Manchester United's Champions League adventure was ended last night in Catalonia, as a Lionel Messi inspired Barcelona beat them 3-0 on the night and 4-0 on aggregate. In the night's other quarter final second leg Ajax were surprise 2-1 winners over Cristiano Ronaldo's Juventus in Turin. Tonight, Liverpool aim to join them and Barcelona in the last four when they take a 2-0 advantage to Porto, while Spurs lead Manchester City 1-0 ahead of tonight's second leg at the Etihad.
In his column this morning (Subscriber Only), Gordon D'Arcy explains why experience is Leinster's trump card in a clash to savour against Toulouse in this weekend's Champions Cup semi-final: "the French aristocrats – to batter an old cliché – are back on the elite stage of European rugby but Leinster should make them earn the right to win the title. No better lesson than being scolded in a semi-final." Ahead of their last four meeting with Munster, Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall expects fans to again boo Billy Vunipola following the forward's official warning from the Rugby Football Union for a homophobic Instagram comment.
Seán Moran writes this morning that the GAA disciplinary process needs to be more open. Carlow manager Turlough O'Brien, coach Steven Poacher and senior player Brendan Murphy are challenging stiff suspensions of 20, 12 and 12 weeks. In his column he explains: "There is no reason why every step of the process should not be flagged: how the CCCC have assessed the situation and if that is not accepted by the concerned parties, when the CHC will hear the matter and so on."
Meanwhile, Willie Mullins plans to send a strong team to Monday's €500,000 Boylesports Irish Grand National - Ireland's most valuable National Hunt prize is a rare pot to have eluded the champion trainer. Pairofbrowneyes was switched from Aintree to target the race and is rated a 10-1 second favourite in many ante-post markets. Last year's narrowly beaten runner-up, Isleofhopendreams, is another likely to take his chance along with other contenders such as Total Recall, Bellow Mome and the novice Burrows Saint.
