In another exciting International Champions Cup game this week, we see Tottenham playing Roma on Wednesday. The game will kick off at 1am Wednesday morning, UK time. The game will take place at the Red Bull Arena in New Jersey and is a good preparation game for Tottenham, who move onto face Manchester City in their next game at the weekend.
Both clubs played against PSG in their previous game, with Tottenham coming out comfortable winners and Roma losing on penalties. That was a good win for Tottenham, who were playing just their first pre-season game of the season and their preparation is behind most other clubs. That didn’t seem to faze them though, and they took care of PSG without much trouble.
Roma have played three friendlies so far, although just one of those came against recognisable opposition and that was the loss on penalties to PSG. They have brought in a lot of new players this summer, and will want to see as much of them as possible before the season kicks off.
Tottenham Form
The 4-2 victory over PSG was a very good start to Tottenham’s pre-season, they won the game fairly comfortably and looking in control throughout. After falling behind in the game after just six minutes, Tottenham worked their way back and in the end they were too strong for the French side, with Christian Eriksen’s wonder strike being the highlight of the game for me.
The big advantage Tottenham have this pre-season is that they haven’t bought big, they know their best eleven and because of that they can settle straight away, without any testing. This is what will help Tottenham have a good pre-season campaign and probably a good start to the Premier League campaign.
Roma Form
Roma will probably not be expecting too much during pre-season, due to their turnover this summer, with many key players departing the club. Gone are Mohamed Salah, Leandro Paredes and Antonio Rudiger for £100 million, although their replacements haven’t cost anywhere near that.
Roma need to bed in their new players during pre-season, otherwise it could be a tough start for them when the Italian season gets underway. The next few weeks are going to be very important for the club.
Team News
I am expecting to see many players on both sides play just 45 or 60 minutes in this one, for different reasons.
Tottenham are only playing their second pre-season friendly of the summer, so players are still improving their fitness. With this in mind, I doubt we will see any player play for more than 60 minutes who is a first team regular. After a great goal at the weekend, watch out for Christian Eriksen in this game, alongside the deadly Harry Kane who will be hungry to find his scoring touch.
Roma will make a lot of changes and try a lot of different things because of the amount of transfers they have made this summer. Players still at the club have a new chance to shine ahead of the new season, and new players to join will want to cement their place in the first team. With all of this going off, and coaches testing out new positions on players I expect the game to lack any flow, especially in the second half when both at making multiple changes at a time.
Top Betting Tips
With a lot of uncertainty surrounding the Roma line-up, despite them playing more games than Tottenham, I believe Tottenham will be much better prepared for this game. They know what shape they play, they have all their key players available and are a very settled team. With this in mind, I believe they will have enough to beat Roma in this game, and make it two wins out of two on their pre-season schedule.
The game for Tottenham will be all about momentum, fitness levels and slowly building up to the Premier League season. However, Roma are still unsure how good their new players are, where they will fit and if any of the remaining players are good enough to nail down a first team spot, despite not being able to last season. This is going to be a tricky summer for Roma, and I think because they have so much else to do, Tottenham are going to be too strong for them here.
In what should be another free-flowing, exciting pre-season game in the International Champions Cup, I am going for Tottenham to beat Roma in New Jersey.