The Sporting Week Ahead Preview : City Bid for Another Trophy

Last Updated : 30th July, 2018 By Steve A

VENUE

various venues

TIME

Wednesday 1 August to Sunday 5 August

BROADCAST

Live on Sky Sports and BT Sport

See Stats

It's another busy week in the world of sport and we're not talking the wrestling show. It seems crazy but England's cricketers start a five-test series against India this Wednesday just as the football season begins. This preview takes a look at the first test as well as action in the Champions and Europa Leagues and the Community Shield at Wembley.

First Test: England v India - Wednesday 2 August - 11am

England begin their second test series of the summer as the countdown to next year's visit of Australia looms ever closer. They were their usual inconsistent self against Pakistan earlier in the summer but hopefully they will be more consistent against India. The start of August seems a bit late to start a five-test series but hopefully the weather will hold out.

The home side will be pleased to see that Joe Root has been showing better form with the bat in the recent one-day series against the Indians. He's even shown how handy he is with the ball taking 4-5 against Lancashire last week. The return to form of Alastair Cook is also good news and hopefully, he and Jennings can forge a good opening partnership. There's been controversy over the recall of Adil Rashid for this opening test despite not playing white-ball cricket all summer. He's proved in the one-day game that he can be a handful for the Indians, so with others out injured, he deserves his chance.

India will be relying a lot on captain Vira Kohli, who unlike Joe Root knows how to turn 50s into big scores. He renews rivalry with James Anderson who regularly dismissed on the 2014 India tour. The past three years have seen India win test series after series but they did lose to South Africa last winter. England have done well in recent home series against India and with players such as Anderson relatively fresh, they can get on top in the First Test.

Get odds of 1/1 on England to win the first test against India with Ladbrokes (18+, Ts & Cs Apply. Please Gamble Responsibly)

Champions League:  Rosenborg v Celtic - Wednesday 2 August 7.45pm

It's familiar territory for Celtic as they take on Rosenborg in the second leg of this second qualifying round tie in the Champions League. Last season Celtic won in Norway after drawing the home leg 0-0. It looked as if they might struggle against last week when going a goal down but Celtic scored three goals to get a good if not conclusive lead in this tie.

Rosenborg struggled to get through the first qualifying round against Valur and this task looks beyond them. Celtic have made a promising start to the season and are scoring plenty of goals with nine so far in three Champions League ties. Rosenborg will have to go on the attack if they want to get back into this tie and that will leave gaps at the back, so this preview believes a bet on over 2.5 goals to be scored looks the one safest to go for as the teams battle it out for the right to play AEK Athens in the next qualifying round.

There are some great odds of 4/5 on over 2.5 goals at the moment with Skybet (18+, Ts & Cs Apply. Please Gamble Responsibly)

Europa League:  Burnley v Aberdeen - Thursday 3 August 7.45pm

Burnley play their first home European tie since 1967 and have a good chance of progressing to the next round. This is the second qualifying round second leg and there's another five games to play if they want to make it to the group stages. Last week saw them come from a goal behind to grab a 1-1 draw in sunny Scotland and that's a result that gives the English side hope of even more Thursday night football with the winners of this tie taking on Istanbul Basaksehir in the next round. 

The home side will be without goalkeeper Nick Pope who dislocated his shoulder in the first leg but should have too much for Aberdeen with home advantage. The Scottish side don't fare too well on their European travels and an early exit looks likely for them.

You can get odds of 2/5 on Burnley to beat Aberdeen with Unibet (18+, Ts & Cs Apply. Please Gamble Responsibly)

Community Shield: Chelsea v Manchester City - Sunday 5 August 3pm

You can tell a new season of England's top league is just around the corner when it's the Community Shield. This game between Premier League champions Manchester City and FA Cup winners Chelsea. It's not much more than a friendly but at least it's better than the International Champions Cup with both sides fielding stronger line-ups.

City will be thankful that new signing Riyad Mahrez will be fit to play and they can start what should be another successful season with a win over Chelsea. The Londoners will have new midfielder Jorginho on board as new boss Maurizio Sarra prepares for his first season as manager of Chelsea.  It's early days for Sarra and he'll most likely be busy in the transfer market before the window closes just five days after this game is played. 

Last season saw both league games won 1-0 by Manchester City including the infamous negative display by Chelsea at the Etihad. Hopefully we'll get a better game than that to kick off the season.

 Current odds for Manchester City to beat Chelsea in 90 mins are 1/1 with Coral (18+, Ts & Cs Apply. Please Gamble Responsibly)