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

 

Now that the dire UEFA Europa League group stages are over, we reach the knockout stages. Channel 5, ITV and ESPN have decided upon the live matches they will be showing from the first leg of the last 32 fixtures.

Channel 5 have the first pick, and have unsurprisingly gone for Manchester United’s trip to Ajax on Thursday 16th February at 6pm. This moves them away from their usual 8.05pm slot, but United at 6pm means more viewers than pretty much any other side playing in the late kick-off. Both these sides were eliminated from the group stages of the Champions League, so move to this competition.

As were Manchester City and Porto, who meet on ITV1 at 8.05pm that night. This match has been bumped up from ITV4, the usual home of the broadcaster’s Europa League coverage. That channel has Legia Warsaw v Sporting Lisbon earlier in the evening.

That leaves Stoke City’s tough game against Valencia on ESPN, along with a couple of all-continental ties including Lazio v Atletico Madrid.

The matches in full:

Tue 14 Feb	Braga v Besiktas	17:30	ESPN
Thu 16 Feb	Ajax v Manchester United	18:00	Channel 5
Thu 16 Feb	Legia Warsaw v Sporting Lisbon	18:00	ITV4
Thu 16 Feb	Lazio v Atletico Madrid	18:00	ESPN
Thu 16 Feb	Porto v Manchester City	20:05	Sky Sports
Thu 16 Feb	Stoke City v Valencia	20:05	ITV1

BBC and ITV have decided upon the split of matches between the two broadcasters for next summer’s Euro 2012.

ITV have two of England’s three group matches, including their first game against France on the 11th June, and the potentially decisive final fixture against Ukraine on the 19th June. Sandwiched between them is the Sweden match on the 15th, to be shown on the BBC.

ITV will also show Republic of Ireland’s first two matches against Croatia and Spain, leaving the BBC with just their final group game against Italy.

But come the knockout stages, the BBC appear to have the best of the matches. They will have the first pick for the quarter-final stage-which would presumably be England if they reach that far-and the fourth pick, while ITV have second and third choice.

The BBC will also show both semi-finals live, leaving ITV with only highlights of that stage, while both channels will share the final.

The schedule means ITV have played the safe option of two guaranteed England matches, including the huge fixture against France. However, if they do progress beyond the group stages, then their only remaining chance to show England is on a shared basis if they reach the final. From the other point of view, the BBC are banking on England reaching at last the last eight, when they can make a big deal of showing them potentially all the way through the knockout stages.

This means there is an even split of 15 exclusive matches per channel, plus the final. The full schedule is below:

Group games

8 June: Poland v Greece (BBC), Russia v Czech Republic (ITV)

9 June: Netherlands v Denmark (BBC), Germany v Portugal (BBC)

10 June: Spain v Italy (ITV), Republic of Ireland v Croatia (ITV)

11 June: France v England (ITV), Ukraine v Sweden (BBC)

12 June: Greece v Czech Republic (ITV), Poland v Russia (ITV)

13 June: Denmark v Portugal (ITV), Netherlands v Germany (BBC)

14 June: Italy v Croatia (BBC), Spain v Republic of Ireland (ITV)

15 June: Ukraine v France (ITV), Sweden v England (BBC)

16 June: Greece v Russia (BBC), Poland v Czech Republic (BBC)

17 June: Portugal v Netherlands (ITV), Denmark v Germany (ITV)

18 June: Croatia v Spain (BBC), Italy v Republic of Ireland (BBC)

19 June: Sweden v France (ITV), England v Ukraine (ITV)

Knockout stages

Quarter-finals (21, 22, 23, 24 June) – BBC has first & fourth picks, ITV has second & third

Semi-finals (27 & 28 June) – BBC

Final (1 July) – BBC & ITV

Channel 5, ITV and ESPN have chosen their live matches for the final round of Europa League group stage fixtures.

Fulham v Odense headlines the line-up as Channel 5’s first pick, with the Cottagers needing a victory to confirm their progession to the last 32. Tottenham and Birmingham both face an uphill struggle to reach that stage, and both require wins to have any chance of qualifying. Their respective fixtures against Ireland’s Shamrock Rovers and Slovenia’s Maribor will be shown on ITV4, while Celtic and the already-qualified Stoke will feature on ESPN.

As with matchday 5, the fixtures are once again spread out over two nights next week, although with ESPN televising the FA Cup replay between Macclesfield and Chelmsford on the Wednesday at 8.05pm, they have effectively passed on one of their choices and will now only show three matches over the four timeslots. With mainly dead rubbers featuring foreign sides at that kick-off time it is no great loss for them.

Wed 14 Dec	Besiktas v Stoke City	18:00	ESPN
Wed 14 Dec	Fulham v Odense	20:05	Channel 5
Thu 15 Dec	Shamrock Rovers v Tottenham Hotspur	18:00	ITV4
Thu 15 Dec	PAOK v Rubin Kazan	18:00	ESPN
Thu 15 Dec	Birmingham City v Maribor	20:05	ITV4
Thu 15 Dec	Udinese v Celtic	20:05	ESPN

Channel 5, ITV and ESPN have chosen their games for matchday 5 of this year’s UEFA Europa League, with Tottenham Hotspur v PAOK being the first pick on Channel 5.

As with the last two years, matchdays 5 and 6 are split over two nights in December, which means ESPN get the first chance to use their ‘sixth pick downwards’ . On top of Twente v Fulham and Celtic v Atletico Madrid, they will also feature the fixtures between Standard Liege and Hannover, and Salzburg v PSG.

ITV remain with their standard two matches, with one on each night. Braga v Birmingham features on the Wednesday, while Stoke take on Dynamo Kiev on the Thursday.

This is the last year that the final group stage matchdays will be split over two nights, as when the new TV deal kicks in next season they will all be played on the one night.

The complete live matches are listed below…

Wed 30 Nov	Braga v Birmingham City	18:00	ITV 4
Wed 30 Nov	Celtic v Atletico Madrid	18:00	ESPN
Wed 30 Nov	Tottenham Hotspur v PAOK	20:05	Channel 5
Wed 30 Nov	Standard Liege v Hannover 96	20:05	ESPN
Thu 1 Dec	Twente v Fulham	18:00	ESPN
Thu 1 Dec	Stoke City v Dynamo Kiev	20:05	ITV 4
Thu 1 Dec	Red Bull Salzburg v Paris Saint-German	20:05	ESPN