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It's a big night on the continent for Dundalk tonight, with the Lilywhites taking on champions of the Faroe Islands KÍ for a place in the Europa League group stages. Filippo Giovagnoli's side head into the Aviva Stadium play-off as odds-on favourites to progress and secure a guaranteed windfall of around €4 million. It would be just the third time a League of Ireland side has made the Europa group stages - Dundalk also achieved the feat under Stephen Kenny in 2016-17 - while a victory for the underdogs would see them become the first Faroese side to ever make it into a major European competition. However, for Giovangnoli, the favourites tag hangs heavy: "They are a team that are really dangerous. They don't need to have the control of the game; they can be dangerous at any moment the way they play." The game kicks off at 7.30pm at the Aviva, and it being broadcast live by RTE. Elsewhere in the Europa qualifiers tonight, Celtic take on FK Sarajevo (7pm), Spurs play Maccabi Haifa (8pm) and Rangers welcome Galatasaray to Ibrox (7.35pm).
Manchester United are through to the quarter-finals of the League Cup after an unconvincing if ultimately emphatic 3-0 win over Brighton at the Amex Stadium last night, Scott McTominay, Juan Mata and Paul Pogba with the goals. Manchester City also progressed after a 3-0 win away to Burnley which saw summer signing Ferran Torres complete the scoring after a Raheem Sterling brace. Everton beat West Ham 4-1 while Newcastle needed an 87th-minute equaliser and a penalty shootout to squeeze past League Two's Newport County.
Elsewhere in today's rugby statistics column John O'Sullivan has looked at the four provinces and their use of players in recent interprovincial 'A' matches, ahead of a season where squad numbers could potentially be trimmed due to the coronavirus pandemic. He writes: "Provincial squads contract and use - including those in academies - more than 50 players in a season, something that will become increasingly difficult if revenue streams continue to be curtailed." Meanwhile Tadhg Beirne is looking forward to facing his old side the Scarlets for the first time this weekend as Munster travel to west Wales for their Pro14 opener: "Going back to Parc y Scarlets, ideally it would be nice going back there with a bit of a crowd there. But it probably works out in our favour that there's no crowd as well because I know how effective they can be over there."
Diarmuid Connolly has announced his retirement from intercounty football aged 33. One of the most gifted players of his generation, he won six All-Ireland titles with Dublin, only missing out on another in 2018 after taking a year off. Meanwhile Marc Ó Sé has suggested the prodigious David Clifford will be the key to Kerry unlocking the Dubs: "He's just phenomenal . . . If you look at the drawn match last year he didn't score that much, but he was such a huge influence; and again in the replay."
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And the LA Lakers have taken an early lead in the NBA finals after they cruised past the Miami Heat in Game 1, Anthony Davis top-scoring with 34 points in a 116-98 victory. Ahead of the game players lined out in t-shirts which read 'VOTE' ahead of the Presidential election on November 3rd.
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