Real Madrid ended their long wait for an El Clasico victory with a 2-0 win against Barcelona to move above their fierce rivals and back to the top of LaLiga.

REALITY is very quickly catching up with Quique Setien, whose first month in his dream job as Barcelona coach has not gone as he would have hoped.

If Catholics visit Lourdes and Muslims make pilgrimage to Mecca, then football fans must go see Messi, writes Tommy Martin.

Stop, stop, stop. Halt the election campaign in its tracks. Climate change action: cease and desist. We have a far more pressing issue to hand, one which requires urgent action.

Let’s face it, decades ain’t what they used to be. There was a time was when you knew where you stood with a decade. The sixties? Flower power and beards. The seventies? Sideburns and disco. The eighties? Everything was massive: shoulder pads, mobile phones, hair. You used to be able to tell a decade simply by looking at the trousers involved.

It's been a decade of thrilling drama, fantastic games, and great players but who makes our our team of the last 10 years? This lot would take some beating

The past and the present are in a permanent state of war with each other, generally over which is best — and never more so than in football.

The clash between Real Madrid’s new midfield hope, and Barcelona’s returning central figure, could go a long way to deciding tonight’s La Liga Clasico.

Rory McIlroy is by a distance the Irish sportsperson of the decade, writes Kieran Shannon.

I’ve ducked and dodged and weaved like Lionel Messi the footballer, but the Christmas season is also the time for confessing and repenting.

With the Chrismas clasico just a few weeks away, Barcelona and Real Madrid put on impressive weekend displays at the top of La Liga.

It is the Barcelona players sixth time winning the award.

Switzerland topped Ireland’s qualification group with an easy 6-1 win away to Gibraltar in their final match last night, with Cedric Itten scoring twice.

Much obliged to the pal who boosted my spirits during the week.

It is a record sixth time that the Argentina star has been named FIFA’s best player.

16-year-old Ansu Fati became the youngest Barcelona player to feature in the Champions League.

Shamrock Rovers have struck up a sponsorship agreement with the Clondalkin Towers Direct Provision Centre to bring residents to home games at Tallaght Stadium. Ciarán Kennedy boarded the bus with the newest fans of domestic football and got a taste of their restricted experience of Irish life.

Antoine Griezmann responded to the challenge laid down by coach Ernesto Valverde with a brilliant display as Barcelona came from behind to thrash Real Betis 5-2.

The late father of former Republic of Ireland player and Assistant Manager, Roy Keane, considered all of his children to be stars, his funeral mass has heard.

Ahead of the 2019/20 La Liga season — which kicks off tonight — Dermot Corrigan looks at the key storylines to follow in the months ahead

Atletico Madrid are beginning legal action as they bid to put a halt to Barcelona’s swoop for the France international forward Antoine Griezmann.

Lionel Messi was controversially sent off as Argentina beat Chile 2-1 to win the Copa America third-place play-off in Sao Paulo.

Colombia got their Copa America campaign off to a flying start by securing a long-awaited win over Argentina.

Wednesday evening had been intended as Cinema Evening, a new picture house having opened around the corner and being in need of investigation and appraisal. Given my enduring weakness for high-school movies there was only going to be one winner: Booksmart, in which two clever students realise on the eve of graduation that they should have worked less and played more, upon which they hit the town and attempt to cram four years of lost fun into one night.

The list sees 35 NBA players, 19 from the NFL and 15 from Major League Baseball

Lost, amid the sublime composure of £75 million Virgil van Dijk, the fan-pleasing marauding runs of full-backs Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andrew Robertson and the promise of Joe Gomez, stands Joel Matip, the forgotten centre-half who may have as big a say in tomorrow’s Champions League Final as any Liverpool star.

Reminiscing about Liverpool’s greatest European heroes takes you on a journey of some of football’s most iconic names

In July 2017, Tiger Woods arranged for his two kids to meet Argentine forward Lionel Messi while Barcelona were in Florida for a pre-season match.

The one word uppermost in the minds of all Barcelona players, fans and pundits throughout this season was ‘Roma’.

Think about the greatest atmospheres and greatest occasions you have ever seen or experienced at Anfield since the day Bill Shankly walked into the famous old ground 60 years ago and vowed to turn it into a bastion of invincibility.

Liverpool are through to the Champions League final after beating Barcelona 4-0 in the semi-final second leg at Anfield to win 4-3 on aggregate.

It can’t have just been me who appreciated Lionel Messi that little bit more on Wednesday evening.

Luis Suarez led the way and Lionel Messi added the killer blows as Barcelona battled to a 3-0 victory in last night’s Champions League semi-final first leg at the Camp Nou.

It’s been interesting to see the way Barca have managed their Champions League away fixtures this season because not all their matches have proved to be end-to-end goal feasts.

Roberto Firmino’s absence from Liverpool’s starting line-up forced an alteration to the Premier League side’s usual shape.

Virgil Van Dijk has dismissed talk of winning the Ballon d’Or and insists he is fully focused on attempting to shackle “out of this world” Lionel Messi in the Champions League.

With Barcelona set to seal the title tonight, Dermot Corrigan wraps the LaLiga campaign

There was no miracle comeback last night for Ole Gunner Solakjaer and Manchester United, 20 years on from his greatest day in football and one round on from that famous victory against Paris Saint Germain in the Champions League last 16.

If Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s new-look Manchester United needed a calibration to measure how far they have come since Jose Mourinho

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s ability to inspire Manchester United to a memorable Champions League victory over PSG underlined the Norwegian’s credentials.

Manchester United managed to stifle Lionel Messi, bloodied and bowed after a nasty first-half injury, but their nemesis Luis Suarez played the pivotal part in the only goal of this Champions League quarter-final first leg.

If Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s new-look Manchester United needed a calibration to measure how far they have come since Jose Mourinho departed then this match, despite the result, should leave them standing tall.

And in different circumstances, he believes Roy Keane could have been the man to shape that philosophy.

Daniel Storey previews the four Champions League quarter-finals.