Sky Sports and ITV have decided upon the split of live matches for the last 16, first leg stage of this year’s UEFA Champions League.

Once again, the first legs of the eight matches are split up over two weeks, with two matches per day over the round. ITV will show one first-pick match from each Wednesday, leaving Sky with the remaining six. The second legs follow the same format, with ITV’s picks still to be decided.

Next Wednesday (15th), ITV1 will be at San Siro for the potential firecracker between Milan and Arsenal, while the following week the channel will broadcast Marseille v Inter Milan.

The only other English team to make it through to this round is Chelsea, and they also face a trip to Italy to face Napoli on Tuesday 21st February on Sky Sports. Sky will also show the rest of the fixtures from this stage live, with Barcelona, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich all in action.

The full live schedule is below:

Tue 14 Feb	Bayer Leverkusen v Barcelona	19:45	Sky Sports
Tue 14 Feb	Lyon v Apoel Nicosia	19:45	Sky Sports
Wed 15 Feb	Zenit St Petersburg v Benfica	17:00	Sky Sports
Wed 15 Feb	AC Milan v Arsenal	19:45	ITV1
Tue 21 Feb	CSKA Moscow v Real Madrid	17:00	Sky Sports
Tue 21 Feb	Napoli v Chelsea	19:45	Sky Sports
Wed 22 Feb	Basle v Bayern Munich	19:45	Sky Sports
Wed 22 Feb	Marseille v Inter Milan	19:45	ITV1

 

ESPN will televise this year’s FIFA Club World Cup, also known as the biggest inconvenience in the footballing calendar.

The curious tournament takes place in Japan later this month, and comprises the six champions of each confederation’s continental tournament, as well as a guest side from the host country.

European champions Barcelona and Copa Libertadores holders Santos get a bye to the semi-finals, while the other five teams will battle it out for the honour of losing to the big fish.

Nobody really cares about the tournament outside of the competing teams-and even then it means at least a week of missed league action, but does provide the opportunity for the winners to claim themselves as dubious ‘world champions’.

But despite all that, ESPN will show this year’s tournament from the semi-final stage onwards for the second year in a row, meaning four matches in total will be televised live.

Wed 14 Dec	Santos v Qualifier (semi-final)	10:30	ESPN
Thu 15 Dec	Barcelona v Qualifier (semi-final)	10:30	ESPN
Sun 18 Dec	Third Place play-off	07:30	ESPN
Sun 18 Dec	Final	10:30	ESPN

ITV have selected Basel v Manchester United as their chosen fixture from the final round of fixtures in the Champions League group stage.

With the broadcaster’s only English option of that match or Manchester City v Bayern Munich, it makes sense to pick the winner-takes-all match in Switzerland over the City game, despite United looking the less attractive fixture on paper.

Manchester City require a victory over the German side, as well as Napoli to drop points against Villarreal to qualify, while a point will be enough for Manchester United against Basel.

Sky will televise the remaining 15 fixtures from the final round over the nights of the 6th and 7th November.