RONNIE O’SULLIVAN MAINTAINED his charge towards a third successive World Championship title as he established a 6-2 lead over Barry Hawkins in the first session of their semi-final on Thursday.
O’Sullivan has been in fine form during his pursuit of a sixth world crown of his career since coming from behind to defeat Joe Perry in the second round at Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre.
O’Sullivan swept past Shaun Murphy, himself a former world champion, in the quarter-finals with a session to spare and, in a repeat of last year’s final, wasted little time in establishing a four-frame lead in the best of 33 contest.
He took the first of the semi-final with a break of 63 before Hawkins levelled with a contribution of 96 and briefly went ahead with a break of 76.
But it was one-way traffic from then on, Hawkins’s mistakes and O’Sullivan’s skill seeing the champion, who made a break of 108 in the seventh frame before a missed red from his opponent let him take the next, pull ahead.
The second semi-final is an Anglo-Australian clash between Mark Selby and Melbourne-born Neil Robertson, the 2010 world champion, who in his quarter-final win over Judd Trump became the first player to make 100 competitive century breaks in a tour season.
Mad to think Denmark scored more in the Aviva than South Africa in the rugby
Though there were mistakes throughout by management, anyone who thinks the solution is to bring in a new messiah and to try and play attacking football is not looking deep enough. Of any of the fifty or so possible starters for an Irish team, the only one who could play that style is arter.
Dublin has a much lower population of GAA players than soccer, yet produces Diarmuid Connolly and Ciarain Kilkenny, both players who are wonderful passers of a football, with vision and attacking creativity. Soccer in Dublin produces no such players.
Irish soccer needs an overhaul similar to the one Belgium had in 2000, Spain had in 94, and Germany had in 2002. The style has to change from the age of six. Otherwise, it’s a long freewheel downhill from here
@Chucky Arlaw: the FAI have an awful lot to answer for. Useless
@Chucky Arlaw: are u saying the only player in the panel capable of playing good football is Arter?? Is that correct or have I misunderstood something?
So if McCleans shot goes in and the dynamics of the game change, and we hold on for an hour, we have no such problems in our game anymore? Give it a rest you bore it’s one game we got smashed cos of 2 sloppy goals in 3 minutes which was effectively the game ender. Put the fossil brush and magnifying glass away you pretentious aul eejit.
The North were brave when they appointed Micheal O’Neil and were rewarded. A league of Ireland manager who was progressive, on an upward curve in his career not winding his career down.
Why not take a punt on Stephen Kenny, he’s shown that he can coach players of a certain standard to perform well past expectation and win games against teams with vast superior resources.
The lack of preperation and lack of belief in the players ability means its time for a change at the helm. Would give anything to see Chris Hughton given a go
The north and south join up now stop this silly politics
@Aidan O: pour one bucket of muck into another bucket of muck, you just end up with a big bucket of muck.
@Aidan O: We already have players from the North; Duffy, McLean, O’Kane etc
European championship failure!
Not to worry. We still have John Delaney.
More failure on other international stages.