1. #CHAMPIONS LEAGUE It wasn’t a vintage night for football by any means.
Olympique Marseille and Manchester United bored their way to a scoreless draw in the first leg of their Champions League last 16 tie, while Bayern Munich’s Mario Gomez popped up with a 90th minute away goal to steal a 1-0 win against Inter Milan in the San Siro. Inter keeper Julio Cesar will feel that he should have done a bit better.
In the Premiership, an early Sebastian Squillaci header gave Arsenal a 1-0 win over Stoke. Cesc Fabregas and Theo Walcott both had to be subbed off however and their injuries will be assessed by the Gunners’ medics today.
For the sadists among you, we covered the whole evening’s “entertainment” minute-by-minute. It wasn’t pretty last night, and it hasn’t improved in the cold light of day, but it’s still worth a read.
2. #FORE! Defending champion Ian Poulter was the first big name to fall at the WGC-Accenture Championship which kicked off in Arizona yesterday. He was knocked out by Stewart Cink who holed a 4-foot birdie on the 19th to seal his place in the second round.
We’ll have a full round-up of yesterday’s action later this morning.
3. #SIX NATIONS It was all change for both Declan Kidney and Andy Robinson as both coaches named their sides ahead of Sunday’s Six Nations encounter at Murrayfield.
Eoin Reddan, Ronan O’Gara and Tommy Bowe have all been promoted to the Irish starting 15 with O’Leary, Sexton and McFadden relegated to the bench. Read Frankie Sheahan’s thoughts on Kidney’s team selection here.
Meanwhile, Scotland have made seven changes to the side which lost to Wales two weeks ago. Ruaridh Jackson has been handed his first start ahead of Dan Parks, while Johnnie Beattie returns to restore the “Killer B” back-line to its full glory.
4. #EUROPA LEAGUE Manchester City, Liverpool and Rangers will all be hoping to take another step along the road to Dublin when their special brand of European adventure continues tonight.
Following a pair of 0-0 draws away from home last week, City host Aris Thessaloniki while Liverpool entertain Sparta Prague at Anfield.
Rangers were held to a 1-1 draw by Sporting Lisbon in Ibrox last Thursday, so they’ll at least need to score in Portugal tonight if they’re to have any chance of progressing.
We’ve more details on tonight’s games in our Europa League preview here.
5. #BIG APPLE In case you missed it, you should really check out John Riordan’s “View from New York” column on the turbulent relationship between Yankees’ captain Derek Jeter and owner Hank Steinbrenner.
Some things never change, eh?
6. #YOUTUBE ROUND-UP There have been a lot of good Youtube clips floating around this week, but we’ve more than likely missed a few gems. E-mail your favourites to sport@thescore.ie and we’ll see if there’s a home for them in our weekly Youtube round-up.
Check last week’s column to get an idea of the type of clip that will be worthy of inclusion. If you’re thinking of sending this video of Mike Tyson previewing the Oscars, there’s no need – we’ve already got that base covered.
