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.

Some of these odds are really unfair to me. Because Verstappen has a really difficult job actually as he is starting from way back of the grid. But he is the most favoured driver to win the Belgian GP. I would rather seeing Sainz in his place as he is the most likely driver to win the race in normal conditions. Verstappen can reach podium in fact but it is hard to wait for more than that. He might need even safety cars to make it to top somehow. And he might need Ferrari's help by making bad decisions also. 

So I think Sainz's 3.10 odd is tempting to place a bet. Maybe even Hamilton could be given a chance at 13.00 but it seems really hard for him. Mercedes drivers weren't too impressive in qualifying session. However technically Hamilton is more advantageous than even Verstappen for now as he is starting at upper positions. 

It has been another interesting day in the EPL. Maybe most of us were confident about Liverpool to win today but their beginning to the season was creating question marks about their match. But they had just one of their most impressive matches in the recent times. A 9-0 victory should be enough for boosting their morale.  

The most interesting part of this match could be this:



It was like everyone performed great in this huge win except Salah. He had zero contribution to this incredible win by goals or assists. It must be a nightmare for the people who have chosen Salah in FPL. 

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Manchester City - Crystal Palace can be the weirdest match so far. Crystal Palace had 2 goal attempts in the first half and both of them ended by goals. But Manchester City got rid of this shock in the second half professionally. They gave zero chance to their opponent and crushed them by 4 goals. Haaland is the top scorer by 6 goals in the league after making a delightful hat-trick in this one.

Manchester City are really never giving up for two weeks even though they are getting behind by two goals. They are somehow managing to make a comeback. I think this effort deserves to be respected.

Considering the current teams in the group stage, I think that Villarreal and West Ham are the closest teams to become the champions.

Villarreal can even be the biggest favourite team. Their journey in the Champions League was incredible last season. We watched them eliminate top tier teams like Juventus and Bayern Munich and reach the semi final. Now they are in a really good shape too so not much thing changed about them. However it is up to how much they will care about this tournament as well. Because they can qualify for the Europa League by having a good season in the La Liga too. It isn't the toughest job for them. If the prize was joining the Champions League then I wouldn't doubt their performance here.

This is the best and worst races for the drivers during the season so far. DNFs aren't included by the way.

When we look at this statistics we can clearly see that Russell is really the "Mr Consistency".    Mercedes must be very satisfied with his performance even though they started the season with a very weak car. Even Hamilton couldn't do better than him at first. It is for sure that Russell is going to be Mercedes' main driver after Hamilton retires. Ricciardo is one of the most unsuccessful drivers of this season. We aren't going to see him at McLaren next season as it seems. While I was waiting for him to sign for Alpine some news related to Haas came out indeed. But with whom will he be replaced at Haas?

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There was a red flag out in FP3 after Leclerc had an accident by losing control. I hope there is no problem with the car right before qualifying.

I think that it might be nice to have a poll for the champion of this season here. 

Maybe the Liga Portugal doesn't attract the attention of most people as much as the biggest leagues like the EPL. But I love to follow the nice competition between Porto, Sporting and Benfica here. This league doesn't have so many qualified teams which is a minus for it. But at least the championship race is exciting.

There was a significant change in Benfica's performance from the 20/21 season to 21/22. Porto and Sporting left them way behind in the standings. The league has been under the dominance of Porto - Sporting duo for three seasons. However this season might be different. Considering the first three matches, I see a stronger Benfica while Sporting are struggling. Sporting had two difficult matches against Porto and Braga of course but they should still have done better than getting only one point in total.

I'd like to share my opinion about the groups of the teams in my country. I mean Fenerbahce and Trabzonspor.

Fenerbahce meet Dynamo Kyiv again after the unpleasant rendezvous in the Champions League. However I strongly believe that things will be different in this group. It was only the start of the season when Fenerbahce were eliminated by them. Now Jorge Jesus has brought the team to a better level. We are watching a team that are very productive about scoring lately. It's time to have revenge on Dynamo Kyiv also. Rennes are the toughest team to defeat for them but I think Fenerbahce can get four points from them at least. They can finish the group as the leader.

When it comes to Trabzonspor's group it is even easier. Monaco are the only team that can make difficulties for them. But they haven't started the season nicely in the Ligue 1 also. Trabzonspor should also be able to advance to next stage by finishing second in the worst case.

After having very positive results in the first weeks PSG are given a very low odd for the Monaco match like 1.05. Considering the first weeks Monaco were lacking their performance of the previous season. Actually they didn't have a very good start then too but they recovered after leaving the middle of the season behind. In this transfer window they have signed good players like Minamino, Embolo and Sarr. They might need some time to get better with their new transfers so I see this as a comfortable match for PSG. Their previous match here ended by a 2-0 win for PSG but this time it might even be a win by a bigger goal difference. Because Mbappe, Neymar and Messi all are playing very consistently these days.

Considering that PSG conceded 3 goals in their last 2 matches, both teams to score might be a good choice to bet on as well.

Galatasaray are having active days in the transfer market these days. They are reported to be still after Mauro Icardi. He hasn't played for PSG in the new season yet. He is just a substitute player for Mbappe now so PSG seem willing to sell him. The only problem might be related to finance for Galatasaray. Icardi's current wage at PSG is 9.6 million euros. Together with his transfer fee, he might cost Galatasaray too much as they have spent so much money already.

If they don't manage to finish this deal they will go for a domestic player who is Umut Bozok. He was the most scorer of the Super League by 20 goals last season. But he's never played for a big team yet. I have doubts about what he can do at Galatasaray as a result. One thing is certain that Galatasaray need to make the right transfer for this position because they are still relying on Gomis despite transferring Seferovic.

https://www.transfermarkt.com.tr/galatasarayda-transfer-gundemi-s%C4%B1cak-icardi-bozok/view/news/410166

I think that it was a logical risk to take for Verstappen. Because he is already 80 points ahead of Leclerc in the championship race while there are 9 races left. We watched Verstappen even winning the race despite starting from the 10th position in the last race. Even if he doesn't win he can reach podium at least.

By this news I'm more confident about a Leclerc win here but I still don't trust Ferrari's strategies.    They sometimes are doing a really good job like they did in the Austria GP but they screw things up most of the time. I expect them to make some substantial changes in their crew at the end of the season otherwise next season wouldn't be very different for Ferrari.

Maybe it is time for a revenge for Barcelona against Bayern Munich.    I would like to remind you that Barcelona got really embarrassing results against them in the past. But there is a brand new Barcelona under Xavi's management at the moment. Maybe they don't have a Messi anymore but Xavi has made a big progress about applying a strong system to the team. Having Lewandowski by their side also can be a big advantage for them. Lewandowski wasn't very happy about his last days at Bayern Munich before coming here. So maybe he can use this as a motivation to score against them in both group matches.

Maybe it isn't as tough as Group C but I think that Group H is also a quite challenging one. It shouldn't be forgotten that Benfica are always assertive in the Champions League group stage.