFC Uerdingen 05), Marco Kehl-Gomez (1. FC Saarbrücken) and Hedon Selishta (FC Bayern Alzenau) have all been signed to help challenge this term. And there's a new coach, Christian Titz, in the dugout too.

But it certainly goes without saying that, given their outstanding performances in pre-season, the BVB U23s will not have anything to fear on Friday. "We've played against Meppen, Münster and Eindhoven. They're real men's teams, and we at least matched each of them," said Tullberg, who feels it is hosts Essen who will have more of the pressure on their shoulders. "The pressure is on them. They're a first team, they're playing at home and want to be up there, but first of all they need to bed the signings in. That's our opportunity."

The Dane in the dugout has a winning mentality and does not like losing. He's a coach who sets high, yet realistic, demands. And it is for that very reason that he is optimistic about bringing the points back to Dortmund on Friday evening. As for what the fans can expect, he said: "We want to play brave football, that's our aim. We have the right players to do so and that's what I want to see from the lads on Friday too. We want to be aggressive with and without the ball and win the game together with the fans."