The Morning Sports Briefing

Golf: US Masters

It’s finally here, day one of the US Masters 2016. The action gets underway at 1.20pm Irish time with Jim Herman and Steven Bowditch getting things underway - while Rory McIlroy will have to wait until 7.01pm to tee-off his career grand slam bid as he was drawn in the last group with Martin Kaymar and Bill Haas.

According to European Ryder Cup captain Darren Clarke, McIlroy is the one to watch out for at Augusta national this week - "Rory's the type of player and character who, when he gets that little bit of extra spark, it triggers his confidence and off he goes. If and when he clicks, he wins."

Soccer

Last night Manchester City took two away goals from their 2-2 Champions League quarter-final trip to PSG. Fit again Kevin De Bruyne gave City the lead, before Zlatan Ibrahimovic who had already missed a penalty equalised after a sloppy mistake by Fernando. And when Adrien Rabiot gave PSG the lead the game seemed sealed, before Fernandinho's deflected equaliser turned matters on their head and gave the Manchester club the first leg advantage.

Meanwhile Real Madrid were rocked by German side Wolfsburg, beaten 2-0 after two goals in eight first-half minutes.

It was also revealed last night that Swiss police have raided Uefa's headquarters in Nyon to seize details of a contract signed by the Fifa president, Gianni Infantino, following the Panama Papers leak.

The files show that Infantino - formerly director of legal services at Uefa - co-signed a television rights contract in 2006 with two businessmen who have since been caught up in football’s corruption scandal.

Women In Sport

While in her column in this morning's Irish Times Sonia O'Sullivan writes of the benefits of non-competitive running. "I'm surprised myself sometimes that running still has such a positive and energising influence on my daily life. I'm so much more productive when I'm energised and awakened by a run; everything else I have to do in the day just flows so much easier. I can see things more clearly, make better decisions."

Rugby

Gerry Thornley catches up with the 34-year-old stalwart from Portumna at the centre of Connacht's fantastic season - Connacht captain John Muldoon symbolises the all-round improvement made by the province under Pat Lam.

What to watch out for

The opening day of the Masters, live from Augusta National.

Sky Sports 1, 7pm-0.30am

Setanta 1, 8pm-0.30am

Borussia Dortmund host Liverpool and their ex-manager Jurgen Klopp in tonight's Europa League quarter-final first leg. Kick-off 8.05pm.

BT Sport Europe from 7.15pm