For England, the chance to win their first Test series since 2024 comes after yet another off-field drinking incident.

Carse was removed from the squad for this Test after a night out in Derby on Saturday, with police investigating allegations of an assault. Carse is in the Durham side for their ongoing County Championship match against Gloucestershire.

The home side steamrollered Pakistan at Headingley in Joe Root’s first Test back as captain. It was always likely Pakistan would improve on their performance from Leeds, simply because the tourists could not play much worse.

Pakistan were boosted by the return of captain Babar Azam from a hand injury, in the side for Salman Ali Agha who skippered in Leeds. Babar’s first impact was to call correctly and play finally got under way at 12:20 BST.

The tourists’ trio of fast-medium seamers were ideally suited to the conditions and they showed much greater control than last week.

England were sometimes wasteful – Dan Lawrence ran himself out and Harry Brook was bowled driving – and sometimes unlucky – Emilio Gay was caught down the leg side. For the most part, the batters were happy to roll up their sleeves, another encouraging sign early in Root’s second reign.

The result was a compelling contest, an arm wrestle with neither side ever able to claim they held the upper hand.

England’s total seems at least competitive, yet Pakistan have the chance to gain a foothold if they bat well. This could turn into a tight Test.

Home matches: Inter, PSV, RB Leipzig, LASK.

Away matches: Arsenal, Roma, Shakhtar Donetsk, AEK Athens.

Dates and times of matches to be confirmed by UEFA.

Which game most excites you?

Serie A champions Inter at the Bernabeu looks like the most exciting game of the group for Madrid fans, and stars like Nicolo Barella and Lautaro Martinez should provide a stiff test.

There also will be a lot of emotion around Mourinho’s reunion with Inter — who he coached to a historic treble of Champions League, Serie A and Coppa Italia back in 2009-10.

Jose Mourinho, pictured at the Bernabeu during Wednesday’s 4-1 win over Real Sociedad (Denis Doyle/Getty Images)

Adding to the occasion will be intrigue around Inter’s new English brigade of John Stones, Djed Spence and Curtis Jones, and how they fare against their international team-mates Jude Bellingham and Trent Alexander-Arnold.

Which game worries you?

Madrid’s most difficult game by far looks to be the trip to last year’s beaten finalists Arsenal, who were interested in buying Vinicius Junior this summer before he signed a new contract.

(Carl Recine/Getty Images)

Mourinho going back to London, home of two of his other former teams Chelsea and Tottenham, is sure to be box office off the pitch.

However, during the 90 minutes Madrid may struggle to deal with the physicality and efficiency of Mikel Arteta’s super organised Arsenal team.

Two seasons ago a Madrid side coached by Carlo Ancelotti lost 3-0 at the Emirates, on the way to a 5-1 aggregate quarter-final exit.

The hope around the Bernabeu is that Mourinho will be able to put together a new Madrid team better able to handle such challenges, but this game might come a bit early in that rebuilding project.

What is Mourinho’s biggest issue to confront in the tournament?

Mourinho’s challenge on his return is to revitalise the team, incorporating his new arrivals and finding a way to get the best out of Kylian Mbappe, Vinicius Junior and Bellingham.

The Madrid squad includes lots of options for different positions, and Mourinho has already spoken about the challenge of keeping all his big players happy. Just to pick one example, new right-back Denzel Dumfries of the Netherlands has played both opening La Liga games, leaving Alexander-Arnold on the bench.

The league phase should allow at least some time for experimentation and rotation, meaning Mourinho can work out his best tactical system while avoiding any nasty shock results — and upsetting the always demanding Bernabeu stadium and club president Florentino Perez.

Which team do Madrid most want to avoid in the latter stages?

Real Madrid will never admit to wanting to avoid any club, and assuming Mourinho’s return goes to plan they will see themselves as favourites no matter who they play against.

At least some around the Bernabeu would prefer to avoid their La Liga rivals Barcelona and Atletico Madrid in European competition, given all the noise and controversy that would surely surround such Clasico or Derbi ties.

However, others at the club, including their coach, might actually revel in the opportunity of such high-profile matches.

What would be considered a successful finish?

Given their historic record of being champions of Europe on 15 occasions, Madrid go into every season declaring that only winning the trophy once again can be counted as success.

The last two seasons have seen some struggles through the league phase followed by deserved quarter-final exits to Arsenal and Bayern Munich.

Last year’s league phase was especially dramatic with a shock defeat by Benfica (then coached by Mourinho) in their final game, leading to a play-off where they again faced the Portuguese side.

Mourinho reached the semi-finals in each of his three seasons at Madrid during his previous spell between 2010-2013.

Even though reconstruction work is required to build a more competitive team, making the last four this season could be seen as just about acceptable at the Bernabeu.