The Morning Sports Briefing

So close for Leinster

It was heartbreak for Leinster yesterday as they came agonisingly close to a place in the Champions Cup final and one of the most famous wins in their history in Marseille.

Matt O'Connor's side went toe-to-toe with back-to-back kings of Europe Toulon at the Stade Velodrome and came within touching distance of victory but were beaten 25-20 after extra time.

Gerry Thornley was in Marseille where Bryan Habana's extra time score proved the difference, as he intercepted Ian Madigan's pass to run half the length of the pitch and crash over the line.

The spotlight will be on Madigan after his costly mistake but it came in a performance of place-kicking maturity, writes Gavin Cummiskey, while backrow Jordi Murphy was rightly proud of his and his side's performance as they came up just short.

Villa sink Liverpool to reach cup final

Aston Villa are through to the FA Cup final after goals from Christian Benteke and Fabian Delph helped them to a 2-1 win over Liverpool at Wembley and put to bed Steven Gerrard's hopes of ending his career in England with a winner's medal.

Villa, who will play Arsenal in the final, were inspired by the performance of Jack Grealish, who Martin O'Neill should try and secure for Ireland, writes Ken Early.

Liverpool are now seven points off the top four following Manchester City's 2-0 win over West Ham at the Etihad, while in the day's other league fixture Tottenham beat Newcastle 3-1 at St James' Park.

In the Scottish FA Cup semi-final Inverness Caledonian Thistle stunned 10-man Celtic at Hampden Park, winning 3-2 after extra time.

Cork rally to beat Dublin

Cork are through to the Allianz League final after they reeled in Dublin from a 12 point deficit to run out 2-23 to 1-27 winners at Nowlan Park.

Ger Cunningham’s side led for virtually the entirety of the game but not when it mattered, with Seamus Harney’s late score giving the Rebels a dramatic victory.

Cork will play Waterford in the final after their rise continued with a 1-19 to 2-15 win over Tipperary at Nowlan Park despite conceding two early goals and trailing by five points after 13 minutes.

Fagan makes Rio time

Martin Fagan faces a potential dilemma after he ran well within the Rio 2016 Olympic qualifying time in the Zurich marathon, but in what was his first marathon since returning from a two-year doping ban which kept him out of London 2012.

Two athletes who will be competing at Rio are boxers Paddy Barnes and Michael Conlan, who both won their World Series of Boxing fights in Venezuela to book their place on the plane to Brazil.

Curragh hattrick for Bolger

Trainer Ted Walsh is awaiting the judgement of the Turf Club's Referrals Committee into the reopened Foxrock case, while Jim Bolger secured an 840/1 hattrick at the Curragh as he gears up to the Newmarket 1,000 Guineas in a fortnight's time.

Another GP for Hamilton

Elsewhere, defending champion Lewis Hamilton picked up his third win of the season in the Bahrain Grand Prix.

What to watch out for:

Snooker

World Championship, The Crucible. BBC 2, 10am-noon, 1pm-2pm, 3pm-6pm

Eurosport, 10am-1pm, 2pm-6pm, 7pm-11pm

Tennis

ATP Barcelona Open, Sky Sports 3, 12.30pm-6.30pm

Football

Youth Cup final , Manchester City v Chelsea ITV4 from 7.30pm

Fiorentina v Verona BT Sport 1 from 7.45pm