The Kassam Stadium will play host to an intriguing contest on the opening weekend of the 2025-26 English Championship campaign, as Oxford United square off with Portsmouth.
The hosts finished 17th in last season’s second tier, while the visitors placed just one position and one point above their opening day opponents.
Another season of consolidation is perhaps the best Oxford can hope for heading into their second successive campaign in the Championship.
Manager Gary Rowett has been relatively busy reshaping his squad over the summer, with five new recruits arriving thus far.
Much like Oxford, Portsmouth will also be aiming to fend off a bout of second season syndrome in the forthcoming campaign.
Pompey boss John Mousinho has also added five new faces to his squad to date, most notably bringing in midfielder John Swift on a free transfer from West Brom.
How the bookies view it: U’s to get up and running
The bookmakers are struggling to separate the pair, with Oxford marginal favourites at 6/4 with Boylesports.
Portsmouth are narrow outsiders at 13/8 on Boylesports while a share of the Kassam Stadium spoils has been priced up at 11/5 with the same firm.
Head to head: History against the hosts
Portsmouth can draw confidence from the fact that they have avoided defeat in each of their last five meetings with Oxford, emerging from this venue with a 2-0 victory last season – the same scoreline on Saturday can be backed at a towering 12/1 on Boylesports.
Players to watch: Harris to hit the target?
Mark Harris is expected to lead the line for Oxford on Saturday afternoon, making him an appealing option to register a minimum of one shot on target at even-money (1/1) on UniBet.
After racking up 10 yellow cards across his 39 English Championship appearances last season, Portsmouth's Andre Dozzell looks great value to go into the book during this contest at 3/1 with PaddyPower.
Predicted line-ups
Oxford will be without injured trio Ciaron Brown, Luke Harris and Ole Romenij, while this game may come too soon for winger Przemyslaw Placheta who is nearing a return to full fitness.
Colby Bishop is a major doubt for Portsmouth after sustaining a groin injury in training, while Tom McIntyre is also facing a race against time to feature this weekend.
Oxford: Cumming; Long, Moore, Helik, Leigh; Keersmaeker, Brannagan; Phillips, Mills, Goodrham; Harris
Portsmouth: Schmid; Williams, Poole, Shaughnessy, Ogilvie; Swift, Dozzell; Segecic, Murphy, Lang; Waddingham
Anything else catch the eye?
Bundling up Oxford Double Chance alongside Under 3.5 Goals looks well worthy of support at 5/6 via the Bet 365 Bet Builder tool.
The U’s did the majority of their best work at home last season, collecting 38 of their 53 points at the Kassam Stadium.
As for Portsmouth, they held the second-worst away record in the English Championship last season, picking up a measly 14 points on their travels.
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