A Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang brace proved enough to secure a 2-1 victory for Borussia Dortmund in their Bundesliga season opener against Mainz.
The 27-year-old scored 25 league goals for Thomas Tuchel's side last term and opened his account for the new campaign by heading home a cross from Andre Schurrle after17 minutes.
Schurrle was the most impressive of the four recent signings who started for the hosts, but Dortmund's victory was not an altogether convincing one.
Mainz, who finished sixth last season, more than matched Dortmund for long periods of the game and had it not been for a glaring miss from Christian Clemens early in the second half, may well have pulled level before Aubameyang added his second from the penalty spot with a minute left.
There was still time for Yoshinori Muto to convert a powerful close-range header. Ultimately, however, Martin Schmidt's men failed to improve upon a miserable record of just one win in their previous 12 meetings with last season's Bundesliga runners-up, who duly preserved an unbeaten home league run dating back to April 2015.
And with Mario Gotze expected to return from his adductor problem in the very near future, Dortmund again look likely to emerge as the main threat to Bayern Munich's title defence.
Dortmund goalkeeper Roman Burki was called into action as early as the first minute to keep out an effort from Mainz's top scorer last season, Yunus Malli, while at the other end, Aubameyang's close-range effort was tipped spectacularly over by Jonas Lossl.
Clemens' glaring miss was the first action of the second half, the on-loan Schalke man failing to find the target when played in by Frei, before Karim Onisiwo also went close for the visitors moments later.
As they had in the first half, however, Dortmund were quick to respond with Schurrle and fellow new recruits Sebastian Rode and Marc Bartra all kept at bay by Lossl.
It was 2-0 when Dortmund were gifted a second in the 89th minute.
