Soccer
Diego Costa opened the scoring as Chelsea won 3-0 to relegate Middlesbrough and take themselves within a win of the Premier League title last night.
It was rare to have a night when two teams had such contrasting stories at the final whistle, as Nemanja Matic and Marcos Alonso added to Costa's opener at Stamford Bridge.
Tonight, attention turns to the Champions League, where the first of this year's finalists will be decided in Turin. Juventus take a 2-0 lead into their semi-final second leg against Monaco, and the French team will have to make history if they are to turn things around.
Only two teams have ever won a knockout tie in the competition after losing at home in the first leg and in both cases they had only one goal to make up.
A Romanian sports newspaper has suggested that League of Ireland side Athlone Town is just one of half a dozen across Europe and beyond in which the Chinese agent, Xiadong "Eric" Mao has invested.
In its statement, issued on Monday evening, the Athlone Town Consortium, a group of supporters which has previously sought to take over the club, suggested that recent events involving the club have made the current board's position untenable.
Rugby
In his column this morning Gerry Thornley writes about how outgoing Ulster scrumhalf, Ruan Pienaar, has been treated as a mere commodity by the IRFU.
“There was and remains a human element to Pienaar’s eviction from Ulster, against his and his province’s wishes, and on this score the optics of Saturday’s farewell reflected poorly on the IRFU.”
Munster's Peter O'Mahony has spoken of the 'huge responsibility' of being selected for the Lions.
He told John O’Sullivan in London, “there is a satisfaction that I have been picked. I have got to the stage now where I am starting to enjoy the week rather than just the hour and a half, two hours after games.”
GAA
The proposals for an expanded hurling championship in 2018 had little choice but to concentrate on the provinces because of the small number of competing counties, according to former Galway manager and All-Ireland winning captain Conor Hayes.
“I think the round robin will work but might it create other issues as well as solving some?”
