BENFICA will take a slight advantage into the second leg of their all-Portuguese Europa League semi-final following a deserved victory over Braga at the Estadio da Luz.

WHEN Torres scored on Saturday, the man himself looked delighted, but that was nothing compared to the reaction of the fans or his team-mates.

ELAINE Hyland left her home soon after 9am on December 12, 2006. She was accompanied by her two daughters, aged four and two. The older girl was being dropped to school.

STAFF at the controversial Rostrevor House Nursing Home, which was officially shut down by court order on Wednesday, are still owed €56,000 in unpaid wages and allowances.

GREYHOUND followers have classic action on three fronts on Saturday night.

SO how do you solve a problem like Messi? Happily for the rest of us, that’s one for Alex Ferguson to puzzle out tonight. Banning him is out of the question, I suppose, so that removes one of the manager’s favourite tactics for handling tricky customers.

THERE was a time when Gary Maguire had to sustain himself on back-slaps and handshakes.

FRANCISCO PIEDRAHITA, a 65-year-old head of a university in Colombia, said he heard searchers and called for help the morning after he got lost in a Louisiana swamp. But it was three more days before he was found.

THREE reception rooms, four bedrooms, a lot of garden, and a cul de sac setting facing a green, are all to the favour of 56 Wrenville, a detached family home on the Kinsale road just outside Carrigaline in Cork.

At Bayview House Tommy Barker finds a harbour hillside property that brightly lives up to promise of the site’s prospect — exceptional.

Drumcondra’s Don Patricio became Barcelona’s manager just before the city was taken over by anarchists, the club’s president was shot and liquidation loomed. Richard Fitzpatrick unravels a club legend’s story

FERGUS McFADDEN spoke three days ago about his frustrations at spending all but 15 minutes on the bench in Cardiff but the Ireland international will get his chance from the first whistle at Thomond Park this weekend.

THE WORDS “cat” and “cream” immediately spring to mind, when a beaming Michael Fassbender comes loping into the Dorchester Hotel in London this week.

PUPPY OAKS champion Droopys Twirl, is the likely favourite for the Sporting Press Irish Oaks which starts at Shelbourne tomorrow night.

TWELVE years ago, almost eight decades after the FAI had been founded, the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland faced one another in a senior international friendly for the very first time.