Emillia Hawkins kickstarts the weekend’s football programme with our unmissable rolling blog that rises early to provide all the breaking news from around the grounds as the FA Cup hoves into view,Expect followup from Friday’s two ties – Hull v Chelsea and Wrexham v Ipswich – plus news and buildup to Saturday’s eight fourth-round matches, bookended with West Ham’s lunchtime trip to Burton and Liverpool hosting Brighton at 8pm,There are five Championship matches and a full programme in Leagues One and Two,In Europe, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich are in action, while in Serie A Inter meet Juventus in the evening’s derby d’Italia,Why not join the conversation by sending your thoughts to matchday.

live@theguardian.com? Twelve hours of entertaining live coverage from day eight in Italy begins early as our team of Tanya Aldred, Billy Munday and James Wallace keep the updates flowing.Saturday’s highlights include Marco Odermatt going for gold in the men’s giant slalom (9am & 12:30pm), the Swiss attempting to emulate Alberto Tomba in Calgary 1988 and Albertville 1992 with back-to-back Olympic titles.In the women’s skeleton, Tabby Stoecker, Amelia Coltman and Freya Tarbit compete in the event in which Britain enjoys a rich record of success (5pm-7.50pm).

Then attention turns to the women’s big air (6.30pm-8.45pm), where Britain’s Kirsty Muir launches her campaign.A world away from Edinburgh, the auld enemies collide once more: for rugby’s Calcutta Cup, how about T20 cricket’s Kolkata cup? England’s loss to the West Indies leaves them with little room to manoeuvre against Scotland and Italy on Monday in their remaining Group C fixtures and they must win both at Eden Gardens and hope the Windies do not slip up to guarantee a place in the Super Eight stage.Tim de Lisle buckles up for over-by-over coverage, with Simon Burnton reporting.

League One Burton take on the Premier League strugglers hoping to become the latest club to upset the odds against West Ham.Since being beaten finalists against Liverpool in 2006, West Ham have reached the sixth round just twice and were knocked out by Aston Villa in the third round last season, and by Bristol City at the same stage the season before that.Gary Bowyer’s hosts are fourth from bottom and without a win in five games, though last weekend they roughed out a 2-2 draw at Port Vale by twice coming from behind.Barry Glendenning is our live blog host with Ben Fisher reporting from the Pirelli Stadium.Andy Farrell has made sweeping changes following Ireland’s fraught opening 36-14 defeat by France, with six changes to the starting XV from the game in Paris.

Farrell admitted there had been some “soul-searching” since their second successive Six Nations hammering by France, which confirmed the impression the Irish are on the wane,They were crowned champions in 2024 – having also achieved the grand slam in 2023 – but their results in November suggested they had lost their edge,Italy may have only beaten the Irish four times – just once in the Six Nations in Rome in 2013 – but arrive in Dublin with a spring in their step having beaten Scotland in their opener,Daniel Gallan keeps the live updates rolling, with Brendan Fanning reporting from Dublin,Xaymaca Awoyungbo straps in for a lively afternoon of fourth-round ties.

Standouts include Manchester City against Salford, with the League Two club’s 8-0 shellacking last season against Pep Guardiola’s high-fliers still a raw wound.City will not be expected to let up after bulldozering Exeter 10-1 in the previous round.Jamie Jackson reports.Burnley host Mansfield of League One in the other eye-catching tie among the mid-afternoon kick-offs.The Stags held on for a 4-3 victory against Sheffield United at Bramall Lane in the last round, Nigel Clough’s side having led 4-1 at one stage.

Their Premier League rivals will be purring from a 3-2 win at Selhurst Park in midweek, ending the Clarets’ 16-game run without a league win,That provided a measure of relief in an otherwise poor season,Burnley remain second from bottom with six points fewer than West Ham above them and nine shy of Nottingham Forest in 17th,Will Unwin is at Turf Moor,England find themselves in an unfamiliar position as odds-on favourites to retain the Calcutta Cup despite Murrayfield being the graveyard of their title ambitions in recent times.

The Scots are reeling after being ambushed 18-15 by Italy in Rome, plunging them to 10th in the global rankings behind the Azzurri and turning the heat up on head coach Gregor Townsend.England march north of the border seeking a first win since 2020 on a 12-Test winning streak and they have captain Maro Itoje back in the starting XV after he was picked on the bench for the 48-7 rout of Wales following the recent death of his mother.Daniel Gallan hosts minute-by-minute coverage, with Robert Kitson, Gerard Meagher and Luke McLaughlin providing reports and analysis.Tuesday night’s 2-1 win at Tottenham eased some of the pressure on Eddie Howe and his Newcastle players after a disappointing run of results, although the sacking of Thomas Frank the following day and Sean Dyche’s ejection by Nottingham Forest 24 hours later highlighted the precarious nature of management in the Premier League.Villa, meanwhile, edged past Brighton with a 1-0 victory.

“Last year in the EFL Cup and what that meant to everybody and the experience we went through to win the competition,” Howe said on Friday.“We would love to do it in another, in any other way we can.” So this all top-flight tie offers some relief from the cut and thrust of the league and the visitors will be eager to make amends for their defeat on home turf less than three weeks ago.However, both teams are struggling with injuries.Barry Glendenning brings minute-by-minute updates, and John Brewin reports.

Brighton are winless in their past six league matches, slipping to 14th in the table, seven points above the relegation zone, but during that run knocked Manchester United out in the previous round with a 2-1 win at Old Trafford,The Seagulls have lost four of their last five games against Liverpool in all competitions, but reached the fifth round six times since being promoted to the Premier League in 2017,Arne Slot’s side – winners in 2022 – haven’t enjoyed the best of Cup runs of late, knocked out at the fourth-round stage by Championship strugglers Plymouth last season, and at the quarter-final stage to Manchester United in 2024,For the past five matches Slot has only been able to name a maximum of four senior players on the bench,In the last round against League One Barnsley he started Virgil van Dijk and the captain has scored twice in his past five matches after just two in his previous 31 this season as Liverpool have finally started to upgrade their set-pieces.

Blog host Scott Murray straps in, with Andy Hunter at Anfield,Xaymaca Awoyungbo and John Brewin pick up the baton of our unbeatable football coverage for a Sunday of compelling action,Five fourth-round FA Cup ties throw up some intriguing clashes, not least Grimsby against Wolves, Oxford v Sunderland and Arsenal v Wigan,North of the border there’s a top-of-the-table summit that has the look of a title-decider, with Rangers snapping at Hearts’ heels since Danny Rohl’s arrival at Ibrox,From 13 points behind the Scottish Premiership leaders, the Gers have chipped away at the gap.

Though they have slipped up on the road: Rangers bungled it at 10-man Motherwell on Wednesday night, shipping a late equaliser for a second successive away draw, and are now five points adrift,Daniel Gallan, Yara El-Shaboury and Graham Searles don bobble hats and gloves for day nine coverage of these fascinating Winter Olympics,Great Britain have a medal chance in the mixed team skeleton (5pm-7pm), a new event at these Games,Tabby Stoecker and the flying Matt Weston have won silver at the past two world championships,Another mixed team event – the snowboard cross – (12.

45pm-2pm) sees Charlotte Bankes and Huw Nightingale hoping to repeat their world title triumph of 2023.There’s also the opening runs in the bobsleigh and the men’s ice hockey features a cracking USA v Germany match-up (8.10pm).Birmingham present lively opponents for Leeds.Chris Davies’s second city Blues are unbeaten in their past eight matches and their home record – one defeat in 40 league fixtures – is unmatched in England since the start of last season.

Leeds showed grit in midweek by clawing back a two-goal deficit to draw 2-2 with Chelsea and have carved out a six-point buffer to the relegation zone.Daniel Farke is expected to shuffle his squad, with Premier League survival his priority.Wilfried Gnonto, Daniel James, Sam Byram and Joel Piroe could be in the mix in the lunchtime kick-off at St Andrew’s.Emillia Hawkins helms the blog as Peter Lansley reports.Manchester City will have played on Friday night but the chasing WSL pack will be keeping the league leaders looking over their shoulders in a Sunday fixture list brimful of big match ups.

Xaymaca Awoyungbo keeps tabs on the five games, with second-place Manchester United’s meeting with sixth-place London City Lionesses perhaps the pick of the crop.Marc Skinner’s side must recover from Thursday’s Women’s Champions League playoff first leg win at Aletético but their visitors have only recorded one win under Eder Maestre.Arsenal travel to Brighton on a brisk run of four wins from their last five, while Chelsea, the defending champions, meet Liverpool at noon having beaten Tottenham last weekend thanks to Alyssa Thompson’s sixth goal of the campaign.Yet Gareth Taylor’s side have only lost one of their last five.Sophie Downey reports from Kingsmeadow.

The most politically charged rivalry in sport only got the green light on Monday evening after the Pakistan government withdrew its boycott, paving the way for the most lucrative fixture of the tournament to go ahead in the Sri Lankan capital,Bangladesh were expelled from the tournament for refusing to play their games in India, so there is plenty of relief among the organisers that Pakistan will go up against their arch rivals,James Wallace has over-by-over coverage of the group stage game, with plenty of swirl around the participation of opener Abhishek Sharma,A duck against the USA and a stomach bug that put the India batter in hospital have hardly seen an ideal start to the tournament,Wales are seeking a first Six Nations win since 2023 and after being overwhelmed 48-7 by England last weekend, the prospects of ending a run of 12  defeats are bleak against a barnstorming France in Cardiff.

The reigning champions opened their campaign with a rollicking 36-14 victory over Ireland to lay down a marker.The statistics make grim reading for Wales.Three of their four worst Six Nations defeats have come in the past two seasons, two against England and last year’s 43-0 defeat to France.Wales have conceded 34 tries in Steve Tandy’s five games, while indiscipline cost them dear against England with four yellow cards, and 10 penalties and a free-kick conceded in the first half alone.Lee Calvert brings live coverage as Michael Aylwin reports from the Principality Stadium.

Thursday’s disappointing result at Brentford in the Premier League puts a different slant on Arsenal’s home Cup tie against League One Wigan,Arsenal were unable to restore a six-point advantage over rivals Manchester City after Noni Madueke’s opener in west London was cancelled out by Keane Lewis-Potter,This match presents Mikel Arteta with the chance to rotate his side with league trips to Wolves and Tottenham coming up,Arsenal have not reached the fifth round since winning the Cup six years ago and Arteta admitted on Friday: “We haven’t been good enough on that day,And when you come to a competition, you have to be excellent on the day.

So we’re going to have to prove that against Wigan again on Sunday.” John Brewin helms our blog with Ed Aarons reporting from the Emirates.