Down to Ten Men

Liverpool’s Luis Suarez says that he is wary of the threat posed by AC Milan striker Mario Balotelli and the upcoming World Cup 2014. Balotelli will be representing the Italian national team, while Suarez will be spearheading the attack of Uruguayan national team.

Both are in the same group along with the likes of Costa Rica and England. However, it is Uruguay and Italy who are the favourites to progress to the knockout stages. Italy have done exceedingly well in recent major tournaments after reaching the finals of the recent European championships.

With the World Cup right around the corner, there are always a few players adopting wacky hairstyles or practicing crazy goal celebrations to get themselves noticed by a global audience.

Then there are those players who just don't need to try - their looks give them celebrity status courtesy of their famous lookalikes.

We all know about England striker Wayne Rooney's likeness for Shrek, but how about these we found on Betfair.com...?

Franck Ribéry

Former Manchester City striker Mario Balotelli has dismissed suggestions that he is a bad boy by joking that he wants to be more bad. The striker has often stated that he misses English football fans.

Even during his time at City, Balotelli stated on several occasions that he did not like several aspects of English football like the weather, driving style, and food. However, if there was one aspect of English football that he misses a lot, then it has to be the fans. Balotelli sealed a £ 18 million move to AC Milan a few transfer windows ago.

Mario Balotelli scored the only goal of the game in the 1-0 win over Hellas Verona during the weekend, which helped new manager Clarence Seedorf start with the victory. Massimiliano Allegri was recently sacked as the manager of Milan after a string of poor results left the club in the bottom half of the table.

The club did not waste any time in appointing a successor, as they immediately brought in their former player Clarence Seedorf, who has won league and Champions league titles. The Dutchman made a great impression in his first match after winning all three points.

Mario Balotelli’s future with the Italian side AC Milan is slowly becoming more uncertain as Massimiliano Allegri prefers to put the Brazilian attacking duo of Robinho and Kaka ahead of the former Manchester City player.

The 23 years old forward had a stunning start with Ac.Milan with a number of superb performances but that energy is fading away and Allegri appears to be losing faith in him as he is making less appearances with the club.

Putting bets on the team you think will win the Premiership is always one of the most popular outright football bets. It is one that people usually start making well before the season even starts. This year was no exception, but now that it has started, the numbers gambling on the winners will only increase.

Despite their convincing opening day win, Manchester United have dropped to third favourites with the bookmakers – although the odds of 3/1 are hardly steep. Manchester City have now been made the favourites, but are they a good bet?