The line-up for the last-16 of the Champions League is complete, after the final round of group fixtures took place last night. Tottenham Hotspur's place in the knockouts as Group B runners-up was already confirmed and they were beaten 3-1 away to Bayern Munich in a dead-rubber. The hosts took the lead at the Allianz Arena through Kingsley Coman before the impressive Ryan Sessegnon equalised after 20 minutes. That was as good as it got for José Mourinho's weakened side however, with Thomas Muller and Philippe Coutinho giving the Bavarians a comfortable win. Earlier in the night, Manchester City rounded of their group campaign with a 4-1 win over Dinamo Zagreb, Gabriel Jesus scoring a hat-trick as his side came from behind in Croatia. Elsewhere, Real Madrid beat Club Brugge, Juventus won at Bayer Leverkusen and PSG thrashed Galatasaray 5-0. The draw for the next stage will be made on Monday December 16th. Tonight the Europa League group stages are completed, with Manchester United needing to avoid defeat to AZ Alkmaar at Old Trafford in order to progress as group winners (kick-off 8.0pm).
Elsewhere in today's rugby statistics column John O'Sullivan has asked if it would be feasible for the match clock to be stopped at scrum time - following Munster's tight Champions Cup win over Saracens last week. And, he concludes, the answer is no. He writes: "Stopping a match for scrums would see the amount of time it takes to complete a game at present, edging closer and closer to the two-hour mark, move appreciably beyond it. If such a mechanism had been in place at Thomond Park last Saturday, then there would have been an additional 21 minutes to get through but the main argument against the idea would centre on player welfare." Meanwhile the All Blacks have confirmed Ian Foster will replace Steve Hansen as head coach of the All Blacks, the 54-year-old being promoted from his role as assistant on a two-year deal.
In today's women in sport pages Louise Lawless has spoken to Derry captain Cáit Glass about balancing her desire to start a family using IVF treatment alongside her football career. She writes: "After discussions with her husband, she took the one-time option of deferring the treatment for three months, enabling her to play football at the level Derry required. Feeling that it was the right thing to do at the time ("I didn't feel mentally or emotionally prepared"), Glass got the deferral and "parked it for a little while and didn't make any decisions about it." Meanwhile Niamh Byrne has spoken to 17-year-old Tara Donoghue - Ireland's only elite long-track speed skater - about the difficulty of pursuing the sport in this country. Donoghue said: "We're in a difficult situation; pretty much every country in Europe has a permanent rink. It's a shame we don't as we are inundated with requests. For every one person we accept we have to turn three away."
The Internationals have taken a shock early lead in the Presidents Cup, and they lead favourites the US 4-1 after the opening day of fourballs. Captain Tiger Woods and playing partner Justin Thomas held up their end of the bargain in Melbourne, beating Joaquin Niemann and Marc Leishman 4&3, but his side were beaten in their other four matches. After a sobering opening day, Woods remained defiant: "We're not done, we're not out of it yet. This is a long week."
