Thursday Morning Sports Update

Keeping you up to date on GAA, soccer, golf, rugby and racing.

GAA

Meath booked their place in the semi-finals of the Leinster under-20 Football Championship last night.

The Royals beat Longford by 3-15 to 12 points, topping Group 2 and skipping the quarter-final stage.

Dublin are out, after a 2-16 to 2-13 defeat at the hands of Westmeath.

They'll face Kildare in the last eight next Wednesday, with Longford facing Offaly, who beat Wicklow by 18 points to 2-5.

SOCCER

Liverpool manager Arne Slot has defended his decision to leave Mo Salah on the bench as his team slumped to a 2-nil defeat against Paris Saint-Germain last night.

It leaves them up against it going into the second leg of their Champions League quarter-final.

Slot says there was no point bringing Salah on - as they had no chance of scoring.

Elsewhere, Atletico Madrid ended a 25-game winless run at Camp Nou, beating Barcelona 2-0 in the first leg of their tie.

Two English sides compete in the Europa League play-offs later on.

It's away first legs for both, with Aston Villa the visitors to Bologna.

While Nottingham Forest are in Portugal to face Porto.

Both matches kick off at 8pm.

GOLF

Rory McIlroy begins his bid to claim back-to-back Masters titles this afternoon.

The defending champion tees off his opening round at 3:30pm - Irish Time - alongside World Number Three Cam Young and amateur Mason Howell.

Shane Lowry gets his campaign underway with Dustin Johnson and Jason Day at around 2:45pm.

McIlroy's fellow Holywood clubman Tom McKibbin makes his Masters debut at 4:15pm.

RUGBY
Ireland will name their team this morning for Saturday's Women's Six Nations opener against world champions England.

Dorothy Wall and captain Erin King could both return after missing most of last year, including the World Cup, with long-term injuries.

Around 75,000 tickets have been sold for the game at Twickenham - it's on course to break the tournament's attendance record.

RACING

Day one of the Aintree Grand National Festival features four Grade One races on a high-quality card.

Nicky Henderson's Jango Baie heads the betting for the Bowl Chase after finishing second in the Cheltenham Gold Cup.

The Aintree Hurdle is the feature today, with the Willie Mullins-trained El Fabiolo up against Gordon Elliott's Brighterdaysahead.

The first on the seven race card goes to post at 1:45pm.