Week Ahead, April 8-14: Champions League Quarters, Badminton Asia C'ships Lined Up

Check out the key sports events scheduled between April 8 and 14.

Cricket

Rajasthan Royals (RR) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have done the early running in IPL 2024, both sides unbeaten in the league as of now. Each of them has two games slated in the week ahead - RR will meet Gujarat Titans (Wednesday, April 10) and Punjab Kings (Saturday, April 13), and KKR will take on Chennai Super Kings (Monday) and Lucknow Super Giants (Sunday).

It will be interesting to see whether both or either of them remains undefeated at the end of the week. As was the case in the week that went by, the first six days will witness solitary evening games (7:30pm IST), while Sunday features a double-header (KKR vs LSG at 3:30pm and Mumbai Indians vs CSK at 7:30).

Elsewhere, in Texas, Canada's T20I tour of United States will see completion with the second, third, fourth and fifth (final) games being played Wednesday through Saturday. The opening fixture is coming up (April 7, 9:30pm IST), at the time of writing.

Meanwhile, in women's cricket, the Sri Lanka vs South Africa ODI series will begin. The first WODI will be played in East London on Tuesday and the second one in Kimberley on Saturday. The third and final game is scheduled for the following week. The visiting Lankans had earlier won the T20I series 2-1.

Football

European football will be headlined by the UEFA Champions League quarter-final, first-leg fixtures. Expect some cracking contests as the line-up reads Arsenal vs Bayern Munich, Real Madrid vs Manchester City (both on Wednesday, 12:30am IST), Paris Saint-Germain vs Barcelona and Atletico Madrid vs Borussia Dortmund (both on Thursday, 12:30am IST).

The caravan will then roll on to English Premier League in the weekend. Newcastle United face Tottenham Hotspur, Man City lock horns with Luton Town and Manchester United are up against Bournemouth on Saturday. Liverpool take on Crystal Palace, Arsenal tussle with Aston Villa and Chelsea meet Everton on Sunday.

Back home, the Indian Super League will near league-stage completion this week. Table-toppers Mumbai City face off with Odisha FC on Monday, and Goa visit Jamshedpur FC on Tuesday. The race to qualify for the play-offs will end at the start of the following week, as Mumbai tackle Mohun Bagan on April 15 in the final league fixture.

Other Sports

The Indian men's hockey team is finding it hard to tame the mighty Australia at home. Harmanpreet Singh and Co slumped to a massive 1-5 loss in the first Test and a 2-4 defeat in the second one. The remaining three games will be played on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, and the fifth-ranked visitors will need to pull up their socks, as they will meet the Aussies again in the group stage of Paris Olympic Games 2024.

Speaking of Paris 2024, the Badminton Asia Championships will offer many players a make-or-break opportunity to make the Olympics cut. HS Prannoy, Lakshya Sen and PV Sindhu will lead India's charge at the prestigious tournament, which will be played from April 9 to 14 in Ningbo, China.