None of us would like to watch a season that ends very early of course. We all have favourite drivers in this sport but honestly I don't want to see any pure dominance by my favourite one. I just love to watch a high competition until the end of a season. This makes F1 more interesting and attracting for even people who had no relation to this sport before.

For example, I also enjoyed the previous season very much because Hamilton didn't let Verstappen get a very comfortable championship. The champion was determined after the last race which was the kind of competition we missed so much. There won't be such thing happening this season maybe but I hope next season will be different. Because Mercedes are improving already now and their main focus is to be the champion next season. Ferrari will hopefully be back with a better crew or they will solve their issues to prevent silly mistakes. Therefore we might be likely to watch a wonderful competition among even more than two drivers for the championship. 

It would be enough for me not to see a single driver dominating that season though.

Manchester United made up for the Real Sociedad loss today. The match ended in the first half already after making the score 2-0. Ronaldo finally scored a goal after a very long time. I mean that he hasn't been scoring since May 2 until this match. This is a really terrible statistics for him as there have been so many matches between these dates. I don't think this will make a change in Erik ten Hag's plans for their upcoming Premier League matches. Rashford should still be his first choice until he starts performing worse.

I really have no idea how the Midtjylland - Lazio match ended 5-1. Lazio defeated Feyenoord 4-2 last week which showed how much they were caring about the Europa League. However this too surprising result was enough to think the opposite for me. Lazio didn't have a lineup full of backup players also. Hence there is no meaning in this embarrassing loss. Just imagine that you bet on Lazio @1.70 or so and they are losing like this. It's horrible.

This is really a chance for Graham Potter to build strong strategies and a strong relationship with the players indeed. He came and started with a Champions League match quickly. He didn't have much time to think of the right game plan for the team. They still performed nicely though but Salzburg still got that point despite having very few goal chances during the match. I'm hopeful that Chelsea will have a better run in the rest of the season after Potter takes his time to choose the right tactics for the team.

As for injuries, Aubameyang has returned after suffering an injury also. He was able to play for around an hour last night. Maybe he didn't score the goal but this is good news for Chelsea. He would use this time interval to adapt to the team completely and hopefully start performing as he did at Barcelona. They need his goals to have more comfortable results.

I was curious about why Real Madrid's odd was high again as it was around 1.65. However I still trusted them with my bet and won nicely. Considering the strength of their opponents so far these were really nice opportunities for placing a bet on them. It will be the same for their Shakhtar match also. I'd love to have another odd like this to take advantage of it. 

I wanted to believe in Juventus also but they got a really bad result at the end. After finding an early goal I was more confident about their win. But somehow they started to play worse than Benfica and it was like a gift to their opponent. It's like there is no tournament they are doing good now. Allegri will need to create a solution for this weakness otherwise his end might be the same as Tuchel. We have watched a solid Juventus in the Champions League until this season. This team has nothing to do with their old version.

For two weeks something has been drawing my attention. Real Madrid's odd for winning their matches have been quite high. It reached even 1.70 against Celtic but they still got a solid 3-0 win there. After that they had a 1.65 odd for this Leipzig match. I expect another clear victory for Real Madrid here. Leipzig were too bad against Shakhtar as you remember. They lost 4-1 home and I had no idea how this happened. They were doing bad in the Bundesliga but I expected to see a better effort from them in the Champions League. Real Madrid are a much bigger obstacle for them.

I assume the reason of this odd might be Benzema's absence this time. He is suffering a knee injury and Rodrygo is in the starting eleven there. Rodrygo is also in a good shape now after having 1 goal and 1 assist against Mallorca in their last match. Vinicius Jr would also help the team become more effective in attacking today.

According to the source below, Alpine are planning a test in Hungaroring for four drivers to determine the drivers of next season.

https://racingnews365.com/alpine-to-test-four-contenders-for-2023-drive-ahead-of-singapore-grand-prix

These drivers are Nyck de Vries, Jack Doohan, Colton Herta, and Mick Schumacher. In addition to these drivers, Vettel might also be a part of this test which means that he might not be retiring. He seemed so determined about his decision to retire so I wonder what's changed now. Nyck de Vries raced in F1 for the first time and even collected some points. He is a promising driver but he has really tough opponents in this test. Mick Schumacher couldn't meet the expectations at Haas unfortunately. So he will need to make a bigger effort to impress Alpine somehow. If Vettel joins this group then he will start 1-0 ahead. 

Rather than Astralis - Complexity, I see MOUZ - Heroic as the most interesting game of the day. Even though MOUZ are in a better form than Heroic bookmakers are favouring Heroic for the win here. I also saw that there was a change in MOUZ roster. But if the new player (xertioN) shows a decent performance MOUZ can be a really great choice @2.24. Astralis @1.24 and ENCE @1.41 are more reliable choices of the day of course. Neither Complexity nor HEET are in a condition that they can win maybe even one map.

When it comes to Heroic to beat Astralis, this is possible of course if we consider their recent head-to-head matches. Heroic defeated them in their last four matches. However there have been three months passed since they played against each other the last time. We should be ready for any kind of a result.

Hamilton said that FIA acted according to the rules this time about the safety car. He referred to the championship race in Abu Dhabi last season too of course. He lost the championship after that huge mistake in the end. Coming back to the Monza GP, Horner stated also that the safety car should have entered pit before the last lap started. He said that they wanted to win this race on track not under safety car. Leclerc also complained about it by thinking that the track was clear already.

Anyway they still needed the drivers who were lapped to overtake the safety car and catch up with the convoy. So there was no time for that to happen as they took action about Ricciardo's car quite late. Ferrari made their fans unhappy again as a result. But I still don't want to blame them much because they didn't screw up anything in pit or with the strategies at least.

Group C seems interesting:



There are four teams that are big candidates to move on in this tournament. Considering the current ranking of the teams, Astralis seem like the biggest favourite to finish the group as leader. However I don't fully trust them about that. Because I can't say that they have been very consistent against this kind of teams recently. Complexity and HEET can be easy targets for them of course but the rest of them have the potential to beat them. MOUZ have been one of the impressive teams these days and they are still in top 10 now.

ENCE and Heroic seem a little away from their old times. Especially ENCE have dropped down too much in the ranking. I remember them even as the second a few months ago. After losing Spinx their firepower was affected negatively also. SunPayus addition to the team was very good but I'm having doubts about valde's performance here. For now I see ENCE or Heroic having the biggest potential to be out of top 3 in the group among these 4 teams I mentioned.

Russell is definitely faster than Hamilton for a long time. I assume that they have the same cars now. So I wonder how Hamilton can stay behind him. He is continuing to race only for achieving his eight title to have a new record. But he seems even less competitive than Russell this season. Of course it wasn't possible logically already but still he has lost his championship chance mathematically too before Russell.

This can really transform into the competition between Rosberg and Hamilton. Russell is a very ambitious driver just as Rosberg and he is the future of the team obviously. He is trying to prove his quality to the team and he's done more than the expected already. If Mercedes become as fast as Red Bull next season then we would probably see Russell and Hamilton both in the championship race. Hamilton might want the team to prioritize him for the championship but it is doubtful whether Russell would be just as Bottas against him.

Tottenham made their fans really nervous in their Marseille match. Even though Marseille got a red card at the beginning of the second half they still had big problems on scoring the first goal. I bet on Tottenham win and I'm happy for winning of course. However it is hard to trust them again here. Especially after seeing Sporting's high effort against Frankfurt, a really difficult match is waiting for Tottenham in Portugal.

Sporting couldn't start the season well in the Liga Portugal. However it doesn't seem like this is affecting their performance in the Champions League badly. The most logical option to choose for this match might be both teams to score @1.79. I even think that the first goal will come from Sporting whose odd is 2.48. It might be given a chance in betslips consisting some risks.

The race has started great for Verstappen and Sainz.

Verstappen gained four positions at the beginning already and he got past Russell easily not much time after it also. He is melting the gap slowly with Leclerc now as the gap is 1.6 seconds. Sainz on the other hand has gained ten positions so far and reached 8th position. Perez couldn't have a good start I'm afraid. Red Bull called him to pit now to change his tyres to hards. However there is some smoke on his right front tyre now. This is not good for Red Bull at all. Maybe Verstappen can have a good weekend but it is important for the team to gain as many points as possible. Ferrari seem very likely to have two drivers on podium considering Sainz's current speed.

Graham Potter is getting close to his first match with Chelsea here against Salzburg. Playing this match in Stamford Bridge is a good advantage for them. Fans will be expecting an absolute win from Chelsea. Graham Potter is managing a team in the Champions League for the first time. So people are wondering how successful he will be. Honestly I think Chelsea will end this bad form by a solid win here. I wish Aubameyang was able to play in this match but he is still suffering a head injury. He will be able to return on October 3 as it seems. However this shouldn't be an obstacle for them to defeat Salzburg. Havertz would be Potter's choice there.



Chelsea win @1.35 can be a good choice to add to a multi.

de Vries is going to have his first ever Formula 1 race so I'm also curious about what he will do today. I wouldn't blame him if he makes some mistakes because it is his first time in the end. I hope that Albon returns as quick as possible after undergoing treatment for appendicitis.

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.breaking-albon-ruled-out-of-italian-grand-prix-with-appendicitis-as.5TjaGYJohrzYVyKqLvSy5Y.html

As for the big race, Leclerc has his biggest opportunity to win after a long break. He has had a really bad run for many race weeks. He couldn't win in the last four races and he didn't even see podium often. It is time to put an end to this bad time period while he is this much fast. Verstappen is still a big threat in this race despite his starting in seventh position. Leclerc needs to get away from others quickly to have a safe gap with Verstappen until he climbs to the second position. After doing so the only thing needed is that Ferrari don't screw up things in pit. Hopefully Leclerc doesn't have any accident or issue with the car.

Maybe Erik ten Hag didn't want to risk any of their main centre-backs and this was the reason why Maguire stayed in the match. Even his existence is enough for the team to lose a match though but this loss wasn't only his fault also. They struggled as a team against Real Sociedad even though they found very crucial opportunities.

As for Ronaldo, ten Hag is already focusing on Rashford normally. You can see this clearly by the recent Premier League matches and Rashford's performance in those ones. ten Hag just wanted to give Ronaldo another chance in the starting eleven in a different tournament. He wasted some goal chances maybe but it would be cruel to blame him by looking at only this match. If he plays for longer regularly then we can see how much solid he will perform. But while Rashford is this much beneficial there is no need to risk it for now.

BIG didn't surprise people by losing a map even against FTW.    It was even a map they picked. They were actually more experienced on Dust 2 and FTW were much weaker than them on paper. I was afraid of the decider map for BIG because they were very unsuccessful on Nuke. It is the complete opposite for FTW however BIG have started very solid by 6-0 now. It looks like something is finally changing about this team. First the MIBR win and now winning here would be a big help for their morale.

Maybe these opponents aren't top tier but starting a good form is important for the team performance to be more consistent. The most difficult test for BIG is against FaZe tomorrow. Even if they don't manage to finish in top 3 at least they can prove that they are recovering by showing a decent performance. FaZe would beat them anyway though as there will be no guarantee for their lead in the group yet.

Galatasaray are going to play their first match with their new transfers against Kasimpasa tomorrow.

They shouldn't underestimate their opponent here. Kasimpasa started the season by horrible losses. But there is a significant improvement in their recent performance. Hatayspor and Antalyaspor wins can motivate them against Galatasaray. The new transfers at Galatasaray might need some time for adaptation. I wonder if Okan Buruk will decide to put nearly all of them in the starting eleven quickly. Honestly people are going to expect to see especially Icardi in the starting eleven. Because they are out of patience after Seferovic's inadequate effort. I'll place a bet on Galatasaray win @1.80 for this match. I expect a good reaction from the team after these transfer moves.

Liverpool win has a really attracting odd but it is still not a credible choice at all. This is still a very important match for them to start recovering of course. However I don't expect any comfortable win like you. They have two head-to-heads recently and both of them ended by close results as @vennali indicated. If we take Ajax's current form and strength into account it isn't easy for Liverpool to defeat them comfortably. Ajax might have a weaker league compared to the EPL. But this doesn't affect their performance in the Champions League badly. Besides I might choose BTTS @1.54 for this one as Liverpool are very bad at defending now.

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When it comes to Bayern Munich - Barcelona, it is another tough match to predict the result of. Bayern Munich seem closer to a win but we don't have the old Barcelona anymore. Barcelona should be able to show a big resistance against them. It shouldn't be too difficult for them to score at least one goal thanks to Lewandowski especially. Everyone wonders how motivated he will be for this match but I don't have any doubt. It looks like BTTS could be a good choice for this one too @1.41.

It was an easy win for G2 on both maps against FTW. They are the temporary leader of the group at the moment. Depending on the result of FaZe - Outsiders match this can change of course.

FaZe are highly favourite side to win this match absolutely. Outsiders have shown a good level of performance so far. They beat BIG and FTW both with a 2-0 score. However none of these can be seen as a big challenge for Outsiders. FaZe are the number one team in the ranking now. They are even the biggest challenge for Outsiders so we will see what they'll be able to do. MIBR won a map against FaZe so Outsiders can do the same too. But FaZe can still win this. Outsiders are really disadvantageous against them if we compare their win rates on all maps. FaZe would ban Dust2 (83% WR) and Inferno (70% WR) quickly and capture a big advantage already.

It looks like we will have to wait for a long time for the matches of this week to be played. Because all of them were postponed after Queen Elizabeth II passed away yesterday. The matches of next week might also be postponed depending on the duration of mourning.



Brighton - Crystal Palace match has already been postponed which was going to be played next week. However I've found out that the reason for it is different. After some rail strikes in the UK recently there have been some travel issues and this match has been affected by that too as a result. This is good for Brighton in fact as Graham Potter has left the team to join Chelsea. Andrew Crofts is the caretaker manager for now but maybe they might use this time to find a new manager.