What’s on, where to watch, where to go – your guide to the weekend’s sport

Champions Cup semi-finals, El Clasico, Old Firm derby, hurling final and much more

Barcelona meet Real Madrid at the Bernabeu in one of the picks of the weekend action. Photo: Alex Caparros/Getty Images
Barcelona meet Real Madrid at the Bernabeu in one of the picks of the weekend action. Photo: Alex Caparros/Getty Images

What’s on?

It's Champions Cup semi-final weekend with Munster and Leinster looking to make it an all Irish final. Meanwhile there is a full programme of Premier League and Airtricity League fixtures, the FA Cup semi-finals, the Scottish Cup semi-finals, El Clasico, hurling and camogie division one finals, four Irish race meetings, World Championship snooker action as well as golf from China and Texas. You can find our full daily sporting TV guide here.

The main events

1. Munster v Saracens (Champions Cup semi-final, Saturday at 3.15pm)

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2. Chelsea v Tottenham (FA Cup semi-final, Saturday at 5.15pm)

3. Arsenal v Manchester City (FA Cup semi-final, Sunday at 3pm)

4. Tipperary v Galway (Allianz Hurling League division one final, Sunday at 3.30pm)

5. Clermont Auvergne v Leinster (Champions Cup semi-final, Sunday at 4pm)

The daily highlights

Friday

Golf: The action begins early on Friday morning with the second round of the Shenzhen International in China (Sky Sports 4, 5.30am). Paul Dunne is the lone Irish representative and will be hoping to continue his excellent form after he narrowly missed out on his first European Tour title in Morocco last week. He opened on Thursday with a two under par round of 70 to sit four shots behind early leader Bubba Watson.

The evening PGA Tour viewing comes from the Valero Texas Open (Sky Sports 4, 8.30pm). Graeme McDowell and Seámus Power make up the Irish contingent there, where Charley Hoffman is the defending champion.

Snooker: It's the second round of the World Snooker Championship with Shaun Murphy v Ronnie O'Sullivan the standout match on Friday (BBC2 10am-noon, 1pm-6pm). Also in the afternoon session is the clash of Northern Ireland's Mark Allen and John Higgins.

Football: There's plenty of League of Ireland action for you to get out and watch on Friday with Bray taking on Shamrock Rovers, Dundalk facing Bohemians, Limerick welcoming Galway, St Pat's clashing with Cork and Finn Harps going up against Drogheda.

If you’d rather stay in and watch some live action from across the water you can do so with Norwich taking on recently promoted Brighton (Sky Sports 1, 7pm).

Racing: There's one Friday evening meeting in Ireland – that takes place on the all-weather at Dundalk. The first race is off at 5.20pm.

Saturday

Golf: If you're someone who likes to see the sun rise while also taking in some European Tour golf then this week really is perfect for you. The third round from Shenzhen will see the players position themselves on the leaderboard with an eye on victory (Sky Sports 4, 5.30am).

Directly following that on Sky Sports 4 is live third round action from the Mediterranean Open on the Ladies European Tour.

It’s the same story that evening in Texas on the PGA Tour (Sky Sports 4, 7.30pm).

Snooker: It's a bumper day of action in Sheffield on the first Saturday of the tournament with the final session of Shaun Murphy's clash with Ronnie O'Sullivan getting the action underway at 10am. The pick of the evening's play is the conclusion of Mark Allen v John Higgins (BBC2 10am-noon, 7pm-8pm, BBC1 1.45pm-4.30pm).

Football: A busy day of league and cup action kicks off with the latter coming from Scotland. It's the first semi-final of the Scottish Cup which sees Hibernian take on Aberdeen (Sky Sports 1, 11.30am).

There are four 3pm Premier League matches on Saturday with West Ham v Everton live on Sky Sports 5 for Irish customers. The other ties are Bournemouth v Middlesbrough, Hull v Watford and Swansea v Stoke.

And then the FA Cup kicks into action. With the Premier League title race thrown back open since last weekend, Chelsea and Tottenham go into their Wembley clash both still harbouring ambitions of a possible double (BBC1, 4.50pm).

You can catch highlights of all of the day’s action from England on Match of the Day (BBC1, 10.20pm).

Rugby: It's a huge weekend for Munster and Leinster with the possibility of the two provinces setting up an all-Irish Champions Cup final. Munster are first in action for their semi-final clash against Saracens at the Aviva Stadium (BT Sport 3, 2.30pm).

Racing: Limerick sees the only Irish racing on Saturday with the first away at 1.50pm.

Sunday

Golf: Final round play from Shenzhen begins at 5.30am on Sky Sports 4 where Paul Dunne may once again be in the hunt for his first professional title.

Following that it’s the final round of the Mediterranean Open on the Ladies European Tour (Sky Sports 4, 10am).

And rounding off the golfing action over the weekend is the final round from Texas (Sky Sports 4, 6pm).

Athletics: It's London Marathon day across the water where BBC1 are showing full coverage from 8.30am.

Snooker: It's the same story from the Crucible on Sunday with the second round coming to a conclusion and the third round beginning (BBC2 10am-noon, 7pm-8pm, BBC1 1.45pm-4.30pm).

Football: If round ball action is your thing then Sunday gets off to the perfect start with an Old Firm derby in the second Scottish Cup semi-final (Sky Sports 2, 11.30am). Celtic have already won the league at a canter and will be hoping to add the cup to it but Rangers will certainly have a lot to say about that.

At the same time Birmingham meet Aston Villa in what’s always a feisty derby encounter and, this time around, is also Harry Redknapp’s first game in charge of the St Andrews side. However, the derby is unfortunately not live on television.

Sunday’s Premier League meetings begin with Manchester United’s trip to face Burnley at Turf Moor (Sky Sports 1, 1.30pm), before Liverpool welcome Crystal Palace on the same channel directly afterwards.

The second FA Cup semi-final gets underway at 3pm and sees Arsenal take on Manchester City at Wembley (BT Sport 1, 2.30pm).

And then it’s the big one. One of the biggest club games in world football takes centre stage on Sunday evening as Real Madrid welcome Barcelona to the Bernabeu (Sky Sports 1, 7pm).

After that you can catch all of the day’s action from England on Match of the Day 1 at 10.30pm on BBC2.

Rugby: On Sunday it's Leinster's turn to reach the Champions Cup final as they take on on Clermont Auvergne (Sky Sports 3, 2.30pm).

GAA: It's finals day in the hurling on Sunday Cork and Kilkenny kicking things off in the camogie (TG4, 1.25pm). Following that on the same channel it's the division one league final between Tipperary and Galway.

You can watch highlights of the two games on The Sunday Game (RTÉ2, 9.30pm).