Previous Day
Gattuso puts boot in early
The San Siro crowd was in raptures and many households on Merseyside also had a jolly evening. Any 3-0 defeat for Manchester United counts as a jewel of television scheduling if you are a Liverpool supporter, write Kevin McCarra and Daniel Taylor. p
Deadline given to resolve dispute
European Cup: Mark McCafferty, the chief executive of Premier Rugby Ltd (representing the 12 Premiership sides in England) has said the dispute between the Premiership clubs and the English RFU needs to be resolved before the Heineken European Cup final in Twickenham on May 20th. Johnny Watterson reports p
Harrington off to a fast start with six birdies
GOLF/Wachovia Championship: Padraig Harrington,
helped by a red-hot putter, took early control at the Wachovia
Championship with a six-under-par 66 in yesterday's opening
round. p
Soccer
Impressive Sevilla will defend title in Glasgow
Uefa Cup semi-finals, second legs/Sevilla 2 Osasuna 0: Holders Sevilla remain on course to win a second successive Uefa Cup title after brushing aside Osasuna to book their place in the May 16th final at Glasgow's Hampden Park. pEspanyol given impetus by Klose's early dismissal
Werder Bremen 1 Espanyol 2: Espanyol beat 10-man Werder Bremen last night to cruise into an all-Spanish Uefa Cup final with a 5-1 aggregate success. pPromoted clubs stand to make €88m
Roy Keane's newly promoted Sunderland stand to make around €88 million for reaching the Premiership, with the lion's share of that coming from improved television money in addition to anticipated increases in match-day, sponsorship and merchandising income. pO'Donovan seals points for Cork
Cork City 1 St Patrick's Athletic 0: This game promised top billing and those in attendance were certainly treated to a top match. Football played on the deck throughout, ebbing and flowing from one end to the next. Not quite "total football" but a genuine advertisement for the summer game nonetheless. pDrogheda boosted as injury worries ease
Drogheda United's recent injury crisis shows signs of easing ahead of this evening's visit to the RSC in Waterford where manager Paul Doolin expects to have Brian Shelley, Damien Lynch, Declan O'Brien and Eamon Zayed fit enough to feature while Glen Fitzpatrick returns from suspension. pTributes paid to Ball
Soccer Shorts: Former England team-mates paid tribute to Alan Ball yesterday at a thanksgiving service for the widely-admired midfielder, who died last week aged 61. p
Knee injury puts Bellew out of championship
With their championship starts only weeks away, both Armagh and Dublin have injury worries. The former's are the more serious with the confirmation that former All Star defender Francie Bellew has damaged his cruciate ligament and will miss the entire season. pLaois are unchanged for final challenge
Laois have named an unchanged team for tomorrow's Cadbury All-Ireland under-21 football final in Thurles against Cork. The team that defeated defending champions Mayo in the semi-final will be the first to represent the county at this stage for nine years. pBring it alive with the sound of music
Mostly Hurling: Any of us who frequent hurling matches in the many fine venues around the country know what it's like to suffer the noise that is supposed to pass for music before and at half-time at these games, writes John Allen p
O'Connell back in action
Celtic League: Ireland and Munster secondrow Paul O'Connell makes his first competitive start since he injured his hand against Scotland in this year's Six Nations Championship when he lines out in tonight's Magners Celtic League game against Edinburgh in Murrayfield. pChanges for Connacht
Coach Michael Bradley has made three changes in personnel as well as one positional switch to the Connacht team ahead of their Magners Celtic League clash with the Newport Gwent Dragons at Rodney Parade tonight. p
Lehman suffers as Swede sets record
Italian Open: Tom Lehman was given further proof yesterday of the strength in depth of the European Tour. p
Teofilo out of Guineas as knee problem returns
Dreams of a first Triple Crown winner in 37 years were dashed yesterday when Teofilo was taken out of tomorrow's 2,000 Guineas line-up at Newmarket and doubts about whether he will be ready to make next month's Epsom Derby appear to be growing. p
Scots end in deadlock as Murphy grabs lead
SNOOKER/World Championships: Stephen Maguire, hoping to have his name inscribed on the 80-year-old trophy alongside fellow Scots Walter Donaldson, Stephen Hendry, John Higgins and Graeme Dott, led Higgins 3-1 and 4-3 but will resume their best-of-33-frames tie today at 4-4. pHiggins faces strong challenge
MOTORSPORT: Isle of Man-born Mark Higgins collected maximum Global Irish Tarmac Rally Championship points in Galway and the Easter Rally to lead the series by 11 points from Eamonn Boland. pSetanta in new deal
HOCKEY: The Irish Hockey Association announced plans yesterday for a new men's and women's international tournament with Setanta Sports the title sponsor. Mary Hannigan reports. pClub regattas back to the fore
ROWING: Clubs take centre stage again this weekend as Limerick and Portadown stage big regattas tomorrow. pBig teams line up for new Tour
CYCLING: The organisers of the new Tour of Ireland have said that they are confident of attracting a strong line-up for the five-day race, which will fill the gap left when the final Nissan Classic took place back in 1992, writes Shane Stokes pVegas set for biggest bout in years
BOXING: Oscar De La Hoya has predicted he will roll back the years to prove he is the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world when he faces the challenge of the undefeated Floyd Mayweather at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas tomorrow with De La Hoya's WBC world light-middleweight title at stake. pEvans has fine start at Badminton
EQUESTRIAN: Jonty Evans has made the best possible start on his debut at the prestigious Badminton three-day event, slotting into equal 10th after the first day of dressage at the British fixture. pNew keel proves more trouble than it's worth
SAILING: New-fangled technology designed to give an edge in last year's Commodore's Cup has already gone overboard in Cork this season in favour of a conventional method. p
