The Through Ball

Syria vs Australia First Leg Preview

Even football fans with wild imaginations would have struggled to conceive this match. Syria. A nation with no home to play in the midst of civil war, dealing with one of the worst humanitarian crises of recent times. Australia. An established continental power ever since it transferred its membership to the Asian Football Confederation.

Not many would have predicted the AFC’s pre-continental playoff to feature Syria and Australia. Yet, after an exciting Asian World Cup qualifying campaign, here we are. Syria vs Australia. Let that sink in for a moment.

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Results: EPL Picks Round 7

As Newcastle and Liverpool played out a 1-1 draw at St. James Park, Round 7 of the Premier League season came to an end. Time to tally the results against my picks. I am not particularly looking forward to this, because I didn’t accurately predict a single scoreline from this weekend’s action. Anyhow, here goes.

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EPL Picks Round 7

The last football weekend of September heralds another pause in domestic football before some crucial World Cup qualifiers. While there is plenty to look forward to on the road to Russia, there are still some tasty fixtures in the last round of domestic football before the international break. These obviously include some great matches in the Premier League. Here’s my stab at predicting the games this weekend, including the marquee clash between Chelsea and Manchester City at Stamford Bridge.

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Results: UCL Picks Matchday 2

Another interesting round of Champions League action is in the books. Hence, it is time to revisit my predictions. I clearly fell for Jose Mourinho when he said this was the best CSKA Moscow team he had ever faced. It’s also clear, that Group G is going to prove tricky for a lot of people to predict. Time to tally up.

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Borussia Dortmund 1 Real Madrid 3 Player Ratings

Real Madrid won for the first time at Borussia Dortmund, triumphing 3-1 in an entertaining game. For the neutral, the game lived up to both — its history and its hype. It has to be said, Peter Bosz’s tactical naivety was exposed, as predicted by ESPN’s Stefan Buczko. It was no surprise to see Real’s class and calmness come to the fore, as hinted by the excellent Graham Hunter. My pick for this game on the other hand, was a bit naive.

There were some excellent performances from the men in white, rather less so for the home team. Here are the ratings for all the players on the Through Ball.

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UCL Picks Matchday 2

Matchday 2 of the Champions League is almost upon us, hence it’s time for me to write down my picks. I can’t wait for this round to get started. We have some stellar games to follow including:

Borussia Dortmund vs Real Madrid
Monaco vs Porto
Besiktas vs RB Leipzig
Atletico Madrid vs Chelsea
Paris Saint-Germain vs Bayern Munich
Sporting vs Barcelona
CSKA Moscow vs Manchester United

With these games and other great action around the continent, its another difficult round of predictions. The following are my picks for all 16 matches.

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Results: PL Picks Round 6

Round 6 of the Premier League season came to an end as Arsenal eked out a somewhat fortuitous victory over West Brom. Was I as fortunate in my picks? Before revealing whether I did better than my first two attempts, I should mention that I was in a for a good haul but for some atrocious defending by Alfie Mawson at the Liberty stadium. Let’s tally the results against my picks.

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Premier League Picks: Round 6

It has been a very busy week for me, so no bells and whistles in this edition of Premier League predictions. Like most weeks, this is another tricky set of picks to get right. Consider some of the fixtures — Spurs visiting West Ham, Liverpool at Leicester, Chelsea away to Stoke and United with a tough trip to Southampton. It’s not going to be easy, but after seven points at the first attempt and eight in the second, I will take another incremental gain this time around.

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Results: Premier League Predictions Round 5

With Round 5 of the Premier League in the history books, it’s time to revisit my predictions. The aim was to do better than last time. Since I had scored only seven points then, the bar was pretty low. As is the case with predictions, a few surprises dented my total and I certainly wasn’t helped by both Manchester teams winning by emphatic margins. Let’s take a look at the predictions, with my post-game thoughts and final tally updated below the table.

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Results: Europa League Predictions Matchday 1

With Matchday 1 of the 2017/18 Europa League in the books, it’s time to revisit my predictions for the round. There were some statement wins for AC Milan, Atalanta, Arsenal, Zenit St Petersburg and Real Sociedad. Did I predict dominant wins for these teams? Let’s take a look at the table.

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