Midweek TV Preview: 16 - 19 April

Monday 16 April

19.30 Shamrock Rovers v Derry City, Setanta Sports Cup Semi Final 1st Leg, Premier Sports

Down to the last four in this all-Ireland knockout competition, of which three are from south of the border. Two of those three feature here and of those two, Shamrock are the defending champions.

20.00 Arsenal v Wigan Athletic, Premier League, Sky Sports 1/Sky Sports 1 HD/SKY 3D

They've beaten Liverpool, they've beaten Man United... but can Wigan beat Arsenal? They've only lost two of their last ten, but then Arsenal have won eight of their last nine - including a fine win over Milan. Perhaps the betting folk among you will fancy a quid or two on Wigan to draw...?

Tuesday 17 April

17.00 Egypt v Iraq, International Friendly, British Eurosport HD

An odd, rather unforseen chance to see Bob Bradley's Egypt side face Iraq in Dubai. Both teams will be hoping for a place at Brazil 2014, but domestic instability may have the final say on their preparations.

19.45 Bayern Munich v Real Madrid, UEFA Champions League Semi Final 1st Leg, Sky Sports 2/Sky Sports 2 HD/SKY 3D

So now Bayern have capitulated in the race for this season's Bundesliga title, will they now be free to throw everything including the kitchen sick at an ever-dominant Real? It'll certainly take a Herculean effort if they're to become the first side since Inter in 1965 to win the European title on home soil.

Wednesday 18 April

12.30 Guangzhou Evergrande v Kashiwa Reysol, AFC Champions League, British Eurosport 2

Third-v-second in Group H. Both teams are locked on four points out of a possible nine so far and played out a 0-0 draw when they met at the start of this month in Japan. Another draw looks likely.

19.45 Chelsea v Barcelona, UEFA Champions League Semi Final 1st Leg, ITV1/ITV1 HD

Which sounds better for the Final - 'Real Madrid v Chelsea' or 'Real Madrid v Barcelona'? Right, now we've got that sorted out, put your full support behind Barcelona and make plans for May 19th.

Thursday 19 April

20.05 Atletico Madrid v Valencia, UEFA Europa League Semi Final 1st Leg, ESPN/ESPN HD

And so to a very Spanish-flavoured pair of Europa League semis. Valencia enter their first European semi-final in eight years knowing Atleti are their for the taking, on current form. Ironically the Madrid club stopped Valencia reaching the last four a couple of years ago, but the visitors have claimed four of the six league points between the two this season and should win over two legs.

20.05 Sporting Lisbon v Athletic Bilbao, UEFA Europa League Semi Final 1st Leg, Channel 5/Channel 5 HD

The only non-Spanish side in the last four will remember being beaten in the Europa League Final by CSKA Moscow seven years ago. Hoping to make amends for that, they must first do what they did the last time they faced Bilbao in the third round of this competition in 1985/86, i.e. win the home leg by a considerable margin.

Chris O