Champions League Group Draw 2019/2020

The group stage draw for the 2019/20 UEFA Champions League has been made, with holders Liverpool, 13-time winners Real Madrid, hopefuls Manchester City, perennial runners-up Juventus, Spanish champions Barcelona among the sides to have learned their fate.


Taking place in Monaco, the draw followed its usual format. The 32 competing teams were split into pots (1-4), with one side from each pot assigned to each of the eight groups (A-H).

Liverpool are to meet Napoli in the group for the second year in a row, but will consider their path to the knockout stages a favourable one, with Red Bull Salzburg and Genk.


English champions ​Manchester City have been paired with Shakhtar Donetsk again, as well as Croatia's Dinamo Zagreb and Champions League debutants Atalanta.


Elsewhere, Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain will meet in two heavyweight clashes in Group A, but Galatasaray could threaten to make it tricky for either of them.


Group H promises to be a very competitive one, with Chelsea, Ajax, Valencia and Lille, with any in with a chance of qualifying. But this year's 'Group of Death' is arguably F after Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund and Inter were drawn with Czech minnows Slavia Prague.

2019/20 UEFA Champions League Group Stage Draw

​Group A - Paris Saint-Germain, ​Real Madrid, Club Brugge, Galatasaray

​Group B - ​Bayern Munich, ​Tottenham Hotspur, Olympiacos, Red Star Belgrade

​Group C - ​Manchester City, Shakhtar Donetsk, Dinamo Zagreb, Atalanta

​Group D - ​Juventus, ​Atletico Madrid, Bayer Leverkusen, Lokomotiv Moscow

​Group E - ​Liverpool, ​Napoli, Red Bull Salzburg, Genk

​Group F - ​Barcelona, ​Borussia Dortmund, ​Inter, Slavia Prague

​Group G - Zenit St Petersburg, Benfica, Olympique Lyonnais, RB Leipzig

​Group H - ​Chelsea, Ajax, Valencia, Lille

             


Matchday one will take place on 17/18 September and the round will conclude as usual with matchday six on 10/11 December. The first knockout draw will follow on 16 December.



This season's final will be played at the Ataturk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul on 30 May 2020.

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Student Fails French Exam After Naming Cristiano Ronaldo As The Goat

A student failed in his French exam by a single mark after he answered Cristiano Ronaldo below the question with a photo of a goat.


15-year-old Ahmed Nabil was asked questions regarding various animals and while it looked like he would have gone ahead and answered it right, he chose to put in the ​Juventus hitman's name as his answer.



"It was a French exam I did two years ago." he told ​SPORTbible.



He continued, "For me personally, it was a very hard test and one of the sections was: write the meaning of every animal we show you but in french. I couldn't remember what a goat was called in french, so I thought I'd do something creative and make a couple of my mates laugh instead of just leaving it empty."





Speaking about his opinion on who he thinks is the greatest of all time between ​Barcelona legend ​Messi and Portuguese great Ronaldo, Nabil said, "If anyone asks me who I think is the goat is, I'll tell him them Ronaldo but deep down I'm not that sure. Sometimes I think that Messi is better but because of my bias, the former United player is the greatest."



In the exact same exam, Nabil also mentioned Arsenal midfielder Mesut Ozil in his answers. He said as he concluded, "The other blank box was a mistake by the teacher, so I thought I'd continue my "football themed" answer and write Ozil. When the teacher finally gave me the exam she literally had no reaction. I don't think she even knew who Ronaldo and Ozil was, so she didn't tell me anything afterwards."

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The Importance of Saving Money

The Importance of Saving Money

We save, basically, because we can't predict the future. Saving money can help you become financially secure and provide a safety net in case of an emergency.

Here are a few reasons why we save:

• Emergency cushion - This could be any number of things: a new roof for your house, out-of-pocket medical expenses, or sudden loss of income. You will need money set aside for these emergencies to avoid going into debt to pay for your necessities.
• Retirement – If you intend to retire someday, you will probably need savings and/or investments to take the place of the income you'll no longer get from your job.
• Average Life Expectancy – With more advances in medicine and public health, people are now living longer and needing more money to get by.
• Volatility of Social Security – Social Security was never intended to be the primary source of income and should be treated as a supplement to income.
• Education - The costs for private and public education are rising every year and it's getting tougher to meet these demands.
• Without money put away in savings and/or investments, you open yourself up to other risks as well. For example, not having enough money to pay for emergency dental care may force you into taking a loan that your savings might otherwise have covered.

How much can you potentially save?
It’s important that you develop a budget using your net income as it reflects your take home pay after taxes and dedications. A common mistake people make is developing a budget off of their gross income. It’s a mistake because you're budgeting money you never possessed. Remember your potential savings is the difference between your net income and your expenses.

When developing a saving plan ask yourself these questions:

1. Are there any variable expenses that you can reduce or eliminate?
2. Is there anything you spend money on that you could eliminate and apply towards saving?

Tips for saving money:

• Save windfall income – Any unexpected money such as income tax return money.
• Collect loose change and deposit it in the bank – Use a piggy bank and deposit its contents when its full.
• Try frugality – Purchase cheaper off brand items and save money.
• Break a habit – Try doing one less thing you expensive venture a week and apply that money to your savings.
• Have a “buy nothing week”.
• Compare costs of major items before purchasing anything – Do your due diligence, shop around before making major purchases.

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Data Analysts Predict Final Premier League Table at the End of This Season

Famed data analysts ​fivethirtyeight.com have once again worked their statistical magic and have come up with the most logical final ​Premier League table by the end of the 2019/20 season.


On using the forecasting tools available to them for the current season, the website believes there is a 61% chance that ​Manchester City will ​retain the Premier League title this season too while last season's runners up ​Liverpool boast a probability of just 27%.


​Tottenham Hotspur occupy the third spot with ​Chelsea in fourth ahead of ​Manchester United and ​Arsenal in fifth and sixth respectively.

Here's the output table from their website:

The three teams below Watford who have been predicted to be relegated this season are the three newly promoted clubs, Aston Villa, Norwich City and Sheffield United.


The website uses its unique algorithms which brings into perspective a variety a situations and categories for all 20 clubs, which in-turn ends up deciding the predicted table. Additionally, their algorithm consists of statistical assistance from the likes of Squawka, Opta and Google.


They further state that every team has an offensive rating that represents the number of goals it would be expected to score against an average team on a neutral field, and a defensive rating that represents the number of goals it would be expected to concede.


These ratings, in turn, produce an overall SPI rating, which represents the percentage of available points. A win is worth 3 points, a tie worth 1 point, and a loss worth 0 points - the team would be expected to take if that match were played over and over again.

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