RB Leipzig captain Dominik Kaiser says the club have no reason to fear Borussia Dortmund when they face them next month.
Leipzig picked up a 2-2 draw at Hoffenheim in their first ever Bundesliga match on Sunday, with Marcel Sabitzer scoring a last-minute equaliser for the visitors.
They next face Dortmund after the international break on Sept. 10, and Kaiser, who scored the club's first ever Bundesliga goal against Hoffenheim, is looking forward to taking on the former German champions.
"We don't need to hide from BVB," Kaiser told reporters. "We also have individual quality and a team spirit which can and will carry us through the season."
Leipzig forward Timo Werner, who joined from Stuttgart for €10 million in the summer, echoed Kaiser's comments.
"If we play like we did during our strongest periods [against Hoffenheim], we can also hurt Dortmund," he said.
Werner has been one of six summer signings for the Bundesliga club, with three of them -- defender Benno Schmitz and midfielders Naby Keita and Bernardo -- joining from Austrian club FC Salzburg, who are also owned by soft drink giants Red Bull.
Bernardo, a 21-year-old Brazilian, became the eighth player to join Leipzig from Salzburg at the weekend, and this prompted a frustrated reaction from the Austrian club's coach Oscar Garcia, who compared his side to its own feeder team FC Liefering.
"We now have Liefering A and Liefering B," Garcia told reporters. "Bernardo's loss three days before the end of the summer transfer period is hard to digest. It's not easy to cope with."
Salzburg sporting director Christoph Freund said that the goals for the club have changed, insisting that "we no longer have to win the league year in, year out."
Meanwhile, meedia.de reported that the match between Hoffenheim and Leipzig was watched live by 460,000 viewers on Sky Deutschland -- the biggest audience for a single match on the opening weekend of the Bundesliga.
