Sports diary for February
Sports comments By Tony Matthews
Six nations rugby
This year’s Six Nations Rugby tournament starts tomorrow (February 1) when reigning champions Wales play Italy and Ireland meet Scotland. The following day it’s France against England, and on February 8 Ireland play Wales and Scotland meet England while France take on Italy 24 hours later.
Football
Eight first leg matches of the round of 16 of the Champions League take place on February 18/19 and 25/26 and include Atletico Madrid v. Liverpool and Spurs v Leipzig in the first week,
followed seven/eight days later by Chelsea v. Bayern Munich, Napoli v. Barcelona, Real Madrid v. Manchester City and Lyon v. Juventus.
Also there are 16 Europa League games over the same period of time, including Copenhagen v. Celtic, Espanyol v. Wolves, Braga v. Rangers, Manchester United v. Bruges and Arsenal v. Olympiacos.
Also in February, we have UK domestic action in the FA Trophy, FA Youth Cup, Women’s FA Cup, EFL Trophy and FA Vase, while in the Premiership, champions elect Liverpool play Norwich, Southampton, Watford and West Ham, Manchester City meet Arsenal, Spurs and Chelsea and Leicester and Manchester United also face Chelsea.
The games to look out in the Championship are those featuring leaders WBA, Leeds, Brentford and Fulham and in the SPL check out Celtic and Rangers and also Real Madrid v. Atletico Madrid and Barcelona v. Real Betis in La Liga.
Cricket
England play South Africa in three One Day and three T20 internationals in 12 days from February 4 while in the women’s World Cup, England oppose Pakistan at the end of the month.
Tennis
The singles and doubles finals of the first Grand Slam tournament of the year take place in Australia this weekend, and GB, with Dan Evans and Kyle Edmund in action, play Slovakia in the Federation Cup on February 7/8.
Rugby league
The World Club Challenge between St Helens and Sydney takes place in St Helens on February 22.
Boxing
The WBC heavyweight title fight in Las Vegas between Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder is also on Saturday February 22.
Athletics
The British Indoor Championships take place in Glasgow in three weeks time.
Cycling
The annual Track Championships in Berlin start on February 26.
Golf
Players on the 2020 Ladies European Tour (L.E.T.) will play for a record £15.2m in prize money, an increase of £3.9m from 2019. There will be 24 events, four more than last year and nine up on 2018. The UK will host one new tournament, offering £835,000 in prize money, with the venue yet to be announced.