Manchester City have crashed out of the League Cup, losing 2-0 to Southampton, leaving the competition wide open. Pep Guardiola fielded an understrength side for the quarter-final clash, and his City team failed to recover from first-half goals from Saints pair Sekou Mara and Moussa Djenepo. Holders Liverpool and league leaders Arsenal were both already knocked out in previous rounds. In the night’s other quarter-final Dean Henderson was Nottingham Forest’s hero in shoot-out win over Wolves.
Offaly enjoyed their first senior football win over Dublin since 2000 last night, beating Dessie Farrell’s young team 0-11 to 0-8 to qualify for the O’Byrne Cup semi-finals. Longford played out a 0-10 to 1-7 draw against Meath which also sees them qualify for the semi-finals. Derry and Tyrone both progress to the Dr McKenna Cup semi-finals after a draw. For a round-up of last night’s games click here. In his column this morning, Ciarán Murphy is questioning the competitiveness and future of the hurling league: “the National Hurling League starts in February, it will certainly have the appearance of an actual sporting competition, but the closer you look, the more you realise you’re watching a sham.”
Rachael Blackmore speaks to Mary Hannigan about a mind-blowing few years, with success catapulting the Tipperary woman from being a highly respected jockey to one of the country’s most recognisable faces: “It was an honour to be the first woman to win the Grand National, but it’s not a feeling I had crossing the line. That’s not what I felt. I just felt elated that I had won, not elated because I was a female who had won. Essentially, it’s not something I give much thought to.”
Meanwhile, John O’Sullivan writes about ex-Ireland Under-20 player George McGuigan, who will be a key man for Gloucester against Leinster in Saturday’s Champions Cup clash, and might be included in Steve Borthwick’s England squad for the Six Nations. Click here to read that piece. A margin of 57 points separated the two teams when they met at the RDS just a few short weeks ago, but Caelan Doris is anticipating a much tougher test in Kingsholm this weekend.
