With under eight months until the 2022 World Cup gets underway in Qatar, 17 of the 32 participants are yet to be confirmed.
Familiar heavyweights like Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, France, England and Germany have already sealed their places, but some other significant names still have a question mark over their participation later this year.
We are at the play-off mark in the UEFA and CAF regions, while group stages head towards conclusions in the AFC, CONCACAF and CONMEBOL sections.
It is a crucial point of the season at club level, but players must temporarily move their minds to their national sides as it is make-or-break for some of those still competing in qualifiers at this late stage.
Here, Stats Perform runs through how qualifying is looking…
Bayer Leverkusen cruised to a 4-0 win over Feyenoord upon their return to the Champions League, but head coach Xabi Alonso said the result did not come easy.
Florian Wirtz s brace along with Alex Grimaldo s strike and Timon Wellenreuther s own-goal handed Leverkusen a comfortable advantage at the break.
The Bundesliga champions netted four goals in the first half of a game in a major European competition for just the third time after doing so twice in 1994 against PSV Eindhoven (4-2 HT) and GKS Katowice (4-0 HT).
Alonso s side also became the first away team to lead by four goals at half-time of a Champions League game since Bayern Munich led 4-0 at Viktoria Plzen in 2022.
Despite the scoreline suggesting a comfortable outing for Leverkusen, Alonso cred…
Pep Guardiola has clarified that he has not decided to leave Manchester City at the end of his contract in 2023, but confirmed he will take a break when his period at the club comes to an end.
Guardiola seemingly declared that he next two years would be his last at the Etihad Stadium this week when speaking at an XP Investimentos event. The former Barcelona and Bayern Munich coach spoke of his desire to coach a national team.
After seven years at this team, I think I m going to have to stop, he said. I m going to have to take a break, see what we ve done, and review inspirations.
And in the process, I would like to coach a national team – South American, European, playing a Copa America; I want to have that experience.
However, in a media confere…
MLS has altered its playoff format, introducing series for the first round similar to those seen in other American sports.
Like the NFL, the NBA, MLB and the NHL, MLS has always used a postseason format to decide its annual champions.
But from the coming season, which kicks off this weekend, it will follow in the footsteps of basketball, baseball and hockey with a further tweak.
For the first round of the playoffs – after the wild card matches – teams will play best-of-three series.
These will involve eight teams from each conference, including the winners of the wild card matches between the eighth and ninth seeds.
Again following the lead of the NBA, MLB and the NHL, every game in the series must have a winner, with penalties required if the…
Massimiliano Allegri says Juventus are a different beast to the one who stumbled in the Champions League final two years ago and he will accept nothing but victory against Real Madrid on Saturday.
As they will be in Cardiff, Juve sought a treble when they faced Barcelona in Berlin, but they were left dented by a 3-1 defeat.
Allegri freely admits that his side then had not reached the final out of expectation, but he says with a sixth straight Serie A title and the Coppa Italia in the bag that this year feels much different.
He told a news conference: In 2015 we got to the final but at the same time we were not strongly motivated, we were not confident enough because we had lots of years of struggle in the Champions League.
We certainly didn t end up in …
Middlesbrough announced they had sacked Gareth Southgate as manager on this day in 2009.
Southgate was appointed as Steve McClaren’s successor just weeks after captaining Boro in their UEFA Cup final defeat to Sevilla in 2006, his final match as a player.
The former England defender kept the club in the Premier League with 12th and 13th-placed finishes but Boro slipped into the second tier in 2009.
Southgate’s dismissal came just hours after the Teessiders ended a run of three successive home defeats with a 2-0 victory against Derby, which left them one point off the top of the Championship table.
In a statement released on the club website, chairman Steve Gibson said: “This has been the most difficult decision I have had to make in all the time I h…
When building same-game parlays, it’s important to build a proper narrative and then make corresponding picks. The Buffalo Bills were blown out at home by the Colts on Sunday and the coaching staff has been very vocal this week leading up to New Orleans Saints. The ball will be in the hands of Josh Allen, but it is his running ability that provides a better same game parlay shot.
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Two underperforming NFC West teams will collide on Sunday when the Arizona Cardinals host the Los Angeles Rams at State Farm Stadium.
The Cardinals rallied to get their first win against the Raiders last weekend, while the Rams held off a second-half charge from the Falcons to claim a 31-27 victory.
Each of these teams will look to build momentum with a second straight win, but only one will move to 2-1 on the season. We’ll break down who has the edge in our NFL picks and predictions for Rams vs. Cardinals on September 25.
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The Cleveland Browns have a quick turnaround in Week 3, trying to put a bad loss on Monday night and a crushing injury to star RB Nick Chubb behind them in time to tackle the Tennessee Titans.
The Browns were scrambling to fill the huge hole in their backfield, losing Chubb for the season after that gruesome knee injury against the Steelers in Week 2 (do yourself a favor and don’t look it up). They quickly signed former RB Kareem Hunt earlier in the week, which gives them an instant option on the ground.
But it’s the Cleveland defense that can save the day against Tennessee. New defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz has this stop unit humming through two weeks, with the Browns among the defensive elite in many advanced stats.
The Titans avoided…
The Baltimore Ravens had a long break for Thanksgiving after last playing on November 16. Now they get a prime-time matchup on Sunday Night Football in Inglewood, CA against the struggling Los Angeles Chargers.
The Ravens are slight favorites in Week 12 odds and will be looking to move to 9-3 on the season before their bye week behind the play of Lamar Jackson.
I’ve taken a closer look at the Lamar Jackson odds to give my free NFL picks for the Ravens vs. Chargers on November 26.
Be sure to keep up to date on the SNF odds and check out our Ravens vs. Chargers predictions, along with our SNF prop picks.
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