Borussia Dortmund will come up against a player with plenty to prove when they host Bayer Leverkusen at the Westfalenstadion on Sunday.
Dortmund had a last-gasp Park Joo-ho goal to thank for extending their perfect start to the season to 10 consecutive victories as they beat Krasnodar 2-1 in the Europa League on Thursday, and they will now be looking to make it 11 in a row and five straight Bundesliga wins when they host Leverkusen, who beat BATE Borisov.
For Kevin Kampl, it will be an almost immediate return to a club where he never really made a breakthrough.
The Slovenian joined Dortmund last winter, but after failing to flourish under Jurgen Klopp, he was moved on by current coach Thomas Tuchel this summer, with Leverkusen more than happy to take him.
"Kevin is not a winger, which is where they were playing him at Dortmund," said Leverkusen coach Roger Schmidt, who knew the 24-year-old well enough already from their days together at Salzburg.
"I already knew that he could lead our game as a playmaker."
Cologne host Monchengladbach in a derby which has already angered visiting fans.
They are planning to boycott the game after being offered only a reduced number of tickets.
"We don't like the boycott, but we accept it," Gladbach's director of sport Max Eberl told Kicker magazine.
"Let's just hope that it achieves something."
It will mean that Gladbach, who have started the season with three straight defeats, will be lacking support in a game which means more than just three points to the followers of the two local rivals.
Stuttgart have also started the season with three defeats and they will be looking to get their season up and running when they host Schalke on Sunday, while Augsburg and Hannover, who have only taken a point each all season, meet in another key fixture at the foot of the table on Sunday.
At the summit, Bayern Munich can put the ball in Dortmund's court when they travel to an unbeaten Darmstadt on Saturday, while third-placed Wolfsburg will be keen to ensure their four-point deficit on Bayern does not grow this weekend when they host Hertha Berlin.
Elsewhere, Hamburg host Eintracht Frankfurt and Werder Bremen are at home to Ingolstadt.
Source: PA-WIRE
