It’s another action-packed weekend of sport ahead as we preview the biggest events including the Australian Open Men’s and Women’s Finals, the pick of the FA Cup fourth round and the NFL Championship games.
Tottenham and Manchester City kick us off on Friday night, and while there’s a big weekend of Rugby Union to look forward to as well, we round things off Stateside as we find out who will contest Super Bowl LVII.
READ MORE: What the new £6.7bn TV deal means for Premier League on Sky, TNT
Friday
Football
FA Cup Fourth Round
Tottenham v Man City – ITV 1/ITVX – 20.00
An early start to the weekend with the biggest game of the FA Cup fourth round pitching Spurs, fifth in the Premier League, against Man City second. Man City now seem to be well into their stride with the loss of Erling Haaland being tempered with the return of Kevin de Bruyne. Just wait until they have both back together! Spurs are still without their major playmaker James Maddison but their form has held up well after their fast start to the season when they briefly topped the table. Pep Guardiola’s side will have too much class which will negate Spurs’ home advantage – Man City to win and de Bruyne to score the winner.
Saturday
Football
FA Cup Fourth Round
Fulham v Newcastle – ITV 4/ITVX – 19.00
Fulham missed the chance of a second Wembley appearance in a major cup competition when they drew with Liverpool on Wednesday and lost 2-3 on aggregate. Their only other appearance was in the FA Cup Final in 1975, when despite the presence of Bobby Moore and Alan Mullery in the side, they lost 2-0 to West Ham. They now have a second chance to redeem themselves. The Magpies beat Fulham 3-0 at St James’ Park in December so shouldn’t be too worried about facing them. With Eddie Howe suddenly looking under pressure after a stellar first full season, Fulham are a side Newcastle should beat either home or away. A closer game than when they last met could end with a replay back up in the North East.
Rugby Union
English Premiership
Northampton v Newcastle – TNT Sports Extra – 14.00
Bristol Bears v Bath Rugby – TNT Sports 1 – 15.05
Saracens v Exeter – TNT Sports 1 – 17.30
Top of the table Northampton, fresh from an excellent win against Munster last weekend with 14 men for much of the match, should easily beat bottom of the table Newcastle, Northampton’s excellent form this season in both domestic and European games has been recognised with a call ups for Alex Mitchell, Fin Smith, Tommy Freeman, George Furbank, Fraser Dingwall, Tom Pearson and Alex Coles for England and Rory Hutchinson for Scotland Six Nations squads. And arguably their best player so far this season, Courtney Lawes, has retired as an England international. An easy win for Northampton.
Both Bristol and Bath suffered European Champions Cup defeats last weekend, but at least Bath managed to qualify for the last sixteen knockout stages. Bath beat their West Country rivals by one pint in the early league at the Rec in October. Expect another very close game, but Bath to win with all their international stars, including Finn Russell, there for the last time for a while as the Six Nations starts.
Both Saracens and Exeter both qualified for the knockout stage of the European Champions Cup last weekend, with Saracens berating Lyon and Exeter rather surprisingly losing to Bayonne. Exeter, a team in transition, have been playing well this, but home advantage should give Saracens, a team about to be in transition with Owen Farrell off to Racing 92, the edge.
Tennis
Australian Open
Women’s Final
Aryna Sabalenka v Zheng Qinwen – Eurosport 1 – 08.00
Zheng Qinwen can become only the second Chinese player to win a Grand Slam after Li Na last won the Australian Open 10 years ago. But first she has to defeat defending champion Aryna Sabalenka. The Belarusian has yet to drop a set in the competition this year and the first time she was taken to a tie-break was in the semi-final against US Champion Coco Gauff, where she avenged her defeat in the final. Sabalenka to retain her title for her second Grand Slam.
Sunday
Football
FA Cup Fourth Round
Liverpool v Norwich – ITV 1/ITVX – 14.30
Having secured a place in the first domestic Cup Final with the midweek draw against Fulham, Liverpool can now concentrate on a second. They have already overcome one of their main rivals in the third round when they beat Arsenal and have now been given slightly easier opposition in Norwich. The Canaries, who lost to Leeds midweek in the Championship, sit just below the play-off places and shouldn’t prove a too difficult obstacle to Jurgen Klopp’s side. Liverpool have not seemed to miss Mo Salah, which is just as well as he might be off for sometime with a hamstring injury. Luis Diaz, Diego Jota and Darwin Núñez are proving to be a formidable front line with backup from Cody Gakpo. In defence Ibrahima Konaté has proved a very able lieutenant to Virgil Van Dijk and Conor Bradley, on his Premier League debut last weekend, looked extremely composed. With Andy Robinson back on the bench against Fulham, Liverpool are almost back to a full-strength squad. Easy progress to the FA Cup fifth round for Liverpool.
Rugby Union
English Premiership
Gloucester v Sale – TNT Sports 1 – 15.00
Gloucester languish near the bottom of the Premiership table and now they’ve also lost possibly their best player in Welsh international winger Louis Rees-Zammit, who has decided to try his luck with the NFL. Sale were well beaten at home last week against La Rochelle in the Champions Cup, so will be looking for a bounce back after five defeats in six games. Sale were top of the league, but are now down to fifth. Gloucester at home with the backing of the Shed, Sale on paper the better team – a difficult game to call, but I take Sale to win a close contest.
Tennis
Australian Open
Men’s Final
Jannik Sinner v Daniil Medvedev – Eurosport 1 – 08.00
This Sunday we see the Australian Open draw to a close. Battling it out for all the marbles are Jannik Sinner and Daniil Medvedev, in what promises to be a fascinating contest.
The third seed, Medvedev, leads the head-to-head record 6-3, however, Sinner has won their last three meetings, most recently at the Semi-Final stage of the ATP Finals in November. This should fill the young Italian with confidence going into his first Grand Slam Final.
This will be Medvedev’s third Australian Open Final in the last four years which is a highly impressive record. He will be hoping his experience at this stage will help him get over the line this time around. Will it be third time lucky for the Russian?
Despite lacking experience, many feel that this is Sinner’s moment. In his semi-final match, the fourth seed disposed of tournament favourite, Novak Djokovic, in four sets, in what is being considered his career-best performance to date.
On route to the Final, Sinner has only dropped one set and that was against Djokovic, so he is definitely the fresher of the two finalists. On the other hand, Medvedev already has three gruelling five-set matches under his belt so far. We feel that this could play a huge factor in the outcome of the Final.
We predict that Sinner will win his first Grand Slam title in four sets.
American Football
Kansas City Chiefs @ Baltimore Ravens – Sky Sports NFL – 20.00
Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs are on the road in the AFC Championship game this year, and they’ll face the daunting tasks of not only trying to keep Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore offense quiet, but also looking for a way through an intimidating and resolute Ravens defence.
Baltimore topped the AFC North with a 13-4 record through the regular season, earning them the top seed in the Conference. After a slow start, they dispatched of the Houston Texans in formidable fashion in a 34-10 win in the Divisional Round last weekend, and it’s going to take some effort to stop them.
In contrast, the Chiefs stumbled their way through the year and haven’t looked as convincing. However, Andy Reid and his men still finished 11-6 to top the AFC West, and saw off the Buffalo Bills on the road last time out in a big win.
Write Mahomes, Travis Kelce, Chris Jones et al off at your own peril, but Baltimore are a different beast this year and have home advantage. Back the Ravens to advance to the big dance.
Detroit Lions @ San Francisco 49ers – Sky Sports NFL – 23.30
What a story the Lions have been this season. Franchise records have fallen after a 12-5 regular season, and a long, painful wait for playoff success has been ended by Dan Campbell and his team.
After wins over the Los Angeles Rams and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, they head to the west coast looking to pull off another memorable win, and given the quality and consistency we’ve seen from Jared Goff, aided by stand-out years for Jahmyr Gibbs and Sam LaPorta as well with deep threats in their WR room, they have the tools to make this a shoot-out.
That said, who’s brave enough to bet against the San Francisco 49ers? 12-5 in the regular season, and for all the criticism that goes his way, ‘Mr. Irrelevant’, Brock Purdy, has guided the Niners Gang straight back to the NFC Championship game.
With a star-studded offense led by Christian McCaffrey – albeit there is concern over the availability of Deebo Samuel for this one – Kyle Shanahan has continued to find the answers to put up points.
The Green Bay Packers gave them a real scare last week, but with the rust shaken off and a superior defence led by the likes of Nick Bosa, Fred Warner and Dre Greenlaw, back the 49ers to get over the hump and book their ticket to Las Vegas for Super Bowl LVII next month.
