Midweek TV Preview: 7 - 9 February

Monday 7 February

19:45 Exeter v Brentford, Johnstone's Paint Trophy Southern Area Final (2nd leg), Sky Sports 1/HD1
With both teams locked at 1-1 from the first leg, it's The Bees who enter the second leg in better spirits. They ended their recent 7-game run without a win by beating Plymouth at the weekend, a considerable achievement that won't have been lost on caretaker boss Nicky Forster. Exeter, meanwhile, suffered a 4-1 thumping against Huddersfield Town. Amid gusty conditions, Grecians boss Paul Tisdale bemoaned his team's inability to play well with the wind. The rest of this review pretty much writes itself, really...

Tuesday 8 February

17:00 Cyprus v Sweden, Cyprus Cup, British Eurosport 2
Yes, that's right - the Cyprus Cup. It's a four-team friendly tournament involving the hosts along with Romania, Sweden and Ukraine. All drawn matches go straight to a penalty shoot-out and teams can make up to seven substitutions per game. That last point is quite important as FIFA 'A' matches only allow six, so technically this game and any ohers that Eurosport 2 chooses to show from this competition are effectively worthless.

19:45 Republic of Ireland v Wales, Carling Nations Cup, Sky Sports 1/HD1/3D and S4C
It's back! The Home International Championship! (* Caution: Does not include England.) Much has been made of this event, not least by Sky, and many a nostalgist will welcome a return to an inter-Britain contest. Sadly the speight of last-minute "injuries" and player withdrawals gives a truer indication as to how seriously the top clubs of the home nations will treat this glorified trip down memory lane.

Wednesday 9 February

19:15 Denmark v England, International Friendly, ITV1/ITV1 HD
A largely meaningless game, but it may at least provide a rare chance to see West Ham's Scott Parker in an England shirt, along with Michael Dawson of Spurs and Gary Cahill. Not the same shirt, obviously...

19:45 France v Brazil or Germany v Italy, International Friendly, ESPN/ESPN HD
Well this is a bit of a turn-up. ESPN are holding a viewer's vote to decide which match they show on Wednesday evening which, you have to say, makes for an interesting take on the whole 'interactive TV' thing. If you want to influence the vote, click here and visit the ESPN website - and you may wish to know that at the time of writing this TV Preview, the France/Brazil match leads with 53%. Edge of the seat stuff, we think you'll agree...

19:45 Northern Ireland v Scotland, Carling Nations Cup, Sky Sports 1/HD1/3D
So this competition will be played every two years in a single location, this one taking place in Dublin. After this week's games, the competition concludes in May once all the domestic fixtures are over and done with. Seems a bit silly if you ask us, but then again we are English.

00:00 (Thursday morning) Fluminense v Argentinos Juniors, Copa Libertadores, Premier Sports
Group 3 of this year's tournament is a strong one. Aside from the Brazilians and Argentineans featured here, there's also Nacional of Uruguay and América of Mexico. This opening fixture could likely provide us with the eventual group winner, but then again we could be wrong. Tim Vickery we ain't.

Chris O