INDOOR ATHLETICS MEET ...
The Glasgow International match returns to the Emirates Arena for the third time, for the showdown between Great Britain & Northern Ireland, Scotland, France and Germany on Saturday. It’s the first elite British indoor track meet of the season and Richard Kilty, the World Indoor Champion, runs in the 60m for Great Britain & NI, while Jessica Judd – who won the 800m at the European Team Championships in 2013 – goes in the 1500m. Scotland’s Jamie Bowie, who was part of the silver medal-winning GB 4x400m team at the World Indoor Championships, is looking to make his mark in the individual event and will perform for his home crowd, while France are well represented in the long jump by Éloyse Lesueur, the World Indoor and two-time European champion. Tickets are still available at: britishathletics.org.uk
CUP CLASSICS ...
The BBC continues to make the most of its return as a host to the FA Cup, and its considerable Cup archive, combining the two to great effect in FA Cup Rewind: 4th Round Classics (Saturday, 11am). A one-hour special appended to this weekend’s games, it includes a reminder of when non-league Havant & Waterlooville twice led Liverpool in 2008, before going down 5-2, and, from the 80s, some top upset action, with Arsenal succumbing to York in 1985. For north London-balance purposes, Terry Venables’s Spurs are also shown being biffed out by Port Vale, who were seventh from bottom of division three, in 1988.
SEASON OPENER ...
The UCI World Tour begins in glorious Australian sunshine for the Tour Down Under (from Monday, Sky Sports 1). Sadly, it will not feature last year’s champion, and the only rider to have won the race three times, Aussie Simon Gerrans, who broke his collarbone in training before Christmas. He won last year in an absolute thriller, defeating Cadel Evans by one second. Evans will be there this year and it is the last chance to see Australia’s only Tour de France winner (a magnificent ride in 2011) at a major event; he will retire in February after the inaugural staging of his own Great Ocean Road Race in Victoria.
FIRST-LEG SEMIS ...
José Mourinho comes up against his former assistant Brendan Rodgers on Tuesday, in the first leg of the League Cup semi-finals (Sky Sports 1, 7.45pm), but the latter will almost certainly feel the need to win this title more urgently. Liverpool’s poor season has piled pressure on Rodgers, and there is the possibility that – as Alex Ferguson did, by winning the FA Cup with Manchester United in 1990 – he could secure his future by lifting the League Cup. Spurs host Sheffield United on Wednesday (Sky Sports 1, 7.45pm), with the Blades, just into the play-off zone of League One, having saved some of their best performances for cup matches. They put out Southampton and West Ham United to reach the semis and recently beat QPR in the FA Cup third round.
SUPER BOWL DECIDERS ...
The NFL reaches the business end of the season as the two Conference titles are decided on Sunday. Green Bay travel to Seattle (Sky Sports 1, 8.05pm) for a tough gig against top-seeded Super Bowl champions. The Seahawks beat the Packers 36-16 in the season’s opener, but Green Bay have improved since then. Home advantage will be with the Seahawks, however, and they are favourites to make it to Arizona to defend their crown on 1 February. New England, who host Indianapolis in the AFC game (Sky Sports 1, 11.40pm), know the feeling; they won back-to-back titles in 2003 and 04 and, in what is likely to be the closer of the two games, should have enough to make it to the big one again.
