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Celtic in control of European destiny, Murray starts for Munster

Morning Sports Briefing: Keep ahead of the game with ‘The Irish Times’ sports team

The rescheduled Copa Libertadores final will be held at the Bernabéu. Photograph: Angel Martinez/Getty
The rescheduled Copa Libertadores final will be held at the Bernabéu. Photograph: Angel Martinez/Getty

Celtic's Europa League fate lies in their own hands after they beat Rosenborg 1-0 in Trondheim last night. Scott Sinclair's first half header proved enough for Brendan Rodgers' dominant side, who now only need a point in their final fixture at home to Red Bull Salzburg in order to make it into the knockouts. Salzburg beat the competition's other Red Bull franchise, Leipzig, 1-0 at home last night, leaving the Scottish champions on the brink of progression. Elsewhere Arsenal made it 18 games unbeaten with a 3-0 win away to Vorskla Poltava. The fixture was moved to Kiev's Olympic Stadium after parts of Ukraine were placed under martial law due to rising political tensions with Russia. Chelsea- already confirmed winners of Group L - thrashed PAOK 4-0 at Stamford Bridge, while 10-men Rangers held on for a goalless draw with Villarreal at Ibrox.

With the autumn internationals now just a warm, fuzzy memory the Pro14 takes centre-stage tonight, as Munster welcome Edinburgh to Musgrave Park. A fit again Conor Murray and centre Chris Farrell are set to make their first starts of the season following lengthy lay-offs, after they both appeared off the bench against Zebre last weekend. Andrew Conway also starts in Cork, and the winger has backed Andy Farrell to be a success when he succeeds Joe Schmidt as Ireland coach following next year's Rugby World Cup. "It's tough working with Andy because he's got such standards, but you see the benefit of it that comes out in the defence. Obviously keeping New Zealand try-less is pretty special. He's done that a few times and been involved in huge victories over New Zealand. He's definitely doing something right," he said.

The qualifying draw for the 2020 European Championships takes place in Dublin on Sunday (11.0am), with Ireland boss Mick McCarthy set to discover the magnitude of the task awaiting him over the next two years. A worst-case scenario could see Ireland lumbered with world champions France and second seeds Germany, which would make qualification fairly unlikely given only two teams progress from each group. The draw is predictably complicated, largely down the fact there are 12 host nations at Euro 2020 - including Ireland. However, Ruaidhrí Croke has done his best to simplify it for us, and you can read his guide to Sunday's qualifier draw HERE. You will also be able to follow the draw as it happens via our liveblog from 10.30am - what else would you be doing on a Sunday morning?

Elsewhere Patrick Reed and Patrick Cantlay lead the way at the Hero World Challenge after they opened with 65s in the Bahamas to sit three strokes clear on seven under par. Tiger Woods meanwhile struggled to a first round 73.

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The rescheduled Copa Libertadores final will take place at the Santiago Bernabéu, home of Real Madrid, on either December 8th or December 9th. The second leg between Boca Juniors and River Plate - postponed due to crowd trouble - will now be held more than 10,000km away from Buenos Aires.

And Gordon Elliott has said there will be "no excuses" for the prodigious Samcro as he takes on two-time Champion Hurdle winner Buveur D'Air in the Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle on Saturday. "I think he's good enough to be competitive in a Champion Hurdle, whether he's good enough to win one, I'm not God Almighty and I can't tell you that."

Patrick Madden

Patrick Madden

Patrick Madden is a former sports journalist with The Irish Times