ScoreboardSummary

Over 200 days after the Seattle Seahawks beat the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XL, the NFL is finally returning, and the season kicks off with a Super Bowl rematch between the aforementioned Patriots and Seahawks. This preview will aim to detail who I think will be good and bad, and a few thoughts about each roster and what offseason moves I liked and didn't like.

Day 3 sees the first individual gymnastics medals handed out, as well as the first able-bodied weightlifting medals and nine more swimming medals up for grabs as the Commonwealth Games step up another gear and are now in full swing.

After day 1 saw the first ten gold medals handed out, day 2 will see another 9 gold medals up for grabs, with another 8 in the pool and the women's team event in the gymnasium. The spotlight turns to both Tollcross and the Glasgow International Arena as home fans prepare for another packed day of events.

The Commonwealth Games officially kick off today, and while bowls group stages started yesterday, Friday sees the first real action kicking off, including the first medal events of the games. I'm going to aim to preview and review/react to every single day to the key storylines and every medal event but due to the sheer amount of action taking place in Glasgow im going to primarily focus on Athletics, Swimming, Gymnastics and Track Cycling as these are in my opinion, the four most intriguing sports out of the ten taking place at the smaller than usual Commonwealth games in Glasgow due to being put on at short notice after Victoria had to drop out due to limited funding.

Back-to-back Euros finalists England and back-to-back World Cup top three finishers Croatia highlight a very competitive group alongside a dangerous Ghana team and a Panama team that will be looking to build on its 2018 performance.

A very interesting group with one of the most talented teams in the tournament in Portugal, a Colombia team with one of the best wingers in the world but not a lot else and two teams at the bottom, either returning after decades away or making their debut. A group where many different things could happen

Reigning champions Argentina have been handed a very manageable group in Group J, but the fight to get through this group will be close. Austria and Algeria are very well matched, and debutants Jordan are a level below the other two but have the attacking players to cause both Austria and Algeria major problems

The hardest group at this tournament has three teams that will fancy their chances of making at least the quarter-finals: France, Senegal and Norway and poor Iraq, who, despite being pretty good as pot 4 teams go, have been handed a death sentence before a ball has even been kicked

Group H is Spain's to lose; they have been handed maybe the easiest group of any team in the tournament. Uruguay are not as scary as they have been historically and are closer talent-wise to Saudi Arabia and Cape Verde than they are to Spain, and both Saudi Arabia and Cape Verde should be happy if they win a match.

Group G is one of the weaker groups in the tournament. Belgium should walk it, but the battle for second between Iran, Egypt and New Zealand should be close and hard-fought, with no obvious favourite for it.

Group F feature two battles: the battle for first in the group between Japan and the Netherlands, and a battle for third and potential qualification between Sweden and a tricky Tunisia side.

Group E is, in my opinion, likely to be the most interesting group in the tournament with three very closely matched sides in Germany, Ecuador and Ivory Coast. Curacao, as the fourth team in the group, couldn't have been given a tougher group at their first World Cup, and if they score, that is a great result against three of the better teams at this tournament

Group D is one of the most wide-open groups, with all four teams having a realistic chance of getting into the knockouts. Will the Hosts, USA, buckle under the immense outside noise? Can the Aussies replicate their run to the round of 16 from Qatar? South American teams are always dangerous, and Paraguay are no different, and Turkey are perhaps the favourites despite being the pot 4 team.

Group C on paper should be one of the best in terms of entertainment at this World Cup, with a weaker-than-normal Brazil 2022 semi-finalists Morocco, a returning Scotland side with one of the best midfields at the tournament and a plucky newcomer in Haiti who are much better than most people are going to give them credit for I'd be amazed if there wasnt an upset at some point in this group stage

Group B shapes up as one of the tournament’s weakest collections, lacking a traditional global powerhouse due to Canada taking the top seed from Pot 1. However, Switzerland arrive as the clear and definitive favourites to top the section, leaving a wide-open scramble for the remaining qualification spots. While co-hosts Canada and a dangerous Bosnia and Herzegovina side look to battle it out for the knockouts, Qatar face an uphill task and are widely expected to finish rock bottom of the pile.

It's World Cup time, starting with Group A. I'll be running through each group, giving my preview of each team and an overall prediction of each group and the ceiling and floor of every team in the tournament before the tournament kicks off on Thursday with Mexico vs South Africa.

After Narvaez completed his hat trick of stage victories yesterday, stage 12 could be the first day for the sprinters since stage 6, where even that ended with a non-sprinter in Davide Ballerini, who has now been forced to abandon due to a heavy crash yesterday.  This stage isnt as nailed on a sprint as stages 1, 3 and 6 were before a wheel was turned due to the two categorised climbs in the middle of the stage providing a good opportunity for a breakaway to launch away from the peloton or for a team like Movistar riding for Aular deciding to go very hard up the climbs like they did on stage 4 to get rid of Milan, Magnier and Groenewegen leading to a reduced bunch sprint with mostly non sprinters which was won by Narvaez. These climbs are nowhere near as hard as the climb on stage 4, with the first one being 11.4km at 4.2% and the second 5.5km at 5.9%, so the pace would have to be really hard on the front of the peloton to particularly drop Magnier, but Milan and Groenewegen could ...

After yesterday's time trial, where Filippo Ganna destroyed the field to take his 7th time trial victory in the Giro d'Italia, equalling Eddy Merckx, Jonas Vingegaard took a big step towards overall victory by putting time into most of his closest competitors. Stage 11 is a different proposition entirely, one that feels destined for a breakaway victory. Stage 11 features many climbs, but none seem to be long and hard enough for a GC battle to commence, meaning if a breakaway with no threats to Afonso Eulalio's pink jersey gets up the road, they will probably just be allowed to take the victory, which sets us up for a stage for the likes of Jhonatan Narvaez, Ben Turner and the other guys who can win a sprint in a reduced bunch at the end of a tough day. For a guy like Turner, if he can get over the day's big climb, 9.9km at 6.2%, at the front of the race, he will fancy himself to hold the wheels on the final categorised climb and then out-sprint everyone for the win.  Bu...

After Jhonatan Narvaez's brilliant victory from the break yesterday, stage 9 promises to be another GC battle with Vingegaard and co looking to take the pink jersey away from Afonso Eulalio before the second rest day tomorrow. The stage from Cervia to Cornio Alle Scale is a typical Giro mountain stage, flat half of the stage up until the intermediate sprint, followed by an absolute brute of a finale where the road goes uphill for pretty much the final 68km, apart from a small descent in between the day's two categorised climbs, with the gradients just getting steeper and steeper the further into the climbs they get it promises to be a stage with massive time gaps between the GC favourites although the final climb is listed at 10.8km at just over 6% the final 3km average are over 10% with gradients of up to 15% at stages. This, in theory, could be a day for a breakaway if composed correctly, with no threats to GC up the road, as most of the uphill gradients are not severe, if a ...

After the first GC skirmish yesterday, the Giro heads away from the Apennine mountains and to the coast for a stage that is like a typical stage at Tirreno Adriatico, lots of short, sharp climbs in the finale, meaning who knows whether it's a stage for the breakaway, a GC battle or one for the Puncheurs. The first half of the stage is pretty much pan flat with the odd lump and bump at the beginning, but the stage really begins at the intermediate sprint where Magnier, Milan and co will sprint for points towards the Maglia Ciclamino if the breakaway doesn't hoover them all up but after the sprint there is virtually no flat roads at all with constant ups and downs which should provide great racing whether that is a GC battle or otherwise. The four categorised climbs are all very similar, not very long apart from the first one, which is 9.9km at 3.6%; the other three are shorter, all under 5km, but have steep sections within them. Expect the first attacks from the peloton to come ...