The Republic of Ireland rounded off a difficult 2020-21 campaign with a 0-0 draw away to Hungary in Budapest last night. Stephen Kenny's side headed into the fixture on the back of last week's 4-1 win away to Andorra - the first of his tenure - and emerged with a deserved draw to ensure they ended a tricky international break unbeaten. Goalkeepers Gavin Bazunu and Caoimhín Kelleher played a half each and both delivered assured performances, with the visitors finishing strongly against a side who will play against Portugal, France and Germany at Euro 2020. The evening was marred however by Irish players being booed for taking a knee ahead of kick-off, with 10,000 supporters clicking through the turnstiles at the Szusza Ferenc stadium. Afterwards, Kenny said: "I think it was the right decision. I was approached to see if we wanted to take the knee. In fact, I approached Barry Gleeson [FAI international operations director] and insisted that we wanted to take the knee. I think it is a very very important message. The fact that it was booed is incomprehensible really. It must be damaging for Hungary with the Euros." Meanwhile debutant Chiedozie Ogbene, who showed some electric pace in a late cameo, said: "I was hoping to come on just to score in front of their fans. Maybe it was the best thing it didn't happen as I might have let my emotions get the better of me with any sort of celebration I would have done."
In his column this morning Darragh Ó Sé has looked forward to this weekend's final round of league fixtures. Only, he believes, they are essentially Championship fixtures, given the condensed calendar and the close proximity of the main event. He writes: "Even more crucially, there's no time lag worth talking about between now and championship. It leaves no real room for shadow boxing or experimenting. The time for learning on the job is gone now, realistically. Half the teams playing this weekend have only two games left in their year - this one and the first round of the championship. If you're not going full pelt over the next fortnight or three weeks, it's seven or eight months before you get another shot at it." And he has identified Donegal's clash with Dublin in Cavan on Saturday as one to particularly savour: "A game against the Dubs is different. It's a chance to see what's going on out in the rest of the world. But it's also a chance to take a scalp. There's no such thing as a bad win over Dublin, no matter how it comes about. But especially if they managed to pull it off this close to championship. You couldn't send away for a better launchpad for the Ulster championship."
Elsewhere Munster coach Stephen Larkham has discussed an incident which saw four senior players - Damien de Allende, RG Snyman, CJ Stander and Mike Haley - injured by a firepit. Stander and Haley are unlikely to feature against Zebre on Friday, while the South African duo are due to meet up with the Springboks this month ahead of the Lions tour. Larkham said: "It's a good lesson for them and it will be a good lesson for anyone who reads up on the story. You've got to respect things around a fire pit . . . We've heard most of the story and it was fairly scary for the boys.It could have been a lot worse so there's a lot of relief amongst the team at the moment." Meanwhile Connacht confirmed the departure of a further six senior players yesterday, among them Paddy McAllister, who is retiring from rugby.
At the French Open Stefanos Tsitsipas is through to the semi-finals, after he swept away second seed Daniil Medvedev 6-3 7-6 (3) 7-5 at Roland Garros yesterday. Tsitsipas will meet Alexander Zverev in the last four following the German's 6-4, 6-1, 6-1 win over the unseeded Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich. Today in the men's draw all eyes will be on Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, who face Diego Schwartzman and Matteo Berrettini respectively. Meanwhile in the women's quarter-finals Coco Gauff takes on Barbora Krejcíková and Maria Sakkari plays Iga Swiatek.
Kellie Harrington rounded off her trip to Paris in style yesterday, as she secured lightweight gold with victory over Britain's Caroline Dubois - sister of professional heavyweight Daniel.
And Ireland's hockey players can make history today when they take on Spain's women in their final pool game at the EuroHockey Championships, with victory sending them into the semi-finals of the tournament for the first time, as well as securing qualification for the 2022 World Cup. That gets underway at 11.30am with coverage live on RTE 2 from 11am.
