DENMARK have emerged as the leading second-placed team that will qualify automatically for the final stages of Euro 2012.

SATURDAY

AT 3.23pm yesterday, Sunderland boss Steve Bruce could have been forgiven for getting his CV out.

THE wheel has come full circle. When Cork IT took their first tentative steps into Cork senior hurling championship waters back in 2001, it was a grim experience.

WHATEVER it takes.

“TO Dare Is To Do” reads one of the inspirational slogans picked out in blue letters against a white background inside White Hart Lane.

IT WAS Spurs legend Danny Blanchflower who coined the phrase “the glory game”, the title later used — somewhat ironically — for Hunter Davies’ groundbreaking book about a season at White Hart Lane in the early 1970s.

ANDRE VILLAS-BOAS’ recall of Frank Lampard was totally vindicated — but the Chelsea manager’s decision to substitute him backfired spectacularly as Valencia snatched a draw in last night’s Champions League clash at the Mestalla.

NEW YORK’S ladies football team will receive financial backing from the Ladies Gaelic Football Association (LGFA).

HAVING impressed in the summer games which concluded with that memorable defeat of Italy in Liege, Stephen Hunt was dismayed to find himself back on the bench again when Ireland returned to the serious business of Euro qualification against Slovakia in September.

THE Cabinet is expected to sign off today on a €40 million package to begin the clean-up of one of Ireland’s largest toxic waste dumps.

THE mounting speculation that shrouds Frank Lampard and his future role under new Chelsea manager Andre Villas-Boas shows no sign of adversely affecting the England midfielder’s form, as struggling Bolton will testify after he marked his 350th league appearance for his club with a devastating hat-trick.

HARRY REDKNAPP admitted before the latest north London derby he was surprised he hadn’t faced more competition from Arsene Wenger for the signature of Scott Parker.

GENERALLY viewed as deceased the world over, it turns out romance is actually alive, and may be seen, living and breathing, in a small town off the main Cork-Waterford road.

IT says everything about the topsy-turvy nature of this game that both teams will look back on theclosing credits of yesterday’s Meath SFC final and balance regrets with gratitude.

KEEPING Lar Corbett scoreless — it’s a winning formula.

IRELAND flanker Sean O’Brien declared the job was only half done after reaching the quarter-finals of the World Cup.

IT wasn’t pretty, of course it wasn’t. But it was effective. Just about.

PETER McDERMOTT, pictured, a star of Meath’s first All-Ireland SFC triumph in 1949, passed away yesterday at the age of 93.

DOUGLAS secured their second senior camogie title in three years with victory over Milford at Páirc Uí Rinn on Saturday afternoon.