Pre-season friendly preview and odds: Manchester United vs Borussia Dortmund

International Champions Cup

Football
Published: 20/07/2016

Pre-season friendly preview and odds: Manchester United vs Borussia Dortmund

July 22, 2016 13:00am - Shanghai Stadium

International Champions Cup

The ever-expanding International Champions Cup pre-season event gets underway on Friday as European giants Manchester United and Borussia Dortmund go head-to-head in Shanghai.

Mourinho

Manchester United and Borussia Dortmund will continue their pre-season preparations when they meet in the Chinese section of the International Champions Cup competition on Friday.

Jose Mourinho has barely had time to get his feet under the table at Old Trafford but has already notched up his first win as United with a 2-0 victory over Wigan last weekend. Following the disappointing tenure of Louis van Gaal that ended with a fifth-place finish last year, United fans will be expecting big things from their new high profile Coach. However, there are still a few doubts surrounding the Special One following the disastrous end to his second spell as Chelsea boss.

While the game against Wigan was not much of a test for the 20-time former English League champions, the clash with Borussia Dortmund will provide a much sterner test. The Germans have already played four pre-season friendly matches and have won three of them. With the new season a matter of weeks away, fans of both sides will want to start their campaigns on a positive note as they both pursue their title ambitions.

Dortmund`s previous friendly matches have also come against less taxing opposition, so this game will be a good chance for Tomas Tuchel and his men to assess their current level.

Manchester United lead the overall head-to-head record with three wins to Dortmund`s two, while the teams have drawn just once. However, they have not met since their 1997 Champions League clash when the Germans won both legs by a single goal

Following this game, Jose Mourinho`s men will head to Beijing to play in the first ever Manchester derby to be contested outside of the UK. The landmark game will also be the first ever ICC fixture to be played in Beijing. The English club lifted the ICC trophy at their first attempt when the event was hosted in the United States back in 2014.

Team news

The Red Devils` Euro 2016 players from Spain and England have travelled to China with the 25-man squad but won`t feature in Friday`s match. Dortmund have already lost three of their best performers this summer with Mats Hummels, Ilkay Gundogan and Henrikh Mkhitaryan all departing for pastures new. As a result, both sides could be considered under strength for this clash.

Recent form (All competitions)

Manchester United: WWWLW

Borussia Dortmund: LWWWL

Betting odds and tips

Dortmund can be expected to take the game to Manchester United and that could generate an entertaining contest. As a result, there could be few goals in this one, so the Over 2.5 market could be worth exploring.

You can back Over 2.5 Goals at 3/4 with Bet365.

By Neil Morris

Go To bet365
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Any odds displayed within this article were correct at the time of publishing (20/07/2016) but are subject to change.

20/07/2016     © Frixo 2024

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