The eleventh edition of ‘Round the Sports World in five minutes’ will talk you through Fenerbahce v Benfica in the last round of Champions League qualifying, Man City v Tottenham in the Premier League and the Tour of Spain in cycling, the last Grand Tour of the season.
Fenerbahce v Benfica Champions League Qualifying First Leg
- Start: Wednesday, 20 August at 20:00
- Venue: Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium, Istanbul
- TV Coverage: TNT Sports
- Fun Fact: Jose Mourinho made his name at FC Porto, winning the UEFA Cup and Champions League back-to-back. But before that, he was briefly manager of Benfica for just nine matches, including engineering a 3-0 win over bitter rivals Sporting Lisbon. He left just before Christmas 2000 when the Club Chairman refused to give him the contract extension he wanted. So Mourinho has unfinished business with Benfica.
Betting
The betting is so tight on this one that the likes of Betfred are making hosts Fenerbahce and visitors Benfica exactly the same odds of 2.6 to win the match, with the draw the outsider of the three at 3.5.
Interestingly, over 2.5 goals is the favourite here at 1.66 and we say that because Benfica have played four matches this season and all of them have stayed under 2.5 goals, which is a 2.2 chance here. Benfica have also kept clean sheets in all those four, so yet another clean sheet, at big odds of 4.0, will appeal to some.
Summary
Fenerbahçe got this far by finishing second in the Turkish League last season and then beating Feyenoord over two legs in the previous round of Champions League qualifying, recovering from being 2-1 down from the first leg and then 1-0 at home just before half-time, to progress relatively easily in the end.
Benfica had a far more comfortable time of it, beating Nice 2-0 both home and away to get to this stage.
A reminder that this is the last stage of qualifying so the winner of the tie over two legs progresses to the Champions League, while the loser moves over to the Europa League Group stages.
Manchester City v Tottenham Premier League
- Start: Saturday, 23 August at 12:30
- Venue: Etihad Stadium, Manchester
- TV Coverage: TNT Sports
- Fun Fact: Despite Tottenham having a shocking domestic season of their own in 2024-25, their clash with Man City last November provided one of the upsets of the whole campaign and one of City’s lowest points in a season that had plenty of them. Spurs won 4-0 in Manchester with James Maddison scoring twice.
Betting
City are just 1.4 to build on their opening day win by beating Spurs here, who are 5.5 with the draw 4.6, prices with Ladbrokes.
Ladbrokes also gives a City win with over 3.5 goals in the game a 2.8 chance. Those who think Tottenham can get something from this game after an impressive opening day win can take them on the Double Chance market, where a Spurs win or a draw would pay out at 2.7.
Summary
Both sides have two things in common. Firstly, a poor domestic season last year where City failed to defend their title and finished just third, while Spurs were way down in 17th, despite winning the Europa League.
And secondly, both sides won their opening fixture of the season comfortably, City thrashing Wolves 4-0 and Spurs beating Burnley by 3-0.
There were plenty of changes in terms of the playing staff over the summer, while Tottenham also replaced their manager with former Brentford boss Thomas Frank, arriving to improve their domestic results. After somewhat easy opening day fixtures, this will be a good opportunity to see where they both are in a much tougher match for both sides.
Tour of Spain (Vuelta a Espana)
- Start: Saturday, 23 August
- Venue: Spain, with stages in Italy, France and Andorra
- TV Coverage: Eurosport
- Fun Fact: Back in 1961, a 21-year-old Angelino Soler won the Vuelta, the youngest ever to do so, though he failed to replicate that sort of success throughout the rest of his career. But the American Chris Horner showed age is but a number, winning the Tour of Spain at almost 42 in 2013, becoming the oldest cyclist ever to win one of the Grand Tours.
Betting
The elephant in the room is the notable absence of a few of the world’s best riders, who have chosen to skip the event.
Four-time Vuelta winner Primož Roglič won’t be in it after taking part in both the Tour de France and the Giro d’Italia, with fatigue obviously a big issue, while fellow Slovenian Tadej Pogačar, fresh from winning this year’s Tour de France, is also absent. He’ll be preparing for the upcoming World Championships, instead.
Meanwhile, Moviestar, always one of the stronger teams, are without Enric Mas and Nairo Quintana. They don’t have an obvious team leader or contender.
All this opens the door to Jonas Vingegaard, himself a two-time Tour de France winner who will lead the Visma-Lease a Bike team. He’s the red-hot 1.32 favourite with NetBet.
João Almeida and Juan Ayuso are the hottest on his heels at 6.5 and 7.5, respectively, both representing UAE Team Emirates XRG.
Summary
The Vuelta runs from August 23 to September 14 and this will be the 80th edition of it.
It’s the final Grand Tour of the Season and there will be 23 teams taking part over 21 stages, a combination of flat, hilly and mountain stages, plus an individual Time Trial and a Team Time Trial. The race starts in northern Italy, in Turin, before going through France, Andorra and then Spain, with the finale taking place in Madrid.
As a way of celebrating the 80th edition of this classic cycling race, the organisers have removed some of the steeper climbs from the race. But Stage 20’s climb to Bola del Mundo has attracted controversy, with ecologists concerned over the impact the race might have on local biodiversity and urging organisers to move the finish to Puerta de Navacerrada, instead.
As of yet, we don’t know if that will happen, but we do hope it doesn’t threaten to cast a shadow over such an iconic race.
Betting Tip of the Week: Back Vangelis Pavlidis to Score Anytime in Fenerbahçe - Benica
We were denied a hat-trick of wins last week with the London Spirit losing the game off the final ball of the match, which was a shame.
Benfica knows they can’t be too defensive in Istanbul and will target scoring at least one goal to avoid giving themselves too much to do in the second leg.
And Vangelis Pavlidis is the man who may be a good bet to get one. He opened his scoring account for the season with a penalty in the 1-0 win at Estrela de Amadora at the weekend after scoring 31 goals in all competitions last season. At 2.5, he looks like a good bet to make it two for the season.
