The First Post sporting calendar 2006

February 22, London

Football: Champions League

With Chelsea 13 points clear at the top of the Premiership, their tricky second-round Champions League match against Barcelona is their only real remaining test in a season that has turned into a cakewalk. Chelsea could not have got a more difficult draw, a result of their nonchalance in the group games.

Although both sides have improved since Chelsea's victory at the same stage last year there is a philosophical and aesthetic divide between the two clubs: the Catalans personifying the purist's dream of freewheeling, attacking football with an aristocratic swagger; the west Londoners all parvenu efficiency and power.

This Stamford Bridge match, and the return leg in Barcelona on March 7, promise to be the most fascinating games of a mundane season.

From curling to cricket, rob bagchi picks the pivotal dates that will define the sporting year

February 24, Turin, Italy

Curling: Winter Olympics

From 1976 to 1984, Britain had a quadrennial fixation with ice-skating as the sport provided our only chance of a medal at the Winter Olympics. In 2002 we became curling aficionados as the team lead by Rhona Martin (left) took gold. They remain our best hope of a medal this year - unless Kristan Bromley's feats in the bob skeleton persuade us to become armchair experts in that reckless sport.

May 21, Wembley

Football: Coca-Cola Championship play-off final

The most lucrative single club match in the world could be pivotal for Leeds United, once the most indebted club in English football history. Comfortably third in the division but unlikely to win one

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