The Sporting Week Ahead Preview : All on the Line for Fury

Last Updated : 14th August, 2018 By Steve A

VENUE

various venues

TIME

Tuesday 14 August to Monday 20 August

BROADCAST

Live on Sky Sports and BT Sport

See Stats

Another busy week of sport begins with plenty to keep us entertained. Our preview looks ahead to everything from Premier League and European football to the Third Test and the latest Tyson Fury fight. 

The Play-Off Round Beckons - Tuesday 14 to Thursday 16 August

By the end of Thursday we will know who has qualifed for the play-off rounds of the Champions League and the Europa League. The action starts on Tuesday with Celtic traveling to Greece to take on AEK Athens. The first leg in Scotland ended with the scores level at 1-1 so Celtic have to score in the second leg to have any chance of reaching the play-off round and a tie against either Malmo or MOL Vidi who are also level at 1-1 after their first leg with the latter having home advantage in the second leg. Celtic will have Moussa Dembele on the bench for ths game.

Current odds for Celtic to beat AEK Athens are 2/1 with Paddy Power (18+, Ts & Cs Apply. Please Gamble Responsibly)

Thursday night football this week sees Burnley at home to Istanbul Basakhesir with the score 0-0 after the first leg. Another tight game looks likely seeing Burnley are involved and a bet on under 2.5 goals looks a good one. Hibs are also goalless after the first leg of their tie against Molde with the winners almost certain to face Dinamo Minsk in the play-off round. Rangers look likely to progress as they defend a 3-1 lead in Maribor. Not such a good chance for The New Saints who travel to Midtjlland 2-0 down from the first leg.

You can get odds of 1/2 on under 2.5 goals in Burnley v Istanbul Basakhesir with Unibet (18+, Ts & Cs Apply. Please Gamble Responsibly)

England to Continue Superiority over India - Third Test: Saturday August 18

England already have a 2-0 lead in the series after wins at Edgbaston and Lord's. Everything went right for England in the Second Test with India having to bat twice in conditions ideal for swing bowlers and England have plenty of those. Hopefully the same will happen next year when they bid to beat Australia and win the World Cup.

India's confidence isn't at all high and their batting line-up failed to produce a score above 33 with even Kohili who was hampered by a bad back failed to dominate as he did in the first test. Such is the crazy scheduling in modern-day cricket, India don't have a game between test matches to try and build some form. With England having a good record at Trent Bridge and Ben Stokes back in the squad, this could be another hard test for the Indians and England can go 3-0 up to win the series.

Get odds of 4/7 on England to beat India with Skybet (18+, Ts & Cs Apply. Please Gamble Responsibly)

Fury Bids to Clinch Wilder Title Shot - Saturday August 18

Tyson Fury heads to Northern Ireland for his second comeback fight. He takes on Francesco Pianeta  Plans seem to have been thrown out the window for Fury in recent weeks. Tht talk was that he'd have three or four fights before getting into world title contention but now it appears if he wins this fight, then before Christmas he'll be challenging Deontay Wilder for the WBC World Heavyweight title.

Pianeta challenged Wladimir Klitschko for the heavyweight title five years ago and was stopped in the sixth round. He's lost two of his last three fights and the other was a win over Daso Simuenovic who was having only his second pro fight. He's lost four fights in all, three inside the distance. This should be a comfortable inside the distance win for Fury who will hopefully cut out the clowning that was prominent during his comeback fight against Sefer Seferi.  Whether two wins over poor opposition is enough to prepare Fury for a fight against Deontay Wilder remains to be seen.

There are some great odds of 5/4 on Tyson Fury winning in rounds 1-5 with William Hill (18+, Ts & Cs Apply. Please Gamble Responsibly)

Premier League Matchday Two

No Friday fixture this weekend with the second set of games in England's top league being played from Saturday 18 August to Monday 20 August. The first week of fixtures was rather predictable with all of the top five from last season getting wins. Will that happen again this weekend? There's every chance it could.

Champions Manchester City host Huddersfield Town who have already had one heavy defeat by Chelsea and another one looks on the way here. Liverpool have to wait until Monday to play their next game as they travel to Crystal Palace but will be favourites to come away with three more points after that sparkling display against West Ham United on Sunday.  Tottenham still haven't got White Hart Lane ready so will host Fulham at Wembley on Saturday while Manchester United will be looking for a spot of revenge on the south coast as they travel to Brighton and Hove Albion on Sunday after losing there at the end of last season.

Get odds of 3/4 on Manchester United beating Brighton and Hove Albion with Betfair (18+, Ts & Cs Apply. Please Gamble Responsibly)

The main risk in any of last season's top five failing to make it two wins out of two appears to be Chelsea. They host Arsenal in the Saturday tea-time game. They haven't got a good recent record against the Gunners who lost their opening game to Manchester City and won't be too keen on starting life under Unai Emery with two league defeats but home advantage could be the key here.

Current odds for Chelsea to beat Arsenal are 4/5 with Coral (18+, Ts & Cs Apply. Please Gamble Responsibly)

Four of this weekend's Premier League games are being played between teams that failed to win their first matches. Leicester City looked good in defeat to Manchester United and host Wolverhampton Wanderers who did well to come back from 2-0 down to draw with Everton. Cardiff City already look in trouble and will hope to prove critics wrong with a home win over Newcastle United. Burnley play their second game in four days as they host Watford on Sunday and a goal feast is not expected.  After another summer of high spending, Everton will look to get a home win over Southampton.

You can get odds of 1/2 on under 2.5 goals in the Burnley v Watford game with Ladbrokes (18+, Ts & Cs Apply. Please Gamble Responsibly)