Irish defender Matt Doherty scored again as Wolves beat Tottenham 3-2 in the Premier League on Sunday, leaving them just three points off fourth spot. Two of the other teams fighting for European places - Manchester United and Everton - drew 1-1 at Goodison Park. A match which ended in controversy as the hosts had a stoppage time winner ruled out by VAR. Manchester City claimed their third League Cup triumph in a row, beating Aston Villa 2-1 at Wembley - Pep Guardiola's team called the tune for so long that it was almost impossible to foresee the drama at the very end. Last night, almost 2,000 days – 1,954 to be precise – since they had last managed it, the Santiago Bernabéu saw their team beat Barcelona. Real Madrid now go top, after beating their wasteful Catalan opponents 2-0. In his column this morning, Ken Early writes about the German fans who are taking their protests against billionaire owners to the stands: "one suspects that the more the leaders of German football squawk about the lack of civility and respect in the stands, the more H-word banners they're going to get." Tonight in the FA Cup fifth round, Arsenal visit Portsmouth.
In Sunday's hurling league action Tipperary held on for a win against Waterford - a first defeat for Liam Cahill since taking over the Deise county. Three players were sent off in the first half in Thurles. Galway, again without Joe Canning, finished strongly to beat 14 man Cork. Clare, inspired by Tony Kelly in the middle of the park, were too good for Dublin. While Kilkenny, Limerick and Wexford enjoyed big wins against Laois, Westmeath and Carlow respectively. In the football, Michael Langan scored five points from play as Donegal eased to victory against Monaghan. Kerry held off a Mayo comeback to win by the minimum in Castlebar, and a sluggish Galway performance was enough to edge Meath in Navan, relegating the Royal County in the process. Malachy Clerkin's Tipping point column explains why GAA Congress once again showed that no one sticks up for football. Inter-county teams have been left with very little time to adapt to the new backpass rule, passed over the weekend: "who stands up for Gaelic football? By the latest numbers, we're talking about the most-watched sport in the country here, by some distance the most-attended. The second-most played team sport in the land. Who fights for it?"
Reduced to 14 players for most of the match, Connacht bagged maximum points from their visit to Port Elizabeth on Sunday and maintained their 100 per cent unbeaten Pro14 record over the Southern Kings. IRFU chief executive Philip Browne leads a delegation to Paris on Monday knowing failure to reschedule the postponed Italy game could cost Irish rugby over "€5 million". Gavin Cummiskey has all the latest right here.
Meanwhile Andrew Coscoran has signed off on his indoor season with the perfect exclamation mark: a new championship record! Coscoran, who has unquestionably been the breakthrough performer of this season, proved that by winning his first national title over 1,500 at the Irish Indoor Championships on Sunday. Read Ian O'Riordan's round-up here. Also, keep an eye and ear out for The Irish Times' Added Time weekly sports podcast, this week's episode will go live at midday.
