What a dominance by Real Madrid in the Champions League!

In the last nine seasons they won the title five times. They won three times in a row between the years of 2015 and 2017. We started to see some different champions after 2017 but last season ended up with another championship for Real Madrid. They didn't even become the champions this many times in the La Liga in the same time period. So I'm curious if this dominance will be finished by a team in the near future. Maybe this season can be a start for that. Real Madrid would easily advance from their group undoubtedly. But after that I would like to see them facing especially Manchester City. Because it feels like they might be the only team that can really stop them this season. They were nearly doing it last season if there wasn't any miraculous comeback by Real Madrid.

Three matches have been completed in Group A and the current look of the standings is below:



Vitality have impressed people with their dedicated performance so far. One transfer can really change nearly everything about a team. Spinx is still playing a crucial role in the matches. Today they took on fnatic and beat them 2-1. Spinx was the most performing player on Inferno (27 kills) and Mirage (25 kills). He was the top fragger on both maps and helped a lot about making a comeback after losing on Nuke by 16-6. fnatic did this to NaVi too. I mean they won the first map against NaVi too but couldn't turn this into their advantage to win. They are still not at the level of top tier teams but this is an improvement that shouldn't be disregarded also.

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Tomorrow the biggest match is NaVi - Vitality. Honestly I think that NaVi will definitely win this series and they can be chosen @1.48 which is attracting. They beat Vitality 2-0 in the Blast Premier groups. But maybe this time they might give one map to Vitality after seeing how desperate they were against Spirit today. NaVi to win by 2-1 @2.95 might also be given a chance by the people who are eager to try something different.

The most interesting match of the week will be Manchester United - Arsenal.

Manchester United are in a better shape than their look in the first matches. Their performance against Liverpool was worth appeciating a lot. It was their first big match of the season and they dealt with it superbly. This is another big challenge for them. This time they are going to be up against Arsenal. Playing the match in Old Trafford is an advantage but they need to play at least as good as they did against Liverpool. Arsenal have no difficulty in finding so many goal chances. They love to have the most ball possession just as Liverpool. The thing Manchester United need to do first is to prevent this. If they don't lose control then we might see another victory for the Manchester side.

My betting choice for this match is both teams to score @1.61. These teams didn't have any problem on scoring against each other in their last two h2h matches (3-1, 3-2). None of them has had any scoring problem on the recent weeks.

The only thing Hamilton lacks now is a fast car, nothing more than that. If he is given a car that is nearly as fast as Red Bull's then he would again be one of the number one contenders for the championship. His ambition for winning his eight championship is still alive even though the team are a big disappointment this year. Hamilton still has one more year left on his contract. I don't think Hamilton would decide to retire easily before breaking the title record.

Verstappen has a huge potential to break all the records in time indeed. He is still 24 years old and he has long years ahead of him to break the championship record especially. After his first championship he was like he reached his goal and it was going to be for fun for him from now on. However his current determination is telling the opposite. He is hungry for many more titles. I wouldn't like to see him becoming the second Raikkonen honestly. 

NaVi to make a comeback against Endpoint and win the series has a huge odd now.

The match between them is going on really interestingly. I'd never expect NaVi to have this much difficulty against a much weaker opponent like them. The first map was Ancient and it is the weakness of NaVi as you know. I really don't understand why NaVi are still not banning this map first. Because they lost to fnatic on the same map yesterday too. I still was confident that NaVi would turn the game around but they are struggling on Dust2 also now. They are 15-6 behind and this is really about to end up by a horrible 2-0 loss.

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Vitality - fnatic is a very lovely match of the day. The odds for the winner are:



This can be a really interesting matchup. Because fnatic started to play bigger than before recently. They defeated one of the top tier teams like NIP in the end despite being aware of NIP's recent form. They won a map against NaVi after that and it was the first one which was enough to make their opponent a little uncomfortable about the series. Now they are facing Vitality which are in a great shape these days. I see that there is only one map these teams play nearly the same which is Overpass. For the rest of the maps, one of them is bad while the other is performing great.

However I still don't think that fnatic are strong enough to defeat this Vitality. So Vitality @1.49 is a pretty nice choice.

This is really interesting statistics at the end of the 5th week. Manchester United have 9 points while scoring 5 and conceding 7 goals. But Liverpool can collect only one less points by having much better stats.  

Manchester United have started to recover for three weeks by getting wins. However their game in the last two matches makes me really uncomfortable. We had another similar week that they targeted to secure a 1-0 score advantage rather than going for more. This score is always risky in the Premier League no matter what the opponent is. Maybe Southampton couldn't but Leicester could have punished them.

We saw Ronaldo entering the game in the second half again. But this wasn't bad for them because Rashford contributed with an assist. Until Ronaldo's future at the club is determined I don't expect to see him in the starting eleven anyway. There is a big improvement in Sancho's performance by the way. He wasn't this much good last season but now he is one of the important players of the team. He scored the winning goal of the match here and became the hero in some way.

I think that this will never change in F1. Because teams are always investing in their main drivers more than the second one. Honestly I don't fully believe that Perez and Verstappen have the exact same cars now. Verstappen must always have been given a little advantage over his teammate to fight harder. As long as there are big talents like Verstappen, Leclerc etc., it is too hard for the other drivers to be cared as much as them. Maybe the constructors' championship is the main goal for the teams but it is very important for them to make their most talented driver champion also.

Perez must be still happier after taking the second spot from Leclerc in the standings as he stated the same thing recently also. But of course he is a very competitive driver and he would also like to be allowed to compete with Verstappen. But he can't disobey team calls I'm afraid if he wants to be permanent here.

By the way, Rosberg can be one of the most stubborn drivers about this.    The 2016 season is still unforgettable for me as Rosberg has been the most serious rival for Hamilton among his teammates so far.

NaVi vs fnatic has started already and we are on first map, Ancient. Actually this is a really bad map for NaVi while it is the opposite for fnatic. However NaVi are still very comfortable at the moment like 10-2.    fnatic are still in development of course but their winning against NIP made me really excited about them. nicoodoz and roeJ had really impressive efforts. I thought that maybe they could make difficulties for the team at the top on a map but it looks like they won't be able to bother them at all.

The second map is Mirage by the way and it is one of the most comfortable maps for NaVi. So it should end by 2-0 without big problems. fnatic still have a long way to go to reach the level of top tier teams and beat them.

https://www.transfermarkt.com.tr/maxi-gomez-trabzonsporda-/view/news/410566

It is a big feint by Trabzonspor to Fenerbahce about the Maxi Gomez transfer. Fenerbahce board were so slow to sign a deal with him. While they were wasting their time Trabzonspor sold Cornelius to FC Copenhagen and reached an agreement with Gomez in a very short time after that. It is a 3 million euro deal for Trabzonspor to be paid by instalments.

I saw this on social media about this transfer and it really made me laugh.    : https://twitter.com/benjasosyal/status/1565090311289946112?s=20&t=YKeSjwZg76KX5h457UcBYg

After hearing about this I started to think whether Fenerbahce will return to Icardi again. It is said that Galatasaray have already reached an agreement with him and they are just waiting for PSG to confirm the transfer. Maybe Fenerbahce might go for a last-minute move to heat up things.

Arsenal and Manchester United seem to be given the same chance for the Europa League title according to bookmakers. However I think there is a visible gap between these teams for now. Arsenal have a more reliable system and they continue to win every match in the Premier League. Manchester United are in a recovery phase now and they are still dealing with a Ronaldo problem. However the transfer window is about to end so he can be back in the lineup hopefully.

My favourite team for the title are going to be Arsenal. But I believe that we should take Roma into account also after their great season in the Europa Conference League. They are doing a great work with Mourinho in this arena. But the favourite team by bookmakers can change later on as there are going to be teams coming from the Champions League as well.

After a five-year break we are again feeling the greatness of this tournament. 

In the EuroBasket 2017, Slovenia beat Serbia 93-85 and became the champions. Now both of these teams are among the favourites to win the title. Serbia are the most favoured one @4.60. While Greece and Slovenia are following them @5.00, France are right behind @5.50. The odds are really close to each other and I don't expect any other team to make a surprise too. Spain were the dominator of the EuroBasket in the past but now they have an odd like 15.00.

My favourite team are Serbia. I'd like to say Greece but it really depends on how solid Giannis will play. Like some of you mentioned, this isn't NBA and maybe he can still have problems with having a good relationship with his friends in the roster and adapting to European basketball again too.

I'm curious about Real Madrid too this season. They haven't changed their squad much except signing young players for the midfield. The same squad won the Champions League and La Liga titles both last season in the end. This time they might find even a bigger competition in the tournament after the new changes in the favourite teams. However Real Madrid's being very experienced here still carries them to another level. As you remember, they weren't the most performing team last season but Ancelotti still found a way to eliminate their opponents one by one.

So I really wonder how the other teams will find a solution for this. Actually Manchester City had the strength to eliminate them but missed it by inches after those miracle goals came in the last moments. If they meet again maybe it can be their time to have revenge.

Antony's being transferred by a huge sum of money can open the way for Francisco Conceição to have more chances in the lineup. He is a new signing from Porto as you know. But I'm not sure if we can see him in the starting eleven very often. Because they already have Bergwijn and Tadic who can play as a right winger as well. But if I was in their place I would look for using some of the money came from Antony to a reliable right winger who is playing naturally there. Otherwise maybe it can be a little problem for them in the Champions League especially.

However the transfer window is about to close very soon so it doesn't seem like they are interested in anybody at the moment. I respect their choice of course because Ajax have never been targeting to build a much stronger squad to be more serious in the Champions League for example. They are just happy to see the development of their talented youngsters.

Exactly one week from now, the group matches are officially starting.

It looks like PSG - Juventus is going to be the first big match of the season. PSG are going to play their first Champions League match with Galtier. Their start to the season in the Ligue 1 has been really impressive. Galtier made some changes in the tactic and they are getting efficiency from it very much. On the other hand their opponents so far haven't been challenging of course. Galtier is under pressure of winning the Champions League title and we will see how good he will handle this throughout the season.

When it comes to Juventus' current condition they don't seem sharp. They are having problems with having comfortable wins these days and their last two matches ended in draws. They had many chances against Roma but they were lacking the capability of finding the target many times. It is more related to their midfield. Pogba isn't expected to return before Sep 12 so they might struggle against PSG there.

Considering all of this, I'm planning to bet on PSG to win. Over 2.5 goals might also be a very good option as PSG are very productive recently.

How interesting it was to see Sporting and Porto having literally the same week. They both were highly dominant in their matches and found numerous opportunities to destroy their opponents. But they both lost by a two-goal difference. Braga and Benfica are the most consistent teams at the beginning of this season. I find Braga more interesting than Benfica. They scored 17 goals and conceded 3 goals only in 4 matches. This is a very similar start to PSG's in the Ligue 1.  

Braga have zero championship in their Liga Portugal history. Maybe this can be a big opportunity for them to achieve it for the first time but a long and tough season awaits them. Imagining three or even four teams fighting for the championship makes me very interested in this season already. The increase in the level of competition would make this league more attracting than before hopefully too.

I really enjoyed the PSG - Monaco match first of all.

Both teams had good performances. Monaco's goal came as a result of a bad choice of pass from Veratti to Messi and the defense couldn't do much against the counter-attack. After that Monaco still found some chances so the score might have been really different than this. PSG newly started to be more dominant in the second half. Messi and Mbappe missed an insane goal by targeting the goal post during the same attack. Later, Monaco even missed the chance of scoring against an empty goal. After Neymar's penalty goal, this time Hakimi aimed the goal post which would have been the winning goal for them. It was a really unlucky day for PSG.

I'm glad for not betting on PSG otherwise I can't even imagine how I would watch this match.  

Gomis entered the game moments ago. Okan Buruk wanted to trust Seferovic once more but he couldn't get the result he hoped for. He should have chosen Gomis in the starting eleven from the beginning but it is still good for them to have him in the game while there is still around half an hour to go. Galatasaray have had the most ball possession so far interestingly. Trabzonspor still seem mentally weak after those poor results in the Super League and Champions League both. With Gomis' help now maybe Galatasaray can even score the winning goal as it doesn't seem very difficult for them.

Hamilton was really ambitious to achieve something this weekend but he had another disappointment. First the car was so slow to have a proper lap time in qualifying. He was really displeased with this situation and this wasn't going to be the only bad thing happening to him. While we were only at the beginning of the race his race ended already. Maybe Alonso was right about him because Hamilton didn't have much space to leave Alonso behind at that turn. He was the victim of his excessive attempt there. At least Russell had a good race but it was still a bad weekend for Mercedes at the end of the day.

Congrats to Verstappen on this very deserved win. It is so sad to see Ferrari getting this much weaker than Red Bull lately. Sainz couldn't do anything against Verstappen's high speed today. Leclerc was even struggling to compete with Russell.

Vitality are in an impressive form after their new transfer Spinx especially. Spinx is one of the skilled fraggers among all the teams now. He is playing a big role in all of their victories. Even in the matches they lost I didn't see him playing badly. Having a roster full of consistent players can carry them to upper levels in time. Maybe they couldn't beat NaVi but it isn't worth getting sad too much for. Because they still have a long way to go for reaching the level of the number one team in the world.

Comparing Vitality to G2, there is a big visible gap between them. HooXi is not one of the best IGLs now and his performance is dragging down the team. I don't think they can resist Vitality and eliminate them. But maybe they can win one map so a 2-1 victory for Vitality could be a nice choice.

FaZe were heavily the favourite team of the series against Astralis and they already won the first map. They are likely to close up the series by a 2-0 win also. Astralis' being the 4th in the world ranking shouldn't mislead people because their recent performance has dropped a little. Maybe OG defeated Astralis and FaZe both but Astralis are still not playing better than FaZe as a team.

For the remaining matches of the day NIP @1.99 and Vitality @1.63 can be nice choices. NIP might seem a little riskier but I don't see Heroic playing better than them recently. It might be time for NIP to step up.