ireland.com - The Irish Times

Cole carves out Chelsea edge
SOCCER/Chelsea 1 Liverpool 0: It was a match to make grudges respectable. While Chelsea are out to avenge the loss to Liverpool in the Champions League semi-final two years ago, they were measured throughout a victory that makes them favourites to take their place in Athens on May 23rd. The Stamford Bridge side played cunningly on the break in a first half that might have settled the entire tie. p

Waterford can turn the tide
GAELIC GAMES: Ian O'Riordan talks to former manager Tony Mansfield who outlines why Waterford can triumph on Sunday p

Form book gives Leinster plenty to smile about
RUGBY: Leinster's chances of beating the Ospreys in their pivotal Magners Celtic League match at the Liberty Stadium tomorrow are as good as they could wish for going by previous clashes. The Welsh side have beaten the Dublin outfit only once in their eight matches and last time out, in Donnybrook earlier this year, Leinster ran in six tries to convincingly win 45-22. p

Benitez left with much to ponder
Dominic Fifield reflects on the antipathy which has developed between Rafael Benitez and Jose Mourinho p
Engaging pocket dynamo who never forgot his roots
Alan Ball, who has died aged 61 of a heart attack, was the kid in 1966. Barely 21, red haired, as cheeky as he looked, squeaky of voice, huge of heart, fuelled on desire, he ran those little legs into the ground. All his team-mates said he was man of the match, despite Geoff Hurst's hat-trick. p
Fines for United, Roma
Manchester United have been fined £14,500 by Uefa following the crowd trouble at the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final against Roma. The Italian club were fined £31,000 at the same disciplinary hearing. p
United still have mountain to climb
Uefa Champions League: With Manchester United it is never over until the fat lady has collapsed in a wheezing heap. "No other team scores as many late goals as us," Alex Ferguson likes to boast, and whatever happens in the remainder of this season's Champions League there can be no doubting their current status as the most exciting team in Europe. p
Lennon opts to leave Celtic
Neil Lennon seems set to finish his playing career in England, having confirmed yesterday he will leave Celtic after six and a half years at the club when his contract expires at the end of the season. p
Soccer Shorts
Today's other stories in brief p

Maughan targets elusive national title
"You know I've still never won a national title as manager." It's only when John Maughan volunteers this information that the full meaning of Sunday's National Football League Division Two final is appreciated. p

Top award for D'Arcy again
IRUPA awards: Gordon D'Arcy's status as one of the players of the decade in Irish rugby was reaffirmed last night when he became the first man to receive the players' player of the year for a second time in the five-year history of the Irish Rugby Union Players Association awards. p

Inca has grit to deliver
Brave Inca ventures into new territory at Punchestown this afternoon when a first attempt at three miles could be the start of a whole new chapter in the career of this remarkable racehorse. p
Punjabi poised to grasp opportunity
Punjabi has had the thankless task of chasing the season's outstanding juvenile Katchit on his last two starts but some valuable compensation looks to be waiting for Nicky Henderson's horse this afternoon p
Neptune shines bright
He might not be as good as Kauto Star, or even Denman, but Neptune Collonges still proved more than able enough to pick up yesterday's Guinness Gold Cup at Punchestown and put a perfect €250,000 seal on the season for Ruby Walsh and Paul Nicholls. p

Clarke looks to kick-start season
There are far bigger weeks coming up, but at the end of the season Darren Clarke hopes to look back on this one as the turning point in his fortunes. The 38-year-old is the best-known name at the Spanish Open in Madrid, but no longer the highest-ranked player. p
A first for Wetterich
Brett Wetterich could hardly keep the smile off his face on Tuesday as he prepared for his title defence at this week's Byron Nelson Championship. p
Not quite right time to drop Jacquelin
With 24 weeks of tournaments in the Golf Masters' schedule and just 10 transfers at their disposal it's little wonder that our managers live in a constant state of befuddlement over whether or not to save those transfers for a rainy day, or act while their team is struggling. Like now. p
Manager makes right call after Johnson's K Club form
The manner in which Ronan Neacy recruited his star player for his Golf Masters' team this year brought back memories of our favourite moment from the competition's history, one that happened, somewhat alarmingly, when Ronan was just 10 years old. p

Noting the passing of a man for all seasons
America at Large: I had just turned 30 when I got a fan letter from David Halberstam. It was a short note, telling me how much he enjoyed the sports columns I was then writing for the Boston Phoenix. I was flattered, though probably not as deeply as I should have been. A decade earlier Halberstam had won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting from Vietnam for the New York Times, but he had only a year or two earlier published The Best and the Brightest, the book that would catapult him to prominence. p
Hendry shows great battling qualities
SNOOKER/World Championship: Stephen Hendry expressed satisfaction with the "attitude and concentration" that helped him turn 5-1 arrears into an unconvincing 10-7 win over Dave Gilbert, a 500 to 1 outsider, in the World Championship at The Crucible in Sheffield yesterday. p
Clinical Aussies sweep to easy victory
CRICKET: Australia ruthlessly swept aside their closest challengers on the international stage to march relentlessly towards a fourth successive World Cup final. p
Ireland on course for Federation promotion
TENNIS: Ireland's 3-0 win over Moldova yesterday in their group three Europe/Africa Zone Federation Cup tie in Mauritius puts them in the perfect position for promotion into a higher Federation Cup group next year, writes Johnny Watterson . p

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