And so the ‘Hand Of Gaul’ turned into the ‘Hand-Out Of Gaul’.

This year has been a mixed bag for Irish players based in Britain and beyond.

While the spotlight in tonight’s Champions League Group F game between APOEL of Nicosia and Barcelona will as usual mainly be on blaugrana superstars Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar, Barca’s defenders will do well to keep an eye on the home side’s Cavan-born centre-forward Cillian Sheridan.

Paris St-Germain shrugged off the absence of Zlatan Ibrahimovic to inflict a first defeat on Barcelona under their new coach Luis Enrique, with a thrilling 3-2 victory at the Parc des Princes last night.

While next month’s European Championship qualifiers against Gibraltar and Germany might be just three days apart, the gulf in standard between Ireland’s opponents is about as wide as it gets in international football, running all the way from unranked minnows to the champions of the world.

Roma opened their Champions League Group E campaign in style with a 5-1 mauling of Russian side CSKA Moscow at the Stadio Olimpico.

So Cillian Sheridan, playing for APOEL from Nicosia in Cyprus, is the sole Irish representative in the Champions League group stages for 2014/2015.

At just 25, Cavan native Cillian Sheridan is about to contest his third group stage of European competition, for three different clubs in three different countries.

Cavan native Cillian Sheridan scored a great goal for Cypriot side APOEL FC last night as they beat Aalborg 4-0 and progressed to the group stages of the Champions League.

Champions League Play-Off Second Leg

The backdrop to last night’s events in Dublin had been a negative one, despite the Stockholm result, focused as it was on past defeats to Austria who have found encounters with Ireland, more often than not, to their liking.

Hearts 0 Kilmarnock 3

Kilmarnock 2 Inverness 0

Celtic 4 Kilmarnock 1

Irish winger Willo Flood hailed Dundee United’s cutting edge after yet another 3-0 win over local rivals Dundee yesterday.

Kilmarnock 1 Celtic 3

Kilmarnock 2 Queen of South 1

Celtic 0 Kilmarnock 2

Hearts 1 Kilmarnock 3

Celtic 1 St Johnstone 0

Celtic 2 St Johnstone 0

Inverness 0 St Johnstone 1

Celtic midfielder Joe Ledley has backed his side to bounce back after their long winning run came to an end against Aberdeen at Pittodrie on Saturday.

Kilmarnock 0 St Johnstone 0

Pat Fenlon lauded a stoic Hibernian display as his new-look team claimed a place in the Scottish Cup quarter-finals with a 1-0 win over Kilmarnock.

The Good

The Good

NEIL LENNON admitted his concern about his Celtic side’s title hopes after the 2-0 defeat to Hearts at Tynecastle yesterday.

Kilmarnock 1 St Johnstone 2

Hibernian 3 St Johnstone 2

St Johnstone manager Derek McInnes backed Cillian Sheridan to embark on a goalscoring run after the forward’s first strikes of the season secured a 2-0 victory over Hearts.

St Johnstone 2 Hearts 0

St Johnstone have beaten Hibernian to the loan signing of Cillian Sheridan.

NOT Russia.

Republic of Ireland boss Giovanni Trapattoni has rewarded his senior players for their efforts in last night’s 2-1 Euro 2012 qualifier victory over Macedonia by sending them home.

UNTIL recently, all that Jon Walters had in common with Robbie Keane was the vast number of clubs he has played for, although the Tottenham man’s curriculum vitae of Liverpool and Inter Milan is a little more impressive than Chester, Wrexham and Scunthorpe.

AIDEN MCGEADY flying in Moscow, Damien Duff back for Fulham and Liam Lawrence kicking off anew in Portsmouth – even with Stephen Hunt still on the sidelines at Wolves, Giovanni Trapattoni knows that three into two won’t go when it comes to choosing his wing men for next Friday’s crunch game against Russia.

Everton defender Seamus Coleman has been handed his first senior call-up by the Republic of Ireland today.

AND the big news from the squad announcement for the games against Russia and Slovakia is that, well, there’s no big news really.

Republic of Ireland manager Giovanni Trapattoni today announced a 26-man preliminary list from which a final squad will be selected for the upcoming Group B European Championship qualifiers.

ROBBIE KEANE and Marco Tardelli have sought to dampen concerns about the Irish skipper’s fitness as the Irish squad prepares to fly out to Yerevan today ahead of Friday’s opening Group B qualifier against Armenia.

The Republic of Ireland Under-21s depart for Switzerland today, with four changes to the squad originally announced for the double-header UEFA European Championship qualifying matches against Switzerland and Turkey.

REPUBLIC of Ireland midfielder Keith Andrews has been ruled out of the Euro 2012 qualifiers against Armenia and Andorra after failing to recover from the groin strain that has kept him sidelined in recent weeks.