Liverpool fans must be wondering what more their team could have done after they picked up 97 points and still did not win the Premier League, yet the Reds are not alone in coming up just short in a title race despite performing superbly.

Jurgen Klopp s side won 30 of their 38 matches and lost just once, only to miss out on the title by one point as Pep Guardiola s Manchester City retained the trophy on Sunday.

Liverpool s 97-point haul is the best accrued by a team that has finished second in the Premier League s 20-club era.

But how does it compare to other runners-up in Europe s major leagues, who racked up the points but still finished without winners medals?

1 Liverpool became the first team in top-flight history to win as many as 30 games an…

Ivory Coast midfielder Yaya Toure has been awarded the 2011 African Player of the Year at a ceremony in Ghana s capital, Accra, on Thursday.

The Manchester City player, who has had an impressive season, edged out Mali s Seydou Keita and Andre Ayew of Ghana to clinch the coveted football award of the continent.

Keita, who plays for Spanish giants Barcelona, came second leaving the youngest contender Ayew of Marseille with the second runners-up spot.

Toure, during the year under review, helped City win the English FA Cup by scoring the final goal against Stoke City.

After leaving Barcelona, Toure has become one of the most valuable players at the club with his impeccable ball control, recovery and his intelligent reading of the game.

He was also…

In the age of instant information and deep-dive data, more and more bettors are turning to advanced analytics and computer modelling to point out their weekly NFL betting picks. 

While those methods can make money, they’re not foolproof and can often struggle to account for the physiological aspects of sports. And as the 2021 NFL schedule grinds on, those unique situational angles hold more weight when it comes to handicapping your wagers.

We’re talking about spot bets — letdowns, lookaheads, and schedule spots — for NFL Week 15 odds.

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We’ve reached the midway mark of the NFL season. Take a look at your bankroll. How’s it doing?

If your stack is even a little fatter than it was back in Week 1 — great work! You must be getting the best of the number more often than not when it comes to betting on the weekly NFL odds.

But if your bankroll is shriveled and dying like a jack-o-lantern on November 1, there’s some fine-tuning you can do with your bets — like recognizing the best times of the week to wager in order to support your opinion with a spread or total that does it justice. 

I help you do just that, showcasing a few NFL Week 9 odds to bet now and spreads and total to bet later.

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The 8-5 Cleveland Browns look to keep rolling as they host the Chicago Bears in NFL action on Sunday. The Bears are at the bottom of the NFC North with a 5-8 record but have turned things around lately with Justin Fields trying to prove that he can be their franchise quarterback.

NFL odds have the Browns installed as a soft 3-point favorite with the Over/Under at 38.5 for this Week 15 clash. Here are my best free NFL picks and predictions for Bears vs. Browns on Sunday, December 17.

Bears vs Browns odds

Bears vs Browns predictions

The Chicago Bears are coming a 28-13 win against the Detroit Lions which improved their record to 3-2 straight up and 4-0-1 against the spread in their last five games. The Cleve…

The preseason finale between the Chicago Bears and Kansas City Chiefs won’t feature many — if any — starters Thursday night and there have been big moves in the market ahead of this contest.

The Bears have impressed with three straight preseason wins while outscoring their opponents 81-26. Head coach Matt Eberflus is now 7-2 straight up and against the spread in exhibition action.

With Chicago’s strong defense and the Under hitting in 26 of the first 33 preseason games this year, the total for this game has dropped considerably, much to the delight of our Bears vs. Chiefs predictions and NFL picks below.

Bears vs Chiefs prediction

My best betOver 32 (-108 at Pinnacle)

My analysisThis total opened at 36 at …

Goals from Lukas Klostermann and Nils Petersen were enough for Germany to set-up an Olympic gold medal match against hosts Brazil at the Maracana as they overcame Nigeria 2-0 in the semi-final of the Rio 2016 men s football tournament.

In a tense affair at Sao Paulo s Arena Corinthians on Wednesday, it was Horst Hrubesch s side who took the lead early on in proceedings, Max Meyer picking out full-back Klostermann, who duly rolled home his finish from six yards out.

Germany survived a scare moments later, however, as a calamitous error from goalkeeper Timo Horn allowed Aminu Umar a clear sight on goal, but the Osmanlispor forward could only drill a tame effort straight at the backpedalling German shot-stopper.

Matters perhaps should have been made worse for Nigeri…

Croatia need to put together a much more convincing performance against Euro 2008 co-favourites Germany here on Thursday if they are to really reflect the confidence their coach Slaven Bilic has that they can win the title.

Croatia did win their first match but the manner of their 1-0 win over co-hosts Austria was laboured to say the least with bizarrely several of their players looking jaded by the start of the second-half and a similar performance against the Germans could result in a real hammering.

The Germans looked alert and sharp in their 2-0 victory over Poland, with Polish-born Lukas Podolski grabbing a brace and showing once again that he is the man for the big stage.

Bilic, though, is convinced that his young side will step up to the plate and that…

Paris Saint-Germain have their Ligue 1 crown back after Sunday s stunning 7-1 victory wrested the championship from Monaco, but the inevitability of this triumph coupled with their inability to meet expectations in Europe makes it something of a damp squib.

Club president Nasser Al-Khelaifi famously said in 2013, following a quarter-final elimination at the hands of Barcelona, that PSG s aim was to win the Champions League in the next five years .

While detractors can say such a bold and ambitious statement cause unwanted pressure for players and coaches, the fact it came from Al-Khelaifi meant it was on him as well.

PSG s transfer business at the start of the season gave every indication Al-Khelaifi was not going to accept failure on his pledge, as Neymar arriv…

The 2008-09 season has come to an end and it is time to look at who has been hot and who hasn’t in this season’s EPL.

Hot club

The trophy winners were Manchester United in the Premier League and Carling Cup and Chelsea in the FA Cup. Other notable performances came from Everton, reaching the FA Cup final and finishing fifth in the league again, Liverpool, making a real challenge for the Premier League title for the first time in a long while, Aston Villa making good progress and Hull and Stoke staying in the Premier League.

Also worthy of a mention are Fulham for qualifying for the Europa league after only escaping relegation on the last day on goal difference just one season before. That was a remarkable performance.

The winne…