Salford v Stevenage
League Two – 12.30 pm
Sky Sports
It is a huge afternoon for Salford. They are playing in the top four tiers of English football for the first time ever. They earned a gritty promotion from the National League back in May through the play offs. Salford had finished third in the league table, four points off first-placed Leyton Orient. There was just the one automatic promotion spot up for grabs in the division. Salford went through to the playoff semi-finals where they faced Eastleigh. Salford won the fixture in a penalty shootout.
That put them through to face AFC Fylde in the playoff final. Salford banged out a 3-0 win at Wembley. So now the Ammies are facing life in the top tiers for the first time. Manchester club Salford became famous when they were taken over in 2014 by former Man Utd players Ryan Giggs, Gary & Phil Neville, Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt. David Beckham also bought a share earlier this year. Will the Ammies be able to open with a win? They are 3/4 favourites with leading bookmakers, which will probably be supported by punters as one of the best bets of the day.
They are facing Stevenage who were top-ten finishers in the division last season. Boro finished the season in fine fettle too, dropping just two points in their final six games. Stevenage picked up a W8 D7 L8 record on their travels last term in League Two. That was some progress by them after having finished down in 16th the previous season. Despite their strengths and experience in League Two, top bookies have them as 18/5 underdogs for this game. But they did finish last season with an unbeaten run of seven away games, winning each of their last three.
PSG v Rennes
French Super Cup – 12.30 pm
BT Sport
It has been a strange, quiet summer from PSG. There has been no major cash splashed around. No big marquee signings. Are they happy with their lot? They have at least kept a hold of Neymar, when at one point it looked as if he could be heading out of the door. There is still time for things to happen, of course. They will be taking in some French Super Cup action on the weekend where they start as overwhelming favourites to win. So much so that big bookmakers have them at 11/8 to claim a victory without conceding in the match.
PSG had yet another easy league title last season, winning the title by 18 points over Lille. They face up against Rennes who pulled off a shock Coupe de France victory over PSG in April. They were massive underdogs for the game in Paris but stuck in there for a 2-2 draw and then claimed the title in a penalty shoot-out. Rennes are a big 4/1 price to lift the trophy on the weekend and upset PSG once again. Stade Rennais have lost 11 of the last 13 games against PSG (W1 D1) but then no-one gave them a chance back in April. As it was last year, the French Super Cup is being played in Shenzen, China.
Nottingham Forest v West Brom
Championship – 5.30 pm
Sky Sports
It is a busy day of Championship action on Saturday. The first Saturday evening kick off the new season sees Nottingham Forest playing host to West Brom. The Tricky Trees did get themselves a top ten finish in the second tier last season. Helping them achieve that was a three-match winning streak right at the end of the season. They carried some pretty decent home form did Forest. Their returns from the City Ground last season was W13 D4 L6. They took a very good W4 D1 L2 home record against the top seven finishers in the league. They played out a 1-1 draw with West Brom.
The Baggies were pretty solid throughout the season. They just couldn’t take things a little bit further and push for an automatic qualification spot. West Brom ended up finishing fourth in the Championship, sending them to the playoffs. They were up against Midlands rivals Aston Villa in the semi-finals, the Baggies losing on a penalty shootout after a 2-2 aggregate draw. West Brom have a new manager in Slaven Bilic and will once again, be expected to raise some kind of promotion push. They are 9/5 underdogs for their opening game of the season.
Borussia Dortmund v Bayern Munich
German Supercup – 7.30 pm
BT Sport
The German Supercup has been dominated by Bayern Munich recently. There is no better word than dominate. The Bavarians have won the last six editions of the title. Two of the wins in that sequence were against Borussia Dortmund. One of those against Dortmund was at the Signal Iduna Park, the very home of Borussia Dortmund. That is where the 2019 edition of the German Supercup is being played.
Once again BVB finds themselves going in a game against Bayern Munich as underdogs, this time to the tune of 11/5. Last season they looked as if they were going to end Bayern’s dominance in the Bundesliga, but they threw away a good position and finished second. Bayern made a clean sweep of the Supercup (beating Eintracht Frankfurt 5-0), the Bundliesga and DFB Pokal last season. It wasn’t even that good of a start that they had to the domestic season.
But somehow they still managed to pull out the titles. Just as they have done in the Supercup six times in a row. Bayern Munich are 23/20 favourites with leading bookmakers to win the title again (90 minutes). Dortmund and Bayern traded home wins in the Bundesliga last season. Each of the last eight meetings have gone over 2.5 goals. There have been sixteen goals in the last three meetings alone.
