It is a week since Liverpool ended their 30-year title drought and as they prepare to face Manchester City as champions, I am yet to unhook myself from the intoxicating red rush of eulogising articles, videos, podcasts and social media content I have been mainlining ever since. If it is going to be another 30 years until the next title win I am taking in everything, even grainy footage of Jürgen Klopp gegenpressing the hell out of a dance floor like a man six tequilas into his daughter’s wedding reception.
I should point out that, Like the vast majority of Liverpool’s estimated 700 million supporters around the world, I am not a Liverpudlian. Indeed, I grew up in Wollongong, New South Wales, and now live in Melbourne, Victoria. About as…
Newcastle United saw off AFC Wimbledon with little fuss as Fabian Schar s penalty sealed a 1-0 win in the EFL Cup.
Tuesday s tie was rearranged and moved to St James Park following flooding damage at the Dons home ground last week.
And despite relying on a spot-kick from Schar in first-half stoppage time to get over the line, Newcastle never looked in danger of offering the lower-league visitors a sniff of an upset.
Miguel Almiron won the penalty after he was fouled by Joe Pigott, though referee Darren Bond needed a lengthy consultation with his assistant before he pointed to the spot.
Fab sends us into the fourth round of the Carabao Cup
— Newcastle United FC (@NUFC)
Almiron, Sean Longstaff and Harvey Barnes could have added to Newcas…
Toni Kroos says he is not feeling nostalgic about the possibility of his career ending on Friday when Germany face Spain in the Euro 2024 quarter-finals.
Kroos came out of international retirement to play for Germany on home soil at the European Championships, but announced in May that he would be retiring from football at the end of the tournament.
The German won LaLiga before earning a sixth Champions League title in his farewell game for Real Madrid and is now aiming to finish his career by lifting the Euros trophy for the first time.
With a place in the next round not guaranteed, Kroos could play his final game on Friday should Germany lose to Spain, but that is not something he is thinking about.
It is the second most important title you can win, an…
Bayern Munich are again the team to beat in the Bundesliga in 2017-18, as Carlo Ancelotti bids to lead the champions to a sixth consecutive title with a re-shuffled squad.
Meanwhile, closest rivals Borussia Dortmund and RB Leipzig have kept hold of their star strikers, with bridging the gap their target.
Leon Goretzka has stayed at Schalke after shining at the Confederations Cup, as Domenico Tedesco s men look to return to the upper echelons of the top flight.
Here, we examine five players to watch out for in the Bundesliga this season.
JAMES RODRIGUEZ
James Rodriguez s stock has taken a hit since Zinedine Zidane took over at Real Madrid. The attacking midfielder, who burst onto the global scene at the World Cup in 2014 and impressed in…
Quite possibly one of the most evenly matched group in this year s competition is bound to offer premium excitement throughout the campaign. Heavily reinforced Manchester United will be eager to impress after missing the 2014/2015 season, while Bundesliga high-flyers Wolfsburg aim to prove they can cope with the departure of Kevin De Bruyne. Chances are that both CSKA Moscow and PSV Eindhoven will harbour hopes to reach the next stage, with the race for the top two positions set to go to the wire.
Outright Tips
Market: Group Betting
Tip: Manchester United to Win Group B
Odds:
Manchester United reached the group stage via the play-offs, but the 7-1 aggregate win over Club Brugge proved the Red Devils are very motivated to prove their worth in Europe s top competition…
Germany s hot-shot striker Lukas Podolski, one of the stars of Euro 2008, is set to transfer from Bayern Munich to Cologne for 15 million euros (23.5 million US dollars), according to media reports here Wednesday.
Both Sport-Bild and Sport1.de websites claim the 23-year-old, who scored three goals at Euro 2008 for finalists Germany, is set to re-join newly-promoted Cologne, from where he broke into the national team in 2004.
Having joined Bundesliga champions Bayern for 10 million euros (15.7 million US dollars) after the 2006 World Cup, Podolski failed to make his mark in Munich.
He spent most of last season on the bench behind first-choice strikers Luca Toni and Miroslav Klose and was not shy about voicing his frustrations.
Both Premier League side…
Dejan Lovren believes Croatia showed the world – including former team-mate Mohamed Salah – they were not lucky at Russia 2018 by returning to the World Cup quarter-finals on Monday.
Croatia reached the final of the previous tournament, losing 4-2 to France, although they had to go through penalty shoot-outs against Denmark and Russia, then extra time against England.
Lovren and his team-mates advanced to the last eight at Qatar 2022 by defeating Japan, again relying on spot-kicks as Dominik Livakovic made three saves in a 3-1 shoot-out success.
Despite the nature of the victory, the centre-back felt his side had proven a point.
How? Why? Maybe it is written in the stars that Croatia need to go like this, Lovren said. We need to suffer. Without suffe…
The Carolina Panthers attempt to rid the nasty taste of their first loss of the NFL season in Week 5, taking on another NFC East opponent in the Philadelphia Eagles.
The NFL betting odds have Carolina as a 4-point home favorite but early play on Philadelphia is starting to slim that spread midway through the week. The Panthers defense had some holes poked in it by Dallas last weekend while the Eagles succumbed in a shootout with Kansas City.
Here are our NFL free picks and predictions for Eagles at Panthers on October 10.
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The New York Giants have not one, but two picks in the Top 10 of the 2022 NFL Draft and you can expect the new regime in New York to address their two biggest needs on this roster: offensive line and edge rusher.
Luckily, for the G-Men, if there was any year where having two Top picks would benefit building up the trenches, this would be it. But with so many unknowns heading into this draft, who exactly those players are can be difficult to figure out.
With the event in Las Vegas just days away, we try to make sense of the madness with our New York Giants mock draft — to go with our full NFL mock draft — and best bets based on 2022 NFL Draft odds.