Lens had a really impressive season and finished way ahead of Marseille in the second place. It has been a long time since they joined the Champions League group stage as well. The last time was in the 2002/2003 season. They can't be seen as completely experienced in there but after this long break it is still hard to expect anything from them.

Besides Lens are likely to lose some of their important players recently. Seko Fofana might leave the team as far as I have heard. He was one of the players who played a serious role in Lens' success in the league this season. Lens need to keep the squad quality as decent as possible if they want to finish the group as the third the worst case scenario.

I have noticed that France can't be champions in Euro tournaments since Euro 2000. The last time they did was then and after that time they made it to the finale even for only once. They actually have a squad that can win a championship next time. In Mbappe's lead they can really do a great work. After missing the chance to win a back-to-back title in the World Cup by a small margin they would surely aim the next Euro championship. They have a comfortable qualifiers group so they should be finishing it as leader.

But the real challenge will be the main tournament. There are a couple of very challenging opponents for France so their job won't be easy at all after a point.

This was Jokic's stats for the 2022/2023 season. He had a wonderful season and played the biggest role in Denver's becoming champions for the first time in team history. He had so many extra performances during the play-offs as well and totally deserved to be the MVP of the finals as well. After a solid season like this I wonder how things will go for Denver from now on.

Can they be one of the biggest title contenders again? To be able to maintain this level this time Jokic's enormous effort might not be enough. Murray had better have a consistent and productive season together with Jokic. Because if he also makes a big contribution during a whole season I don't see any reason hindering them from being one of the favourites again.

Inter to extend his contract? I don't think they would plan to do such thing at the moment. Because Lukaku's recent performance was quite inadequate first of all. He played a big role in Inter's losing the Champions League in 90 minutes as well by wasting important chances. He is just an inconsistent player these days. We don't have the old productive striker Lukaku here. Maybe he isn't the same in his national matches. Because he is scoring many goals there with Belgium recently.

But this isn't enough to convince Inter as long as he doesn't reflect this performance onto his matches at Inter. Chelsea also don't seem to have plans for him so I wonder how he will end up this summer.

Evet bir de Galatasaray acaba bu yükün altına girme konusunda kendisi için bir sıkıntı görüyor mu? Daha önce büyük umutlarla Falcao getirilmişti ve yıllık 7 milyon euro civarı bir para ödeniyordu. Sürekli sakatlandığı için Galatasaray için son derece negatif bir anlaşma olmuştu. Icardi ise şimdiye kadar Galatasaray taraftarlarını çok memnun etti.

Kronik sakat olmadığı sürece ve şimdiye kadar yaptığı ciddi katkıyı da dikkate alarak Galatasaray'ın Icardi'yi alma amacıyla bu yükün altına girmesi aslında zaman içerisinde çok karlı bir anlaşmaya dönebilir. Sadece mali durumlarını kritik bir hale sokmamaya dikkat etseler kendi adlarına iyi olur.

Luis Enrique is expected to be announced as the new PSG coach in a short time. Mourinho's name was also among the serious candidates but it looks like they didn't make an offer to him. He was actually open to an offer from PSG as he was looking positive about a move there. But staying at Roma mustn't also be feeling bad for Mourinho as he has been ready to continue working for them. It is difficult to say which one of these coaches would be the best choice for PSG yet.

Both of them have really decent careers so I hope Enrique can be really beneficial for PSG especially in the Champions League. Because PSG want a title winner there to manage the team to achieve the same success. There are just differences in game plan but I assume PSG would work this out at the end of the day.

Fenerbahçe'nin dönüp dolaşıp aynı noktaya gelmesine anlam veremiyorum. İsmail Kartal ile yeni bir döneme hazırlanılıyor ve ne kadar başarılı olacakları da şüpheli. Daha önce Fenerbahçe'ye kupalar kazandırmış birisi kendisi tabi ki. 2 kez Süper Lig şampiyonu da olmuştu. Tabi aynı azim ve başarı gelir mi orasını bekleyip göreceğiz.

Galatasaray'ın geçtiğimiz sezon yaptığı işi göz önünde bulundurursak Fenerbahçe'nin çok sağlam bir şekilde hazırlanması gerekiyor. Yoksa Galatasaray yıldız oyuncularını olabildiğince elinde tutup kadroyu güçlü tuttuğu sürece Fenerbahçe'nin işi hala oldukça zor olacak.

I have two suggestions for next season. I'm wondering what your opinions are about these:

1) In case of there is a tie for free bet, the one who sent their prediction before is announced as the winner. (This can be applied for this season.)
2) In case of there are 7 or more similar answers in 10 questions, penalty questions are asked just as it is done in the cup. (Even if there is no tie these questions can be considered.)

It is reported that Manchester City won't match Arsenal's offer for Declan Rice from now on. If I'm not wrong Arsenal offer is around 105m pounds - 5m pounds add-ons included. This is going to be a star signing for Arsenal and hopefully Declan Rice can improve his game significantly in time. After a couple of years maybe they might sell him for a really profitable price.

Manchester City must have been after him due to having 2 players in the defensive midfield position and they might be likely to lose Kalvin Phillips in this transfer window as well. But it looks like they don't aim to spend that much money for this transfer. They are already preparing to spend around 85m pounds for Gvardiol.

I followed the first half. I was going to choose Georgia as the group leader. However I changed my mind after the equalizer that came in the last minute. Because Netherlands were way ahead in the statistics. I still can't believe this match ended up with a draw. I'm expecting Turkey to win a bronze medal in the U-19 basketball championship. We have got a good generation.

Scotland are really quite an impressive team in this stage so far. They won two really difficult matches against Norway and Spain as well and still continue with zero point losses. McTominay has been quite impressive with his extra performance about scoring goals. He scored 5 out of 9 goals of the team so far. This is really a solid work by him considering he isn't a striker.

Besides he isn't a very valuable player for Manchester United for a while too. But maybe the reason why he is so ambitious at his national team is to win his place back at Manchester United. But while there is a competition for his position his job wouldn't still be easy at all. They are even thinking of getting rid of him in a swap deal for Rice.

Maybe Joselu can be a decent striker. However there is an important piece of info about Joselu on one hand. He is very inexperienced in European cups. In his whole career so far he has competed in only the Europa League which was while he was playing for E. Frankfurt in the 2013/2014 season. This is a big negative side of him considering the Champions League now.

Maybe Joselu can be quite productive for Real Madrid in the La Liga. I don't have any issue with that. But Real Madrid still need a solid striker who can make a big contribution in the Champions League. They shouldn't just rely on Vinicius Junior's taking most of the responsibility in the whole tournament.

Real Madrid must be aware of this as well that we are hearing about some striker rumours.

Barcelona to go for the Champions League title? I don't think so for now. Because they still have a long way to go before doing that. They have been really unsuccessful there for two years and I wouldn't expect them to fight seriously for the title all of a sudden. For this to happen Xavi just needs to try different things in his strategies in the first place. But I'm pretty confident that he wouldn't change his system in any tournament. But still this season ended well for them in the La Liga.

Maybe winning this title after a 3-year break can motivate them to play better in the Champions League as well. Their main target should be to qualify from their group in the CL.

Modric and Kroos both will not be needed for Real Madrid after this new season ends. Both of them would stay for only one last season and after that Real Madrid would start to play with their young midfielders in every single match. Transfers like Camavinga, Tchouameni and Bellingham are all investments in the future of the club.

Real Madrid must be still intending to have some experienced midfielders in the squad on one hand. Modric and Kroos are still great midfielders both. Especially Modric is really amazing that he can still play amazingly no matter what age he is at. He must have already become one of the best Real Madrid players in club history.

12. Sean Strickland
11. Damir Ismagulov
10. Michael Morales
9. Melissa Gatto
8. Ismael Bonfim
7. Brunno Ferreira
6. Rinat Fakhretdinov
5. Joanderson Brito
4. Yana Santos
3. Guram Kutateladze
2. Luana Carolina
1. Alexandr Romanov

NOT go the Full Distance:  5

1. Perez
2. Perez
3. Verstappen
4. 10 seconds

The improvement by McLaren side is really pretty impressive. The car is still not one of the fastest on the grid yet but they are making progress faster recently. They brought a huge upgrade package for the Canadian GP and now I'm wondering if they can do better in the Austrian GP. The weather looks rainy for now indeed so this is an opportunity to take advantage of for McLaren drivers as well. Especially Norris can make interesting surprises in qualifying session under such conditions.

In qualifying session of Spanish GP weekend we all saw how he captured the 3rd place. He was in Q3 again in Canada as well. Maybe we might see another impressive time by him in Austria this time.

After Nagelsmann couldn't meet the expectations last season Tuchel will have a serious responsibility to make this team rise again. Of course they won the Bundesliga title anyway but it was thanks to Dortmund's unbelievable result on the final week. This can't be called as a successful season for them at all.

First the squad should be consolidated well which would increase their chance to bring back their usual dominance. But Tuchel's system will play the key role here. He can be relied on in the Champions League to be more competitive for being champion maybe. It was a big success of him that he won this title with Chelsea while they didn't have one of the best squads among the bigger title contenders.

Maybe he can do his magic here with Bayern Munich too but we will see. For now they have a long way to go for even being able to compete at the same level with the tournament favourite, Manchester City.

I have checked out Round 4 questions and I still can't be confident about myself despite having a solid start. Because it is really not easy to predict the results of U21 or U19 matches as I'm not following these tournaments very closely. The tennis questions in this round also seem a little challenging. But I liked the F1 question as it is certainly one of the sports I have been following for many years. Maybe this can even be the decider for me and I can gain advantage depending on my opponent's choice.

I can't wait to see new season starts for the football leagues. The questions would be much more fun then.  

As Dzeko is about to join Fenerbahçe and Lukaku is also about to leave the team I wonder what Inter are planning to do. Because they will need to bring at least one centre-forward to the team in this case. Even one might not be enough in the long run thinking of injury or suspension cases as well. One of these strikers should be a reliable one who can make a good duo with Martinez and the other one can be just a good substitute player who can do well when there is a need for him.

It looks like Marcus Thuram deal is about to become official for Inter already. He is a decent scorer but his being versatile is also an advantage for Inter. Because he can even play as a left winger and his stats there so far have been really nice too.