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I'm well behind on this again but here is confirmation of the final scores for this round. 9 points (6 correct picks + 3 bonus points) - @Storts 7 points (5 correct picks + 2 bonus points) - @Michael, @Lucas, @Stan 5 points (4 correct picks + 1 bonus point) - @Tommy 2 points (2 correct picks) - @6666, @Pyfish 1 point (1 correct pick) - @nudge, @Viva la FCB, @CaaC (John), @Rucksackfranzose 0 points - @RandoEFC, @Bluewolf, @...Dan, @Dan, @Redcanuck, @Rick I will get the French round started for next weekend. There are only 4 sets of fixtures left. If we're being honest, there's a very good chance we'll all manage to be eliminated in that time but if not, we'll decide that round with tie breakers in the last weekend. I'll get that started tomorrow.

Ref is a Luton fan.

Week 36 Results Kaiserslautern 1-1 Wehen Aberdeen 3-3p Celtic Leicester 2-1 West Brom Man City 1-0 Chelsea Lyon Women 3-2 PSG Women Perth Glory 3-4 Western United Houston Dynamo 0-1 Austin FC Coventry 3-3p Man Utd Union S-G 1-2 Club Brugge Real Madrid 3-2 Barcelona Round-up A total of 39 goals across 10 fixtures - goalfests despite two matches only having 1 goal in them. Two others were cup semi-finals that ended in penalty shootouts after 3-3 draws after extra-time, and in Australia there was a 7-goal thriller. The weekend rounded off with a 3-2 win in El Clasico - only @CaaC (John) got this as a perfect score, helping to solidify 2nd place. @Rucksackfranzose did well to get 13 points and that meant he overtook @Bluebird Hewitt and is now level with @Viva la FCB. @Tommy is just behind them and one good week could propel him up further...

Results - Chinese Grand Prix This week it was @The Palace Fan's turn to go AWOL so no points for him. I know I'm not helping by posting predictions on Wednesday or Thursday, especially with so many of the races so far being overnight for those of us in Europe. I'll endeavour to get back to posting predictions on the Monday of race week. Onto those that did predict, everyone once again went for a Max Verstappen pole position and bagged 5 points. I think I've seen enough now to change this prediction to a Pole Position without Verstappen. Even if there's chances for other people to beat him on a Saturday, those chances are so slim that there isn't an incentive to take a risk, so for the foreseeable future, we will change the pole position prediction to one excluding him. Also resolved on Saturday was the bonus question. @Stan and @Tommy both backed Haas to get a car into Q3 and Nico Hulkenberg duly delivered on this again. Kudos to @Whiskey who backed a Q3 appearance for Sauber even before seeing their form in the Sprint Shootout and Sprint Race. Bottas bags him 5 points as well. Onto the Podium Minus Max, this week's result was Norris, Perez, Leclerc. Hilariously, everyone who predicted this week went for a combination of Perez and the two Ferraris here, so nobody gets any points for Sainz. @Stan and @nudge made the best fist of this, with Perez and Leclerc in the exact correct positions bagging them 10 points. @Coma, @DeadLinesman and @OrangeKhrush take 7 points each for their PER-SAI-LEC combination, while @RandoEFC, @MUFC and @Tommy have to settle for 4 points each. Finally, Yuki Tsunoda's retirement made it impossible to give any points for this week's random driver prediction. If anyone had put 19th, I'd have given points for that as he was the second car to retire from the race but I'm not giving consolation points for a driver who retired apart from that scenario. Here's what it does for the table: @The Palace Fan shows the cost of a missed week as he drops from 1st to 8th, but in terms of the points differential, still has 19 races left to recover a 12-point deficit to the top spot. @Stan is this week's "Driver of the Day" with an impressive score of 20 that also takes him to the top of the standings with a decent 5-point lead. Single figure returns for @RandoEFC see him lose ground in the standings and @MUFC remains behind his team-mate despite completing one race more - ouch! In the Constructors' standings, @Whiskey's return to the fray saw Ferrari bag this biggest team points haul we've seen so far this season, and they can begin to eye Mercedes up in the battle to get off the bottom. McLaren's lowest score of the season sees their narrow lead in the standings disappear, while Red Bull leapfrog both them and Aston Martin with a very strong score of 29 points this weekend.

I don't know what age group you're in but most posters here are around the early 30s sort of mark so most of us went to school with a number of Man Utd fans during Ferguson's era who had it way too good for way too long and had to put up with no end of gloating from them when they won everything and beat our teams because it was all they'd known and they thought it would last forever, so it will never not be funny when they get a(nother) comeuppance. And it is embarrassing I'm afraid mate. Man Utd could probably field almost a full eleven of players who individually cost more than Coventry's entire squad, bench and annual wage bill put together and they were a marginal offside decision away from blowing a 3-0 lead on 70 minutes against them in a cup semi final. You'd be loving it too if it was Man City or Liverpool.

Back baby! Probably start off on a ridiculous points deduction but fuck it. Let the fun begin!

Congrats! Happy for you @Stan, @Dan, and LeicesterBran. Although the latter apparently never made the transition to the new forum.

Honestly, we’ve been mediocre since the start of the year, but this past month has been a new level of shit for us. I’m fed up of the lot of our team. Save for some of the younger lads and players like Diaz, Endo, MacAllister, the whole lot of them have been a disgrace. Fed up of seeing VanDijk throwing his arms in the air everything we concede, like he’s never at fault for any of them. Konate has dropped off big time the last month or so, and that midfield that starter were useless. Salah looks on his holiday & Nunez has no finishing ability and barely a footballing brain in his skull. Wouldn’t mind seeing a mass clear out, even if it meant a transitional season next year. Think that some of these players aren’t good enough for the first team anymore.

Well, our daughter has stuck to her guns and adopted another cat, a female, 8 months old, so that will even it up, 4 cats, 2 male and 2 female, her mate had to get a place for her cats as she was moving to a place with no animals allowed.

The conclusion being that @Rucksackfranzose is a bot...

I trust Michael Edwards.

@Michael, @Viva la FCB, @Bluewolf, @Coma, @Stan, @Tommy, @londonerlilie, @nawoo Your weekly reminder!

@Stan, @Tommy, @6666, @Bluewolf, @Viva la FCB, @Michael, @Coma, @nawoo Your weekly reminder!

Dortmund will struggle to improve their consistency under Favre, since Favre isn't their manager anymore, for whole a while now.

Piraeus, Greece. Early 1900's and 2020's

Called it to a tee. Didn't lay a glove and Leicester cruised it. Wouldn't have called five admitedly but it just looked and felt like it was a match up perfectly suited for Leicester to exploit.

Please let it be half of the starting 11 for Hansa Rostock.

I was lucky enough to get to watch them kick off the season

My gripe with Italian food outside of Italy isn't so much the "creative license" with cooking. It's that going to an Italian restaurant outside of Italy means paying a premium for an inferior product, that you're typically being told is authentic (when it isn't). I can understand when a restaurant substitutes something that is harder to find outside of Italy with something easier to find (for instance, using pancetta rather than guanciale - because guanciale is difficult to get outside of Italy and if that's really what you want, you may have to pay a premium). I can understand when places want to put their own "twist" on something traditional, after all - fusion foods are popular for good reason and they do make the culinary world more exciting and interesting. But paying a premium for food that is lower quality than what it's trying to be, because we're told it's fancy and difficult to make... when it isn't - that's something I struggle to justify. Especially when I've eaten very good food in Italy and paid reasonable prices. It blows my mind to pay what I would pay for a 4 course meal in Rome... on a pasta meal that's ok at best. It honestly is infuriating. For me, going out to a restaurant - I'm either looking for: 1.) something I can't make well myself, 2.) something that if I can make it well myself, I want it to be made for me better than I can do it. For Italian food outside of Italy... I think anyone except people who are possibly the most useless people in the kitchen, can cook a better meal than they can get in a restaurant. There's this Italian bloke living in Australia, he's got a great youtube channel (Vincenzo's plate I believe is the name of the channel)... he's been a life saver for me. Because I like cooking, I love Italian food, and eating Italian food at restaurants has been a massive disappointment. Shit he's taught me, aside from traditional recipes, has been so useful at me putting my own twist on certain meals... and it just has completely removed my desire to ever go out and get Italian food here. And that's great for me, because I feel like I'm not getting ripped off if I'm eating Italian food and I'm not in Italy. So I don't think of it so much as "food purity" so much as I think that (most) Italian restaurants outside Italy (and in my personal experience, all of the ones I've had) are just ripping off customers and providing a comparatively low quality meal in the process. I don't think it's being a food purist to think paying over $20 for a carbonara using cheap spaghetti and substituting guanciale with bacon is an absolute ripoff... when you can make the same thing at home for less than half the price using slightly better spaghetti and substituting the guanciale with pancetta. That's just preferring better ingredients and paying a more reasonable price for a better meal. Neither are "traditional" or "autentico" - but the cheaper one not made at a restaurant using better ingredients is going to get you a better result.

I think this is the best title battle we've had heading into the final round as past champions @nudge and @Viva la FCB, along with @6666 and @Michael, are separated by just 2 points overall. With a maximum score of 7 available in the final round, it's almost mathematically impossible for anyone to come from outside the top four to claim the title.

Neutrals wanting the outsider to win is very usual and has nothing to do with hatred for Man Utd, and Coventry were massive underdogs.

Matchday winner Bluewolf with three perfect scores. Prediction of the matchday is Viva's correct Union 1-5 Bayern prediction, though. Matchday 30 1) Bluewolf 13 points 2) 6666 8 points 3) Michael 6 points 3) Stan 6 points 3) Viva la FCB 6 points 6) Tommy 3 points 7) CaaC(John) 2 points 7) Coma 2 points 9) Rucksackfranzose 1 point Now we've got two people leading the table again. Nothing lost for their hunters yet, since the table is pretty tight on the first 6 spots. Table after 30 matchdays 1) @Stan 212 points 1) @Tommy 212 points 3) @6666 209 points 3) @Bluewolf 209 points 5) @Viva la FCB 208 points 6) @Michael 205 points 7) @Coma 184 points 8- Rucksackfranzose 165 points 9) @CaaC (John) 157 points 10) @nawoo 149 points

Leverkusen just won't lose will they

Man the Bayern Arsenal tie was one of the most boring as it turned out Idk Im not really confident in our team these days but the competition just seems so open. All these teams are fairly beatable that are left.

SAF’s going away present was the next 10 years

@Rick @Tommy @Whiskey @Redcanuck @Storts @N U F C still got most games to choose from if you want to take part in this round.

If Arsenal beat Spurs away at the weekend i think they will win the rest leaving us no room for error. an injury or two or mad sending off could de-rail us so it's not over yet. on the flip side if they lose to Spurs we have one hand on the trophy ..a few weeks ago people was saying it's the best title race ever, now City are back in the driving seat it's a shit farmers league bet if Arsenal win it they will say it's the best title race ever again lol

Humble reminder, although it's been contextually obvious whom you were talking about- the term "Fußballgott" is used that inflationary throughout all clubs and leagues, sometimes even for more than one player of the same club, that it's completely inapproriate as an identification.

Wouldn't surprise me at all to see him at Ferrari. After so many banter years they finally seem to be making logical decisions.

A midweek PL double resulted in only 1 winner, me! Game 125 had a 37th-minute solitary goal in the game. No winners here. Game 126's first goal was 10 minutes earlier, in the 27th minute: 1 point Table after Game 126: No change in the table but I'm now only one point behind @Lucas and @Bluewolf.

The most concerning thing for Liverpool last night wasn't the poor performance but the failure to match Everton's desire and commitment. That was a bigger game for Liverpool. Everton put themselves 5 clear of the drop zone at the weekend and still have Brentford, Luton and Sheffield United to come where they can target the last few points they need to make sure. We could have been forgiven for having half an eye on Brentford at the weekend. Liverpool HAD to win. Liverpool's players have been hiding in the last few games. I watch them a lot because my Mrs is unfortunately a Red. Against Atalanta, Palace and last night, they just crumbled at the first sign of adversity. Van Dijk giving goals away for fun and waving his arms at his team mates, Salah completely anonymous, Nunez and Diaz missing really good chances. Robertson must have fallen over the ball about 15 times last night. Long term servants and more recent signings alike have just hidden from responsibility which is very odd for this era of Liverpool. This defending from Alexander-Arnold for the second goal last night epitomises what I'm talking about. Literally just straight up pussies out of it and let's us score. I don't think the words pathetic or disgraceful are out of place here to be honest. That's not down to a lack of ability or a transition period, he just didn't fancy it on a night where Liverpool needed to win to keep the last slim chance of winning another trophy alive. It's just really strange.

Completely normal mate, least you didn't go and punch a horse lol

We were clueless tonight. From the start you could see they had no plan to break the low block and whatever little chances they had they just scuffed or misfired as has been the way things have gone lately. I'm not sick of this team but I honestly can't understand what has gotten into them to lose the confidence to win when they are a goal down. Virg can go in the summer for all I care because I think he's not what he used to be and while I think he can be good hes got no drive. This isn't the first time he's done this and it certainly won't be the last. I also agree with the statement about kids getting a chance. Our starting XI has been lackluster and the kids would have put on more of a fight than the team that went out tonight.

Potentially good news! My better half and I have an accepted offer on a townhome. We were pre approved and looking around for a few weeks so its come relatively quickly but we found the nearly perfect place for what we can afford. So far so good as they didnt even counter us, just straight up accepted everything. Been running around this week collecting bank statements and going over strata mins etc. We have an inspection friday and thats basically it before subject removal and then we have about 2 months before move in

I’m due for a rewatch

Yes, well they’ll think differently after I bash a chair over your head and call you a bigot.

Ive been to a couple of the higher tier Italian restaurants here and actually found the quality pretty good, relatively speaking. I mean I dont care what they say you cannot import tomatoes that taste like that for example. The one major difference for me was price though. A couple of the best meals we had where probably half the price including desert and a bottle of wine and thats even with our Canadian dollar being shite to the euro. I get it though theres alot of "italian" restaurants that are just whatever, that just arent even remotely the same. Pasta isnt really pasta and your bolognese example rings so true

@Spike, @Mel81x & myself say otherwise

What is wrong with them!? I can't believe how many people I'm seeing on social media agreeing with them and praising them for "sticking up to the officials". I'm all for questioning the standards of refereeing but what Forest have done, questioning the integrity, is very different. Staggering how many people think Forest are "taking a stand" and not cynically trying to create an unconscious bias in their favour by applying this much pressure on PGMOL.

Pretty sure Cardiff fans when they came round to Anfield in 2022 got a lot of praise, judging by LFC twitter. So I doubt your fans would have done any poverty chanting to get that praise. Having said that, looking at places like Luton, Leicester, Nottingham, etc... those cities having their own issues with poverty isn't really enough to stop large segments of their support from engaging in mocking poverty if Scouse teams are their opposition. But I don't think Cardiff fans coming to Anfield would be met with lots of praise on social media for their support if Cardiff fans were chanting "feed the scousers" in their thousands like a lot of other clubs do. I think the fans that engage in that sort of behavior are absolute dickheads... but weirdly, it leads to Everton and Liverpool fans directing their anger towards making donations to food banks in those cities. So rather than feed the Scousers, the Scousers feed them. Maybe it's just fucked up reverse psychology to get some extra help with their own poverty issues. But regardless of any accidental positive reactions these chants bring... I can't help but feel like mocking those who can't afford basic necessities - especially now as the UK is suffering through a cost of living crisis - is just a remarkably pathetic thing to do.

Also I don't want to hear about any more fans of the breakaway six crying about other clubs being mean to them. Your clubs literally selected themselves to go off and make their own Super League because English football was below them. It's always going to be hilarious when you lose to one of the "peasant" teams or struggle to beat a team that's not even in the top flight of English football. Everyone else has to put up with the fact that they'll never be able to dream of seeing their club challenge for the title or become an elite club. I'm sure you can put up with people poking fun at you on the internet. Man Utd are one of the worst run clubs in the entire pyramid and yet you still get Champions League football and FA Cup finals, and if you get your shit together you could compete for titles again within a few years. Any of our clubs get run half as badly as Man Utd, you're looking at points deductions, administration, multiple relegations, you name it. The list of reasons for the rest of us to resent those clubs is basically endless.

I mean what made you think I was referring to you

When Ronaldo was Utd before going to Real. The 2 biggest penalties of his Utd career were in the season we won the CL. One in the semi first leg vs Barca and one in the shootout vs Chelsea. He missed both even so he was a top penalty taker.

Also, genuine apologies for missing a few rounds. My wife has been pregnant (had a son 12 days ago) so yeah, life.

I dont know quite where to put this but Bill Burr answering the web's most searched queries about him. Hes just such a genuine guy, love him. I know @Tommy will enjoy this one. I