FIA were a huge fiasco today. I really wonder what kind of people are in race control now. This was an important race for Verstappen to announce his second title. I don't know how FIA can't get more prepared for a special race like this. They made really unbelievable mistakes. Some of them were like:

- We saw a tractor coming in before the drivers entered pit lane.
- They finished the race one lap early.
- Gasly got unbelievable penalties like 20-sec time penalty and 2 penalty points for speeding under red flag (But as for FIA's huge mistake about the tractor, there is no problem according to them  ).
- They shouldn't have given full points for this race because it wasn't even a full race.
- They weren't even sure of Verstappen's championship for a while.  

I think Leclerc's penalty was fair because he pushed Perez outside while Perez was trying to overtake him. We see 5-sec penalty being given in this kind of situations actually.

I believed in Eternal Fire with my bet but they showed another poor performance and lost. Rather than disbanding I think that they need some more changes. First they should replace imoRR immediately as he has literally no game sense. I don't have any bad words for his aim because it is really impressive. But aim isn't adequate by itself if you are playing for a team. You need to improve your vision and you should be able to think sophisticatedly. If you just focus on peeking everyone at any time then you don't deserve your position in that team.

As we are getting interesting results in the RMR I really wonder what kind of Major we will have this time. There are already some big teams that have been eliminated before reaching that stage. It is good to see some different results to make things more competitive but it's still interesting to see these big teams losing to much lower teams by big scores.

I'm really mad at Barcelona as my betslip lost only because of their not being able to defeat Inter. But I really appreciate Inter's resistance against them because there was totally a different team there. It was like there was no sign of the Inter that played against Roma and lost by 2-1 home. Now they have a nice advantage of being three points ahead of Barcelona in the group.

However in the match in Camp Nou, I expect none other than a Barcelona win. I've checked the odds and Barcelona have a 1.46 odd for the win. This is a convincing odd for me to add to my new betslip for the CL. They must have learned their lesson from their mistakes in the previous match. I expect Xavi to prepare his players much better for next time. I can't stand watching Barcelona in the Europa League once again so they must win this one of the important matches.

Inter are considering of extending with Hakan Calhanoglu after hearing about some interest in him. Everton seem to be among the teams interested. However I don't see any reason for Calhanoglu to choose to play for them instead of continuing his career at Inter in a much better way.

When he left Milan to join their biggest rival like Inter, Milan fans were really disappointed and angry at him. He played great there and he continues to show a good level of performance at Inter as well. He scored a really nice goal against Barcelona also and it was important for the win. As a result I think Inter would reach an agreement with him for extending his contract for at least two more years. Everton had better focus on their game first because there is nothing attracting in them to convince him to come.

Lyon have started to the match very fast by getting 1-0 ahead in the 2nd minute already. It's like Toulouse haven't been winning against Lyon for so many years. It's since 2014 I mean. Lyon would benefit from this psychological predominance very well also. Maybe their current conditions in the league table aren't too different from each other. But Lyon still have a dominance in this matchup considering the qualities of these teams.

I know that Lyon have been terrible lately as they lost their last 4 league matches. But this can't always go on like this in the end and this seems to be the match they rise again. By the way it was pretty interesting to see Lyon starting to screw things up very quickly after a good start. I wonder if they will be able to maintain a good form after winning this.

Most people were expecting Atletico Madrid and Porto to qualify from the group but now things have got really interesting. Now these teams are both having a worrying run in the group matches. Porto have newly got their win against Leverkusen. On the other hand, Atletico Madrid lost their last two matches by not scoring a single goal. There are still three weeks in the group stage of course. There is an equality in points among Leverkusen and those two teams in the end.

But one thing is pretty clear indeed that Club Brugge would finish the stage at the first position. Depending on their opponent in last 16 round they might even qualify for quarter finals. Because they are very consistent in the Champions League just as they are in the Jupiler League.

The Turkish team Eternal Fire started to make up for their losses so far by defeating Aurora today. It could have ended by a 2-0 victory also actually but they handed over a good advantage to their opponent on Mirage. After overtime Aurora kept their hopes up on the last map. But Eternal Fire didn't mess up things on Nuke. I still don't like their team performance at all. If you check the individual stats carefully you can see e.g. XANTARES being one of the most performing players in the tournament now. But they are losing a lot as for team effort. imoRR should be replaced immediately. Btw, paz's performance on Nuke was incredible (22 frags) as it was very effective in taking the win. XANTARES was already amazing by 29 frags as always.

Tomorrow they have a matchup against fnatic as Cloud9 lost to NIP. If that match ended the opposite way then G2 were going to be their opponent. I think fnatic matchup is better than that but they should still be very careful in this one. fnatic were nearly defeating FaZe but they lost to B8 also which was shocking to see. I think Eternal Fire can defeat them by a slight gap if they play better as a team. I'll give them a chance @2.27.

Arsenal - Liverpool is obviously the main event on this week. Arsenal are in a pretty solid condition in the league now. It was important for them to win against Tottenham and they did it by a solid effort. Maybe the red card was a help also but Tottenham were already not as effective as Arsenal before that too. Arsenal play really different in Emirates. I mean they are more capable of controlling the match without looking at the opponent.

Liverpool are still having defensive issues. Even van Dijk isn't reliable recently. I wonder if Klopp will be able to find a way out. The win over Rangers would be a boost in their morale but I still can't trust them much here. If they can't get better at defending in this one then Arsenal can win this. Besides both teams should be able to find at least one goal easily.

Lazio actually were so close to getting ahead if Immobile's goal wasn't disallowed by VAR due to offside. They could have won the match then I think.



Besides Lazio don't care about the Europa League much as it's seemed so far. I'd like to remind you of their 5-1 loss against Midtjylland on the previous match week. It was the biggest surprise for people and that was the moment we understood how much they care about the tournament.    Therefore I don't recommend anyone to add Lazio to their betslips in the Europa League. But they are really credible in the Serie A these days.

PSG really lost two points huh.

It was a very lucky moment for Benfica I believe. Because they were really helpless in the second half. PSG did everything they could to get a win here but somehow it ended by a 1-1 draw. PSG are still comfortable in the group of course. But maybe they might have missed the opportunity of guaranteeing their lead by the fourth group matches already.

PSG are not very comfortable in the Ligue 1 as there is a Marseille threat right behind now. Therefore PSG had better secure the lead early here to focus on the Ligue 1 more until last 16 stage in the Champions League starts.

Spirit's losing to Sprout was a surprise for me too. There is a significant gap between these two teams normally. Sprout are a team on the decline while Spirit are the opposite. But Sprout's amazing 10-3 CT performance on Mirage helped them get the win.

Congrats on your wins on Cloud9 - G2 bet. After a pretty challenging matchup Cloud9 took the win by 16-13. Ax1Le's extra performance with 26 kills was a big help in this win. G2 are having some difficulties after being eliminated by Vitality in the ESL Pro League but they'd pull themselves together soon I guess.

FaZe were pretty unreliable on the last days so I didn't want to bet on them. They were so close to losing this matchup actually as fnatic were doing a great job on Nuke even though it was one of FaZe's best maps. FaZe had a big difficulty in carrying the match to OT. There was a 19-17 FaZe win at the end. But fnatic's effort was worth watching as it was really promising at the same time. I liked mezii the most as he was one of the top fraggers in the match by 31 kills at the same time. nicoodoz's playing style with AWP is really delightful by the way as it's very brave. 

If Rashford joins PSG then I doubt his playing time there. It's because they already have a great trio of Neymar, Mbappe and Messi. I don't think that Galtier would like to change this trio that easy as long as one of them doesn't want to leave the team next summer. Each one of them is a better player than Rashford now. So if we see Rashford joining them under these conditions he would most probably be a substitute of these players mostly.

Besides yeah, Manchester United are really in danger of losing a talented young player like him for free. Rashford doesn't seem like he is eager to sign a new contract now. Or I wonder if Manchester United haven't even tried yet? The same thing happened with Pogba also and they let him go for free. If they don't do anything about Rashford too then it will happen again.

My betslip lost already after Barcelona couldn't win against Inter. The last match was Juventus win and it looks like they can manage to do this. Even though they are 1-0 ahead now they weren't very dominant in the first half. Maccabi Haifa also had many goal attempts and Juventus didn't have a striking ball possession statistics as well. Allegri had better warn his players to take control of the match in the second half. Otherwise this is still giving hope to their opponent for a draw.

EDIT: Juventus have just scored their second goal which must relieve them a lot from now on. 

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Even though Benfica scored the equalizer I don't think that they can resist PSG. I expect to see a more solid performance from the trio in the second half and win this one. Because I believe PSG would like to finish their job in the group stage earlier by defeating Benfica in both matchups. Because in this way they will guarantee their lead in the group most probably.

Suzuka is definitely Hamilton's track normally. He already loves to push himself harder on difficult tracks like this. He has so many victories gained on this track for example. However he is unlucky that he doesn't have a fast car anymore (at least for now  ). Hence I don't think that he can make any surprise with a car like this even under rain.

I've checked the weather report for Suzuka btw and it looks like another rainy race might be waiting for us.  



Verstappen made simple mistakes in Singapore and missed a big chance to climb to the top. Under similar conditions I expect him to drive more carefully this time. In addition to this, as far as I know winning this race by having the fastest lap is going to be enough for Verstappen to declare his title before the remaining four races. Because after that Verstappen is still keeping the lead even if he doesn't get any points in the last four races and Leclerc wins them with fastest laps. So I think this will be a big motivation for Verstappen to win this.

Messi could have been able to play beside Haaland at Manchester City if the English team made a serious offer for Messi. I don't know if we can see this duo in the same team in the future. Messi is already getting really old and we don't know when he is thinking of retiring. Maybe he would play for long years just as Ronaldo has been planning.

Truthfully I'd like to see Messi - Haaland duo. It feels like these two can have a very good relationship with each other and this would be an even bigger contribution to the attacking power of a team. I don't think that Messi's next stop would be a different team than Barcelona if he leaves. Maybe PSG would bring Haaland in the future in case Neymar leaves. Mbappe can play on the wing also in the end. Then this trio would be much stronger and this time PSG would be unstoppable rather than Manchester City. 

RMR tournament in CS:GO has finally started!

We have left day 1 behind. I can't say that we saw much of a surprise in general. However I was surprised about the FaZe - GamerLegion and Bad News Eagles - Eternal Fire matchups. FaZe were barely able to defeat their opponent after 4 OTs. This was very unexpected honestly. There is a huge quality difference between these teams but there is a very visible drop in FaZe's performance recently. That must be why they had this much difficulty in this one.

As for the other matchup, Eternal Fire should have been able to win this. Dust2 was like one of their best maps and their opponent was also not stronger than them. But at one point we saw Bad News Eagles leading the match by 11-1 which was a nightmare for Eternal Fire. They still figured out a way after starting to play on CT side. They made a great comeback and even got ahead by 13-12. But in the last rounds typically Eternal Fire started to mess up things and their opponent punished them for it by winning 16-14. XANTARES is trying his best but they are still having tactical issues as a team.

My bet on both teams to score for Ajax - Napoli won in only 18 minutes.    However the match is going on very interestingly now.

Even though Ajax scored the first goal Napoli have made an incredible comeback. Napoli are in the lead by an absurd score like 3-1 in Amsterdam. I wonder what's wrong with Ajax players now. I was expecting them to play slightly better than their opponent actually. I know that they couldn't do nearly anything against Liverpool in Anfield. But I didn't expect the same in a home match against Napoli. They can't even perform at the same level now. Napoli didn't let them have the most ball possession so far and they got like three times Ajax's goal attempts in the first half.

Ajax need to wake up immediately otherwise the gap might be even bigger as you remember what Napoli did to Liverpool before.

I'm thinking of a betslip like:

- Ajax - Napoli : both teams to score (1.52)
- Inter - Barcelona : Barcelona to win (1.82)
- Juventus - Maccabi Haifa : Juventus to win (1.31)

The odd in total is 3.62 which is pretty nice for a parlay I think.

Ajax and Napoli both are very productive teams. We saw Ajax having a big struggle against Liverpool in Anfield the last time though. But Ajax are playing much more differently in Amsterdam. It doesn't matter for Napoli about where they are playing. They are finding goals easily these days. Both of them love to play attacking football so both teams should be able to score nicely.

Inter are still having very bad days as Inzaghi can't figure out a solution for this bad form. They lost to Roma newly which might demoralize them a lot. Barcelona have a big opportunity ahead while they are in an impressive form. I don't expect them to waste this chance. They can consolidate their place in the group by defeating Inter in both matches actually.

Juventus have finally obtained the victory they needed. It was a 3-0 win over Bologna in the Serie A. This win should be a big morale for them before their CL match. Maccabi Haifa can't do much against them as long as Juventus keep a dominant game throughout the match. I believe they will get a comfortable win by at least 2 goals but I didn't want to increase the risk by adding -1.5 handicap for them.

https://www.marca.com/en/football/manchester-city/2022/07/05/62c4326846163f936b8b45bb.html

This source says that Haaland has a release clause on some terms. He can be bought for 200m euros as of 2024 and this amount will go down to 175m euros as of 2025.

Truthfully I believe that some specific teams would be willing to pay for his release clause in 2024 and wouldn't wait for another year just for a 25m euro discount. Teams like Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and PSG are the first teams that come to my mind as likely teams to make this offer. Real Madrid would like to bring a solid striker in place of Benzema as he is getting very old. Bayern Munich are already in need of a striker. If they don't find a proper striker until then, they can go for Haaland. As for PSG, they might also think of signing him depending on the situation of the trio in that year.

Perez of course deserved the win considering his amazing performance during the whole race. However I think the penalty given to him was not right. It should have been more than only a 5-second penalty. FIA's actions are helping Red Bull quite much this season and this is making people uncomfortable as a result. We all know of course that Red Bull still has the fastest car on the grid but they must finish every race without this kind of suspicions.

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By the way I've heard some things about Red Bull's punishment for exceeding budget. It is the same for Aston Martin also though. According to some rumours the punishments will be like this:

- €7.5m fine
- Spending less time in wind tunnel

This is like a joke to me honestly. I think that this deserves a bigger punishment because these teams gained more advantage for themselves by spending more money. Now they are just saying that these teams will spend less time for analyzing their new upgrades etc. from now on. This isn't a huge punishment at all.