BUMPER WEEK OF SPORT
IT was a busy week in the world of sport.
Now at the business end of the competition, the Champions League saw all the big hitters make their move. In Tuesday’s quarter-final first legs, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich both gained precious away wins at Seville and Juventus, while Barcelona and Liverpool had big home wins against Roma and Man City.
All the major players made significant contributions to their clubs success but the prize for goal of the week goes to Madrid’s Christiano Ronaldo. Turned 33 in February, the five time Ballon d’Or winner is showing no signs of aging. In fact he appears to be getting better with his advancing years. His goalscoring record since he joined Real Madrid in 2009 is quite incredible - 308 goals in 289 appearances.
But none was better than his audacious bicycle kick on Tuesday night in Turin when even the home fans rose to their feet to applaud the Portuguese maestro.
Liverpool’s Mo Salah is another star who is having one of those seasons. The Premierships top scorer was again among the goals as his side dismantled Man City in a 3-0 first half drubbing at Anfield. The Egyptian has now netted 29 times for the Reds so far this season and shows no signs of stopping.
Man City’s miserable week was completed when rivals Man Utd came from two goals down to win 3-2 to deny Pep Guardiola’s side the chance to win the title against their City rivals. The champagne is on hold for another week at least.
It was a great week for local sides in the domestic game with both Dundalk and Drogheda beating title rivals to go top of their respective leagues. Dundalk took advantage of Cork’s defeat in Waterford as they held on for a hard fought 2-1 victory over Shamrock Rovers at Oriel Park. The win elevates Stephen Kenny’s side to top of the table ahead of surprise packets Waterford on goal difference.
The Waterford/Cork game finished with a ‘milling match’ involving both teams and benches which resulted in six players and officials seeing red.
Drogheda moved top of the First Division, again on goal difference, with an excellent 2-0 win over previous leaders UCD at United Park. Second half goals for Gareth McCaffrey and Lee Duffy were sufficient to see off the visitors. watered at a makeshift feeding station. I took a detour on my way home to catch the second half of Glen Emmets league game against St Mochtas.
It was Graham Geraghty’s first serious game in charge of the Tullyallen men but it unfortunately ended in defeat. I don’t know whether it was the standard of football or not but the person on the pitch who impressed me most was referee Aidan Shevlin. For the half hour I watched, the former Finbarrs and Stabannon man stood out for all the right reasons with his handling of affairs in a typical first match of the season tussle.