Manchester United are into the League Cup quarter-finals after a 2-0 win over Burnley last night, in their first game since the World Cup break. United went ahead after 27 minutes when Aaron Wan-Bissaka sent a cross into the six-yard box and Christian Eriksen smashed the ball into the roof of the net from close range, before Marcus Rashford doubled the lead in the second half with a fine individual effort. Also in action last night, Celtic restored their nine-point lead in the Scottish Premiership with a 2-1 home win against Livingston. Ahead of tonight’s final League Cup last-16 clash between Manchester City and Liverpool (kick-off at 8pm), City boss Pep Guardiola has said for the first time that if his team do not win the Champions League under him, his highly successful tenure will “not be complete”.
Dave Hannigan writes in his America At Large column this morning about Brittney Griner, explaining how the American basketballer was used by Putin and now also by right-wing US cultural warriors: “Even by the current nauseating standards of public discourse, the wave of anger across America at getting one of its citizens liberated from that facility has been astonishing. Many critics believe her incarceration was her own fault, partly because Trump has said that she was “loaded up with drugs” when arrested at Sheremetyevo Airport. In fact, she had 0.702 grammes of cannabis oil in her possession.”
Ciara Mageean’s brilliance on the track tops Sonia O’Sullivan’s sporting moments of the year. “To be in the stadium that evening and witness Ciara’s run made it look all so easy, broken down into manageable 400m segments in a way I’d never really looked at the 1,500m when I was racing. It all seemed so achievable, and in ways even predictable.” Mageean’s 1,500 metres win at the Brussels Diamond league followed back-to-back silver medals at the Commonwealth Games and then at the European Championships.
Meanwhile, Irish female athletes and teams largely dominate the Teneo Sport and Sponsorship Index, with Katie Taylor named the most admired Irish sports star for a sixth straight year and the Irish women’s soccer team selected as the team of the year. The index is a 1,000 person nationally representative piece of research that explores Irish people’s attitudes towards sport and sponsorship.
