The match between Inter Milan and AS Roma is the most interesting match this week, and is also very crucial because it is at stake for the top position in the standings. In terms of chances, Inter Milan indeed deserves to be more favored, considering their better head to head record and the advantage of playing at home. However, AS Roma 17-match unbeaten record cannot be underestimated. It is possible that the match will end in a draw, and it is possible that AS Roma will make a surprise.
I think Simone Inzaghi must be wise enough in determining his starting XI in the match, I think it would be too risky to make a lot of rotations, because we know the match against Barcelona in the Champions League semifinals is much more important. Inter Milan will enter the match with slightly greater pressure, but on many occasions they have almost always been reliable.
Inter Milan did knocked out Bayern Munich out of champions league but after the second leg, they have had two loses in a row. The first against Bologna in the league and the next against AC Milan in Coppa Italia. Now they are playing against another stronger team Roma. A loss today means Napoli would have better chances to take the lead on the league and a lost morale would make it difficult for them to play against Barcelona which is already a tough game for them. The current loss streak may devoid inter of all important trophies even though being on the league top for months. |
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Last nights Copa del rey was entertaining with a lot of drama and surprises. Barcelona is doing well even in the absence of Lewandowski. The last minute offside controversy created some drama at the end. Real Madrid lost a chance to get a conciliatory cup as well. Real Madrid is now second to Barcelona in every aspects this season. If Barcelona can win Real Madrid, I believe they'd also win against Inter Milan even if Lewandowski is not fit to play by than.
Real Madrid's fall is visible compared to their last season but the team has gone through even worse times, It's no shame in losing just to a strong team like Barcelona at the moment.
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Very tight match at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium between Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Rajasthan Royals. Royals need another 18 runs in 12 balls. Bhuvneshwar Kumar is being quite expensive, conceding 50 runs from his 4 overs. His last over (18th over of the match went for 22 runs), as he was smacked all around the park by Shubham Dubey and Dhruv Jurel. At the moment, Royals seems to have an advantage, and the win predictor puts them at a 83% chance of winning the match.
In a high scoring and nerve wrecking match, Rajasthan Royals failed to chase the target of 206 set by RCB. RR needed 18 runs from 12 balls with 5 wickets remaining but they failed. The 19th over was decisive. Rajasthan would have won it easily but the 19th over bowled by Josh Hazlewood changed the fortune for RCB, Hazlewood gave just 1 run and took 3 wickets. The 20th over too was on pressure but Yash Dayal denied RR any chance and took 2 more wickets. The game shows how a single over could change the fortune of the teams. |
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If this can be resolved, for Real Madrid's star players (Vini, Mbappe, Rodrygo, and Bellingham) to play as a team rather than individually, I believe Real Madrid's performance will improve than it was.
However, the new coach that Real Madrid will employ the moment Ancelotti leaves Real Madrid will address that, for the 4-star players of Real Madrid not to continue playing individual players. Funny enough, Real Madrid is likely not lifting a trophy this year.
Real Madrid has always came stronger specially in last few decades they are not away from trophies for long. There's not much that's hurting the club, there are no economic difficulties or controversies on the club, they have some of the best players, what they need is a proper way of forming them on a team. Which would be the prime task for the new manager. Real Madrid ended the last season with champions league and La Liga trophy and they added more star players but failed to perform as good this season. They are still good with 2nd position probably till the last of the season and with whom they are losing it, is also a great team with a much more balanced team. |
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Sunrise Hyderabad did not bat well today, they failed to play as I expected. The top order batsmen did a very poor batting performance due to which Sunrise Hyderabad finished their game for 143 runs. T. Boult did a great bowling performance due to which Hyderabad failed to score runs under pressure today. However, Mumbai Indians started batting very well with their top order batsmen, Rohit Sharma is in great batting form in this match like in the last match, he might take today's team to victory. Since Mumbai Indians still have enough wickets, they have lost only two wickets but they still have enough good batsmen, so they can easily meet the target of 144 runs.
SRH is playing consistently bad. They are the ones making excessively high scores or very low scores mostly depending upon whether Travis Head was playing longer or not. But considering the low scoring from Travis Head and a duck for today, SRH has lost most of its recent games and is heading towards the bottom of the table. Mumbai Indians too was suffering from low performance by some of its star players but with Rohit Sharma now back in action, their win rate has increased. Surya Kumar Yadav had been one of the most consistent player in this season but it were not supported by other batsmen in past. But MI has now taken 4 consecutive wins to reach towards the top of the table. |
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Another win for Delhi and now they have placed themselves in a strong position. Batting first, Lucknow made only 159, a low score in IPL standard. The opening of Lucknow was fine, even though the run rate was a bit lower, the opening batsmen set a good score without losing a wicket which gave later batsmen to bat aggressively. But they failed on the later stage where they kept losing wicket while were not able to increase the run rate.
Delhi chasing a small target went all in and played aggressively to win with 2 overs and 8 wickets. Delhi along with Gujrat are now in top 2 with 10 points but the point difference is still too narrow and anything can happen in next 6 games.
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Real Madrid victory over Bilbao made the gap with Barcelona back to 4 points, in the remaining 6 matches, anything is still possible. Barcelona must appear more aggressive in the remaining matches this season, they will face at least 3 strong opponents, Real Madrid, Villarreal and Bilbao.
Barcelona must be able to win the next two games against Mallorca and Valladolid so that they do not feel pressured when facing Real Madrid, if that scenario happens, then their chances of winning the La Liga trophy are very big.
Barcelona will definitely try to apply full concentration to the remaining matches in La Liga this season because it is very important for Barcelona who are eyeing the La Liga trophy for this season. In addition, of the three tough opponents that Barcelona will face in the remainder of this season, Barcelona will try not to lose in the three tough matches and will try to win in the other three matches where the opponents are not too tough for Barcelona. But I am quite sure that the quality of Barcelona's players this season can definitely bring Barcelona to the much-coveted trophy. Barcelona match schedule is still very tight for the rest of the season, at least they still have 9 matches in all competitions (not including 1 additional match if they qualify for the UCL final). The schedule really drains the energy of Barcelona players, especially since they have to face Real Madrid twice (La Liga and CDR Final). Hansi Flick must be able to maintain the quality of Barcelona game to maintain the chance of winning the Treble winner, but Lewandowski injury has forced the coach to think hard about finding a replacement. He is expected to be out for 3 weeks and will miss 6 important games including against Real Madrid and Inter Milan. Let's see how they get through it. If Lewandowski misses the matches for the rest of the season, it could be a difficult situation for Barcelona. Specially when they have important matches ahead. They can't lose points on La Liga as Real Madrid is too close and Champions League semifinals and Copa Del rey finals are one of the largest achievement clubs play for. Each of the upcoming matches are as important as finals, In todays match, Mallorca can't be underestimated as they too are performing great. The next is Copa del rey final and 1st leg of semis against Inter Milan. All of which is nearly confirmed to be missed by Lewandowski. But I believe he'd be ready for action for the 2nd leg and the subsequent league match against Real Madrid. |
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Kolkata is under some pressure after losing quick wickets. Kolkata's Sangha is 29 runs in 4 overs. If Kolkata cannot collect 80+ in 10 overs, then it will become much more difficult for Kolkata to win this match.
Agreee. If they cannot collect more than 80 in 10 overs, Kolkata will naturally come under pressure. At the end of 9 overs, Kolkata has managed to collect 61 runs for the loss of two wickets. Kolkata has collected at an average of 6.7 runs per over. Now to win, Kolkata will have to collect 138 runs in 66 balls. Kolkata will have to collect more than 12 runs per over. This is very difficult. Kolkata is batting against a big target. If the top order cannot bat well, it is difficult to win against a big target. Captain Ajinkya Rahane is at the crease after collecting 29 runs. However, Rahane has collected 29 runs from 25 balls. If you want to win against a target of 199 runs, it is impossible to win by batting so slowly. I don't like the batting of Kolkata batsmen. You can't expect to win by batting like that. Gujarat's total was 162 runs after 17 overs. On the other hand, Kolkata's total was 124 runs for 7 wickets. I was most annoyed by Iyer's batting. He batted very slowly at a very important time. And that's why Kolkata fell behind. Iyer batted at a strike rate of 73. It is impossible for Kolkata to win this match. Now Kolkata's batsmen are trying to reduce the margin of defeat. They lost by 39 runs at the end. 199 is a huge target to chase. For GT, the opening pair Sai Sudharsan and Shubman Gill created a solid 114 runs partnership that enabled them to keep hitting till last ball. On the other hand, KKR kept losing wickets in regular interval making the run rate suffer and ever rise. Gujrat has been more consistent with their game are now reached the table top alongside with Delhi Capitals. |
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Nottingham have chance break to 4th standings position if can take three points today from Spurs behind 57 points awhile and the fourth position standings filled by Manchester City with 58 points.
Nottingham Forest efforts to re-enter the Champions League zone will not be easy, because Tottenham is also ambitious to secure full points in order to improve their position in the standings. Looking at the percentage of chances, I also think it seems that this match will end in a draw. It's going to be an interesting match, the both teams have a target, Tottenham is escaping relegation while NFFC wants to be in the champions league list. Forest moving from 3rd down to 6th position is terrible, the competition is tough now, Chelsea and Man City happened to be more competent in filling up the champions league positions. However, Tottenham is likely to win Forest, but if they dont Nottingham would get back to third position. Nottingham and Tottenham are one game less than everyone else. That mean the real position of Nottingham would be decided at the end of today's match. A win for Nottingham means they would rise to 3rd position straight. Nottingham Forest had been performing much better than Tottenham the whole season and I don't see any reason why they would lose to Tottenham in this particular game. Tottenham is not in a danger for relegation. The bottom three teams have a good negative margin to save other teams out of relegation. |
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Another one-sided game on Super Sunday in IPL 2025 as CSK fail to do anything challenging for MI which is currently going to win against them with thumbing margin Rohit Sharma and SKY hitting all around with their skills while CSK bowlers are clueless in this game.
11 sixes and 10 fours in 111 runs partnership between these as they end this game too early with this big win now MI is having good NRR which is also going to be helpful at the end. All bowlers were badly punished by MI batsmen in this game just veteran Ashwin had some decent figures which keep him in safe zone Ravindra Jadeja is only wicket taker in this inning of MI now tomorrow KKR is going to host GT at Eden Garden Kolkata things could be interesting KKR want to bring their good form back and GT want to stay at the top.
It's good to see Rohit Sharma getting some form back. MI now have won three consecutive matches. Many people had high hopes from this team and they were failing to deliver considering how many star players they have on the team. The target was not huge. Chennai had a slow start and they didn't increased the pace much in later stage. Even though they still had 5 wickets in hand, They failed to reach 200. On the other hand, MI didn't held back while chasing the score. They could have gone through a slower run rate and still would have won it but chose to do it quick and win the game in 16th over. Run rate too is going to matter if there's equal point in later stage so its good to gain net run rate. MI won it with 9 wickets, Rohit Sharma making 76 and Suryakumar Yadav 68. This places MI on 6th position. |
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It's really pathetic, how it is even possible to lose the game from such strong position and back to back.  I thought RR registered their win, when they were too comfortable to chase down with few balls to spare but when I was checking the score around 11:30 the story repeats. I won't blame Sandeep Sharma, bowlers going for runs and it becomes a point of debate only because of their pathetic batting performance. Just 9 runs required on last over and they had 6 wickets in hand. They should have gone for the larger shots instead of taking singles and doubles. If they had gone for large shot and just a half of it went to boundary and half of them were wickets than too they would have won. They should not have been comfortable with singles and doubles in 17th and 18th over as well. Dragging the game to last over brings risks. A loss of 2 runs but now the points difference between LSG and RR is huge. As we already are through the halfway of the league, RR is already in danger zone and would be very difficult for them to rise to playoffs. |
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Of all the matches today, the most important one would be Manchester City vs Everton. Manchester City needs these 3 points. They are in tough competition with Chelsea for the champions league spot. It was 0-0 till the end of the 1st half. Even though Manchester City would be ahead of points even if they draw, they would have played 2 more games than Chelsea. Brentford, Brighton and Bournemouth had some amazing start to the league but they are back to their average positions and are in no position to challenge the top teams in the few matches remaining.
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--snipped-- It is a chance for Ange and also a chance for Amorim to win a trophy this season. I imagine that if they both get to the finals, it will be Manchester United's because of their running to that stage and the mentality they have built up. On a general note, the English teams have really represented across Europe: Arsenal, Tottenham, Manchester United, and even Chelsea. Yes, both representatives of the Premier League, Man United and Tottenham both have the opportunity to meet in the final round, because they are in different pools. However, this can happen if both are able to get optimal results in the semi-finals later. Tottenham has quite a lot of potential, only, if they are not careful, then it could be like Lazio, defeated by Bodo/Glimt who are not favored. On the other hand, Man United actually has a more competitive opponent, Athletic Club has a fairly strong lineup, with several front and midfield lines that can be quite troublesome. So, Man United must make extra efforts to be able to beat Bilbao. Athletic club has been performing pretty solid in la liga. They are almost qualified to next years Champions League. Manchester United on the other hand is doing worse than last season. IMO Athletic should win it. On the other hand, I'm not sure of what level of play Bodo is doing but its nice to see a Norwegian team this far in Europa league. I believe its the 1st time in history and I wish they win against Tottenham to reach the finals. That way we would have a new Europa champions whatever team wins. |
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Anyway, I would like to agree with you that in this message Royal Challengers Bangalore actually scored less runs than them because on average they scored 7 runs per ball while they had also loose their nine wickets. This match would have been competitive if they had not scored above 120. I will say all credit here is for the the Bowler team of Punjab kings.
Such a performance was not expected from a strong team like Bangalore. Bangalore could not even score 100 runs. The team scored only 95 runs. But the squad has world-class players like Phil Salt, Kohli and Livingstone. If Tim David had not been able to play his 50-run innings off 26 balls today, then perhaps Bangalore's innings would have stopped within 60-70 runs. However, Punjab could not dominate and win. If the target had been 120+, then the match would have been very competitive. But Bangalore's top order batted like a fool. I am very upset to see the performance of Bangalore's top order in this match. RCB wanted to get to a large score because the game was already shortened. They had 10 wickets but fewer overs and potential advantage to Punjab with DRS batting 2nd. The pitch was not as good to bat. A bad pitch with aggression led the first 6 of its batsmen to be caught out. 5 of them on single digit. Tim David alone score more than half of the team score, 50 runs in 26 balls otherwise it could have been another record. We also could see that the pitch was difficult to bat with how Punjab chased the small score. They scored at a lower pace yet lost 5 wickets. But most of the batsmen did their job and they reached the target with plenty of overs and wickets to spare. |
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Mumbai Indians' top-order batsmen have all played well consistently. This rich effort and consistent performance of everyone has brought the team to victory. IPL fans know Sunrisers Hyderabad's ability; they can enrich zero. They are the most formidable team in IPL, who can also score sky-high runs. Hardik Pandey is a truly extraordinary all-rounder.
Sun risers Hyderabad is playing consistently unpredictable. Twice they have made over 280 which is a very high score but they fail to keep the consistency when a few of its batsmen fail to perform. Similar was the case yesterday. They played the full 20 overs but couldn't score at a good run rate scoring only 162. They started slow and were not able to get the ball in the bat taking multiple dots. Mumbai on the other hand had all players score at a good run rate and even though they lose many wickets, they didn't let it slow down their pace winning the game with 4 wickets. It's too just the 3rd win for Mumbai and both of these teams are already in difficult zone for the playoff. |
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Arsenal have been underrated a lot in this champions league and am happy because the boys have been doing well by proving their worths. It's obvious that their performance in this champions league is very satisfactory and I would love to see them defeating PSG as I believe PSG wouldn't be a problem to them.
One thing is that Real Madrid recently in La Liga is not performing up to expectations and probably it also affected the club in Champions League. It was a good victory for Arsenal to win the club both home and away. But if Aston Villa can play with PSG like that, I also think Arsenal should be able to win PSG but let us see what will happen. Those two other clubs (I mean Barcelona and Inter) are very strong clubs. Even if Arsenal won and made it up to the final, it will not be easy at all because the chance to win the league is kind of little. Aston Villa gave a tough competition to PSG. Even though PSG were the team that knocked out Liverpool, Arsenal could still be a tough competitor to it. Among Barcelona and Inter Milan, I believe Barcelona are in better form. They have managed to create a overall strong team. Inter won against Bayern but Bayern was a bad performing team on league stages. Of the four semi finalist team, the three except Bayern or on the top 4. Only Liverpool is missing from that set. |
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The match going into super over was already a bad omen for Rajasthan Royals. The last 3 overs were a spectacular show for Delhi's bowling and fielding and where Rajasthan failed. The no ball four on 4th ball of super over by Starc was a miss but the subsequent run out on freehit ball and another one on consecutive ball was a stupid risk by Rajasthan. They should have rather waited for the next ball to hit a boundary. Anyway it counts two points for DC and they are solid top at the table.
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The cricket competition at the 2028 Summer Olympics has been confirmed as a 6-team event for both the genders. The International Olympic Committee has made an announcement regarding this a few days back. The tricky part is still missing. How the 6 teams would be selected is still not being answered by the IOC. And from what I have heard, there seems to be some friction between the ICC and the IOC on this regard. ICC wants teams to be selected based on their ranking, while the IOC wants a qualifying tournament to determine the same. https://www.bbc.com/sport/cricket/articles/cvg9dl0vnp7oThat's an interesting take. It's understandable that they can't host long tournaments of cricket in Olympics and 6 teams for both men and women is still a good thing as cricket is back for the 2nd time since 1900. This is a historical achievement for cricket as a sports. It's going global. They could have selected the teams through a double qualification from 2026 T20 world cup but this time it's going to be a super 8 instead of 6. Selection through rankings too would not be a good idea as we know the current ranking system has its flaws and doesn't necessarily reflect the overall global team performance. The best thing they could do is select the top 6 from the Top 8 groups in the T20 world cup by their final positions. |
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Both of today's quarterfinals 2nd leg ended with one team scoring more today while other having another team advancing to the semi finals. Aston villa vs PSG result were somewhat expected. The villa park game saw PSG holding the ball more while Aton Villa attacking more. If it were just one goal less or more in 90 minutes, the results could have been different. Dortmund vs Barcelona was least expected one but the comfortable lead from Barcelona in first leg saw them an easy entry to semis.
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In a low scoring tight contest between two equal points team, Punjab bowlers didn't lost their nerves and bowled good till the last wicket. Punjab batting first had a decent start with the openers but kept losing other players at low runs making 111 in the 16th over. Kolkata chasing a small target were expected to have an easy win but lost Narine and de Kock on first two overs. Rahane and Raghubanshi did tried to get the game back on track but they lost all their wickets making just 95 runs 16 runs less than Punjab. This put Punjab at higher points than KKR.
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