The Morning Sports Briefing

Soccer: Champions League

Barcelona have had to brush off more talk of controversy this week in the Spanish media as Lionel Messi and Gerard Pique were both pictured outside a casino late on Sunday night, following their team’s horror-show loss to Malaga and prior to tonight’s Champions League encounter with Manchester City.

Regardless of the drama, Samir Nasri is confident that the Premier League champions can create their own history with a famous coup over the Catalans. First though they will have to face the demons of last year's 4-1 aggregate defeat to the same opponents, a game the French midfielder says they gave Barcelona too much respect in.

Rugby: England missing key man

Ahead of Ireland's much anticipated Six Nations encounter with England this Sunday, despite the challenges travelling on that day present, one expert in the corporate/ticketing line of work anticipates the travelling English army will more than double its official allocation, which is technically just shy of 5,000. Thanks to Irish clubs cashing in.

He predicts there could be as many as 15,000 English fans in the Aviva Stadium with a huge English presence inside the ground as well as around town.

Those English fans have been dealt an early blow nonetheless as the odds on influential fullback Mike Brown featuring on Sunday are lengthening after he suffered a setback in his recovery from concussion.

GAA: Fitzgibbon hangs in the balance

Tuesday's Fitzgibbon Cup quarter-finals may once against be postponed after an application by Mary Immaculate College to the GAA's independent arbitration facility, the Disputes Resolution Authority, challenging the status of IT Carlow, who are due to play Limerick IT.

The request is being heard this morning and as of the latest update at 7am the games will go ahead. Any other outcome will put the scheduled Fitzgibbon Cup weekend in jeopardy.

Meanwhile, amongst all the Anglo-Irish rugby fever, Dublin and Kerry also do battle this Sunday in an old rivalry of their own. In 2010, the county hadn’t beaten Kerry away for 28 years and hadn’t beaten them at all since 1998, yet since then they have won all but one of the last six league encounters.

Kerry will miss injured Footballer of the Year James O’Donoghue badly, he says all form goes out the window when these two meet.

Cricket: History maker

Nine days after the defeat to Ireland and West Indies are certainly beginning to look a different proposition - Chris Gayle became the first person to score a double century in a World Cup match as batting records tumbled in West Indies's encounter against Zimbabwe last night.

Ireland's George Dockrell admits that the new format and a reduction in team numbers will make qualification harder for 2019 World Cup.

He’s been reflecting on a week of travelling come resting come preparing - “The World Cup is spread over such a long period of time that you need to make sure you are mentally and physically fresh for each game. The arrival of the partners and families soon will help, as it can be tough for guys being away from the family for long periods.”

Racing: Cheltenham

Willie Mullins is staying calm in the face of the coming festival storm. The champion trainer is overseeing the final preparation of up to 50 horses.For the next two weeks every phone call from the yard is a potential disaster, every anxious groom hurrying around a corner could be carrying bad news, and every stone in Carlow is waiting to be stepped on.

What to watch out for:

We'll have the latest from the Irish camp in Carton House today, whilst Gavin Cummiskey is behind enemy lines to hear what the England camp and manager Stuart Lancaster thinks ahead of Sunday's game.

As it stands the two remaining Fitzgibbon Cup quarter finals will commence today but we'll keep you updated on that front throughout the morning, and Ireland's squad for the European indoors will be named.

Barcelona's visit to Manchester will hopefully be worth all the anticipation, City will need to gain a solid platform starting the two-legged affair at home.

TV3 from 7.30pm

Juventus host Borussia Dortmund in the other big Champions League tie tonight. The Germans are now up to tenth in their domestic league and will hope to continue their good form.

Setanta from 7.30pm