Manchester United got their Champions League campaign off to a fine start last night, as they beat Switzerland's Young Boys 3-0 away from home. Jose Mourinho's side took a while to adjust to the plastic pitch at the Stade de Suisse Wankdorf, but after Paul Pogba grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck in the 35th minute, the result was never in doubt. The French midfielder followed a sublime first with a penalty on the stroke of half-time - with Anthony Martial rounding off the scoring in the second half. United top Group H on goal difference after 10-men Juventus beat Valencia 2-0 away from home, despite Cristiano Ronaldo being shown a questionable straight red card in the 29th minute. As a result, he could miss the trip to Old Trafford on October 23rd. Elsewhere there were contrasting fortunes for Manchester City as they were stunned 2-1 by Lyon. Pep Guardiola watched from the stands of a sparsely populated Etihad Stadium as his side - the bookies' favourite to lift the European Cup - couldn't overturn a 2-0 first-half deficit. In the night's other games Real Madrid beat Roma 3-0 at the Bernabeu, while Bayern Munich beat Benfica 2-0 in Lisbon. Tonight the Europa League gets underway - Celtic welcome Rosenborg to Parkhead, Chelsea travel to PAOK of Greece and Arsenal face the Ukraine's FC Vorskla at the Emirates.
Galway might have narrowly missed out on back-to-back All-Ireland hurling championships, but once again this summer Joe Canning was a force of nature - inspiring his side back to Croke Park and within a whisker of retaining Liam MacCarthy. This morning he has reflected on the summer with Seán Moran - and admits he mishit his last-minute free in the final against Limerick, which would have seen Galway claw back an eight-point deficit in injury-time. He said: "I thought myself that I should have got it. You wouldn't go back and take a free like that if you weren't confident that you'd do it. That ate away at me as well."
In today's rugby statistics column, John O'Sullivan has analysed Ulster's strong start to the season, with a number of Dan McFarland's side topping the charts after the first three rounds of the Pro 14. Among those is Springbok Marcell Coetzee, who will feel like a new signing for the province after being hampered by injury since his move to Belfast was confirmed in February 2016. "Coetzee has carried more ball (52) than any other player in the competition; is second in offloads (seven), and also features prominently in terms of defenders beaten (eight) and turnovers won (three)."
Meanwhile in today's Women in Sport section Mary Hannigan has looked at the ongoing row within Mayo women's football, and suggests Peter Leahy's "my way or the highway" methods are perhaps at the root of the problem. She writes: "If a former military training instructor [Denise McDonagh, a former selector who walked off the panel] has a problem with how things were done, maybe we should listen?"
And in this morning's GAA Statistics column Eamon Donoghue has looked at the increasing numbers of Irish players heading down under in a bid to make their mark in the AFL. Dublin's James Madden became the 53rd Irish player to come through the AFL system having signed with the Brisbane Lions last month. "In 2018, there were 12 Irish players in the AFL system; in 2017 there was a record high of 13. There'd been 11 in 2009 and 2016, and 10 in 2011 and 2015. . . prior to 2008, the highest number of Irish players in one year in Australia was seven (in 1990), and since then the lowest has been six in 2014."
