Bayern Munich forward Robert Lewandowski labelled Lionel Messi one of the best in history after the Barcelona star claimed a record sixth Ballon d Or.

Messi finished ahead of Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk and Juventus star Cristiano Ronaldo to win the award in Paris on Monday.

Lewandowski, who placed eighth, paid tribute to Messi for his dominance for more than a decade.

For sure he is a great player. I can only say congratulations to him, he told reporters.

It s not the first time for him, one of the best in history not just the last few years.

I m glad to be close to so many players because we only get to meet each other on the pitch and now this is something different.

For sure he is a great player, not just the past year but f…

The UEFA Champions League group stages finally kick-off today, but I m here to predict Manchester United and Manchester City s fixtures for tomorrow. Yesterday I predicted that Chelsea would take down Bayer Leverkusen 3-1 and Arsenal would be upset 2-1 at Borussia Dortmund today. I ll be watching closely to see if my predictions pan out, but for now, let s get to United and City.

Manchester United. v. Benfica: from Estadio da Luz, Portugal

Despite United getting off to a flying start this season, this fixture in Portugal will be a tough battle. As a result, United will have to be ready for the challenge, both mentally and physically. Patrice Evra s comments to The Independent were spot on.

We are making it look easy but nothing is, he sa…

The New York Giants head to La-La Land for a date with the Los Angeles Chargers. However, with a spread this big, bookies don’t expect a Hollywood ending. The Giants could be forced to start third-string quarterback Jake Fromm – a downtick for an offense that just can’t produce points.

Los Angeles, on the other hand, is coming off an impressive road win at Cincinnati but is one of the league’s most two-faced teams and runs the risk of a lookahead spot with a rivalry game against Kansas City looming next Thursday.

Here are our free NFL betting picks and predictions for Giants at Chargers on December 12.

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Smart football bettors don’t have just one way to handicap the NFL Week 8 odds. They layer in a number of angles and information to leave no edge unaccounted for.

Situational handicapping — also known as spot bets — is an effective way to unearth an impactful angle that advanced metrics and analytics just don’t measure. I run down the NFL Week 8 schedule and pick out the spots to watch.

Here are my best NFL spot bets: letdown, look-ahead, and schedule spots in Week 8.

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Milestone and Alt Overs are a great way to find big plus-money plays. bet365 has Milestone markets for basically every prop so bettors can look into different markets other than the standard yardage NFL player props. They also have markets for more players.

For the Week 15 odds slate, I’m picking on the Washington Commanders and their league-worst pass defense, looking for garbage-time passing from the Arizona Cardinals, and buying the dip on a running back who still dominates the carries in the Jacksonville Jaguars’ backfield. 

Before making your NFL picks, be sure to also check out Jared Hochman’s best NFL player prop bets for the action ahead.

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With the real business of Week 1 football just over 20 days away, the Seattle Seahawks and Tennessee Titans continue their preparation with a showdown at Nissan Stadium on Saturday.

Both teams are 1-0 this preseason, as Seattle picked up a win over the Chargers last weekend and Tennessee held off the 49ers. My Seahawks vs. Titans predictions and NFL picks center around a top tip for this weekend’s game.

Seahawks vs Titans prediction

My best betSeahawks -1 (-110 at bet365)

My analysisFrom all accounts, it’s going to be backups against backups in Nashville on Saturday night, with the starters seeing plenty of snaps during the teams’ joint practices this week. That mak…

It is the calm after the storm, a few days on from Brentford’s breathless draw at home to Liverpool. The ground is empty, lighting rigs occupy the pitch and a couple of blocks behind the dugouts, Christian Nørgaard raises one of the challenges of such memorable occasions under the lights: the insomnia that invariably follows.

“I slept around 2.30am or 3am,” he says. “For a new stadium, it already has a lot of great memories, with the win against Arsenal and the draw against Liverpool – two amazing games. Liverpool was a late game, a crazy game and that makes it harder to fall asleep at night. The Ryder Cup was on so that made it a bit easier – I could watch a bit of that.”

Nørgaard grins but, as well…

Manchester United s Paul Pogba has devised a cunning plan to beat three-time 100 metre Olympic champion Usain Bolt in a race a motorbike!

Bolt cemented his place in the history books in Rio on Sunday as he claimed a third successive gold medal in the 100m final, beating rival Justin Gatlin by eight hundredths of a second.

The victory is the first rung on the ladder towards an unprecedented triple triple of sprint titles for the Jamaican, with the 200m and 4x100m relay still to come.

Bolt s rivals on the track have been unable to beat him on the world s biggest stage for the past three Games but Pogba the world s most expensive footballer believes he can do it.

The Frenchman took to Twitter to congratulate Bolt, and posted a picture of his plan to end the …

Germany manager Oliver Bierhoff says the Euro 2008 side can emulate their Euro 1996-winning predecessors after finally breaking their 12-year winless streak in the competition.

When Bierhoff scored the golden goal which won the Euro 1996 final, giving Germany their third European title, few Germans imagined it would be another 12 years before their side would again win another Euro championship game.

But having returned home early and winless from both Euro 2000 and 2004, the German public was restless for victory before Sunday s Group B win over Poland in Klagenfurt, but their team delivered an impressive 2-0 victory.

I am happy we have broken the jinx and all the preparation work has paid off, said a relieved Bierhoff on Monday.

We can be happy we …

Versatile Bayern Munich player Joshua Kimmich has been named Germany s Player of the Year for 2017.

The 22-year-old had a breakthrough year, forcing his way into the Bayern team and helping a young Germany squad to glory at the Confederations Cup.

Kimmich s emergence for club and country has helped to fill the gaping void left by the surprise early retirement of Philipp Lahm at the end of last season.

And Kimmich s reward was top spot in the supporter poll for Germany s Player of the Year for 2017, having received more than 20,000 votes.

The fans have voted for Joshua as the Player of the Year 2017 

He was followed by Julian and .

— Germany (@DFB_Team_EN)

Kimmich played 1,260 minutes for Germany in 2017 and only mi…