ANALYSE THIS – Champions League Group of Death?

FOOTBALL – The Euro Club Index (www.euroclubindex.com) rates all teams in top flight football in Europe and today has proved a guide to assess the 2015/2016 Champions League group stage draw. It points out the Group of Death, the teams facing strongest/weakest opposition and also the teams that were most fortunate/unfortunate in the draw.

ANALYSE THIS: New CL draw system can produce Group of Death

FOOTBALL – The Champions League draw pots for this evening are based on a slightly adapted system compared to previous years as the champions of the top eight countries on the UEFA coefficients have now all been placed in pot 1. The remainder of the pots have been ordered based on the UEFA coefficients for clubs at the end of last season as before. Pot 1 is now less representative of the top teams than it has previously been, particularly with Dutch champions PSV who would have been in pot 3 in the old system but, using an alternative ranking system like the Euro Club Index should actually be in pot 4.

RECORD: Spain to serve up five-star CL campaign

FOOTBALL – Valencia CF reached the main stage of the Champions League and made Spain the first country ever to be represented by five teams in one CL season. In Thursday’s draw pots Valencia will be joined by fellow Spanish sides FC Barcelona, Real Madrid, Atlético Madrid and Sevilla FC.

REVIEW: Lightning Bolt strikes thrice

ATHLETICS – Usain Bolt won the men’s 100m at the world championships in Beijing. It was his third world title in this event. Bolt joined Carl Lewis (USA) and Maurice Greene (USA) as the only athletes to win three world titles in this event. Bolt also won in 2009 and 2013. Since Yohan Blake won this event in 2011, it is now four Jamaican gold medals in a row.

REVIEW: China rule world of water

AQUATICS – At the conclusion of the 2015 Aquatics World Championships, China have emerged as the most successful country winning 15 gold medals, 10 silver medals and 10 bronze medals. For the first time since 2001 (Australia), United States do not top the overall table.

ANALYSE THIS: Parity like never before in swimming

SWIMMING – With only one day of competition left at the 2015 Swimming World Championships in Kazan, the United States have reclaimed their leading position in the Market Share (metric that weights all ranks) table, but only by a very small margin. Like we reported earlier this week, their position is being challenged by traditional rivals Australia, China and France, but also the strong emerging force that is Great Britain. For comparison, the US had a market share of nearly 50% only eight years ago, now that has been reduced to 20%.

The Rio 2016 Virtual Medal Table

Latest Rio 2016 forecast predicts a decline in medals for Great Britain in comparison to London 2012.

ANALYSE THIS: US domination in swimming challenged

SWIMMING – At the 2015 World Swimming Championships in Kazan, Russia, Australia and Great Britain have shown their intent to knock the United States off their perch as the world’s leading nation in swimming. After three days of competition they have a greater market share, a metric that weights all ranks, than the US.

ANALYSE THIS: How far would the fastest 100m swimmers reach in world record time?

SWIMMING – At the 16th FINA World Championships the best swimmers of the world will compete for the world titles. Several word records have been swum at previous world championships. We were dying to know how a world record holder compares to the other medallists at the world championships.