Cristiano Ronaldo was Manchester United's hero last night, as they got their Champions League campaign up and running with a last gasp 2-1 win over Villarreal at Old Trafford. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's side were lacklustre throughout and needed the brilliance of a resurgent David de Gea to stay level, until the visitors took a deserved lead in the 53rd minute through Paco Alcacer. United quickly responded however as Alex Telles volleyed home a Bruno Fernandes corner, before Ronaldo sunk the Yellow Submarine with a 95th minute winner in front of a delirious Stretford End. Elsewhere defending champions Chelsea were beaten by Juventus in Turin, Federico Chiesa's strike just after half-time proving the difference. Meanwhile Barcelona's struggles continued as they were humiliated in Lisbon, Ronald Koeman's side losing 3-0 to Benfica. In the Europa League tonight Celtic welcome Bayer Leverkusen to Parkhead (kick-off 8pm), West Ham host Rapid Vienna (8pm) and Leicester travel to Legia Warsaw (5.45pm). In the Europa Conference League, struggling Spurs take on Slovenia's Mura in north London (8pm).
This morning Mary Hannigan has written about 18-year-old US Open champion Emma Raducanu, and the way the British media have used her stunning achievement as a vehicle for political points scoring. She writes: "Granted, that Raducanu was born in Canada to a Romanian father and a mother of Chinese heritage, and grew up in England, an interest in her background was natural enough, but the ensuing attempted hijacking of her back story to bolster one view or another made you wish the only people permitted to write about her were tennis reporters."
Meanwhile in his column today Ciarán Murphy has suggested Hannah Tyrrell made the right decision when swapping the oval ball and her international rugby career to rejoin the Dublin footballers. He writes: "But she went from a situation in rugby where she was an amateur sportsperson putting in impossible hours, taking time off work to try and keep pace with the fully-professional teams she was competing against, to a position where all of a sudden she was an amateur sportsperson competing against other highly-trained amateurs, with a work-life-sport balance that finally started to make sense."
Stephen Kenny will name his squad today for the Republic of Ireland's World Cup qualifier away to Azerbaijan on October 9th and a home friendly against Qatar three days later. And as Gavin Cummiskey reports this morning, a lack of game time at club level is a big issue for a number of Irish players: "Ireland's top flight strikers, Idah and Connolly, have combined for zero Premier League goals and zero assists in a paltry 94 minutes from a possible 1,080 minutes."
And in her column this morning Sonia O'Sullivan suggests tweaking our daily routine can help us to reset and restart for the winter ahead - something she has done through open water swimming. She writes: "When I am in the sea it can be nice - it's the exit that gets me, the chattering teeth and frozen fingers and toes to deal with in the immediate aftermath. Yet overall the feeling of exhilaration and alertness is incomparable to any other activity you will do in the day."
