Manchester United will play Villarreal in the Europa League final, after they beat AS Roma 8-5 on aggregate to progress to the showpiece in Gdansk. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's side were beaten 3-2 last night at the Stadio Olimipico - Edinson Cavani scoring a brace - but had done more than enough in the first leg to ensure safe passage to Poland. United will meet the Yellow Submarine in the final after they held Arsenal to a goalless draw at the Emirates, with manager Unai Emery knocking his former employers out 2-1 on aggregate. Tonight there is a sole Premier League fixture as Newcastle travel to Leicester (8pm), while in the League of Ireland Derry City host Longford Town and Sligo Rovers travel to Dundalk.

Warren Gatland announced his Lions squad for this summer's tour to South Africa yesterday, with eight Irish players set to travel - if it goes ahead. Gatland's Irish eight are Tadhg Furlong, Robbie Henshaw, Bundee Aki, Iain Henderson, Andrew Porter, Conor Murray, Tadhg Beirne and Jack Conan. However, eye catching absentees include James Ryan, Garry Ringrose and, perhaps most of all, Johnny Sexton. Gerry Thornley writes: "Sexton is still a better Test outhalf than any of Owen Farrell, Finn Russell or Dan Biggar. He's proved this on previous tours and previous Six Nations, and again in the 2021 Six Nations, when having the most minutes, scoring the most points and having the biggest influence at 10. As in 2013 and 2017, the Lions' chances in the Test series would be better for having him in the team, never mind the squad. His absence weakens them."

Elsewhere in his column this morning Johnny Watterson has looked at the proposed, Saudi-funded breakaway golf league - what he sees as another sports-washing operation by the gulf state. He writes: "One notable difference between the golf billion and the soccer billions, is the soccer Super League, which imploded, was simple greed while the proposed golf tour is part of Saudi's pause reality policy. Not wishing to nitpick but the rep of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) took a bit of a dint when his men lured, strangled and dismembered journalist and arch critic of the regime Jamal Khashoggi in their embassy in Turkey in 2018."

And Irish athletes in the Olympics and Paralympics are set to receive their Covid-19 vaccinations ahead of this summer's games in Tokyo. Pfizer Biontech will supply the jabs, as Ian O'Riordan reports.