I want to make clear from the beginning that the blogger has never placed any bets in the past, and therefore will not do it in the future for any reason.....He follows a saying, "who's drinking gets drunk, and who's gambling...loses" !
Thus, he expresses his own opinion in all his forecasts.
In any case, he has the right as a person very familiar to most sports, to help you in that period of time, to have a clear picture of how things look ahead of the upcoming evolutions in the two main sports : Football ad Basketball.
FOOTBALL : UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE.
To my EYE, strong candidates for a successful course, should be: Real Madrid, Barcelona, Manchester City, Chelsea, Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund. All six of them, look one step ahead of the others. Huge budgets, great history, (at least three of them), super coaches, to name a fiew of their advantage. But because many will depend on the draw for the final 8, I have to include two more teams : Paris S.Germain and Arsenal. Not to forget, if I have to predict two outsiders, those latter could easily be Atletico Madrid and Bayer Levercusen.
Now if you ask me to make a shorter list, not ignoring the imponderable factors (injuries, red cards etc.), I have a preference for Manchester City and Real Madrid. ATTENTION : A lot will depend on the crosses......
BASKETBALL : FIBA EUROLEAGUE.
Here things look simpler. We have six candidates for the final 4 !
Real Madrid, Barcelona, Cska Moscow, Fenerbahtche, Olympiakos and Panathinaikos.
I believe it's practically useless to give an outsider, if you insist though, Malaga would be my choice.
Now, if we want to shorten the list, I would go for a final 4 of Real Madrid, Olympiakos, Fenerbahce and Barcelona.
Unless they cross in the semis, Olympiakos and Fenerbahce (although a completetely new team ), will probably form the final.
ON THE BOTTOM LINE : Olympiakos Piraeus, is ready to defend his title for a third consecutive time (3pit) and set an impossible record to beat......
