Tottenham need to ensure their season stays on track when they face Sporting on Wednesday night. Spurs’ defeat to Newcastle was their second in a row to leave them off the pace in the Premier League and they cannot afford to slip up again if they are to progress to the knockout stage.
Barcelona are on the brink of Champions League elimination and Bayern Munich can seal their fate on Wednesday night. Barca’s faint hopes of reaching the last 16 may be over by the time they take to the field, depending on the result in the earlier game between Inter Milan and Viktoria Plzen.
Napoli could heap more misery on mis-firing Rangers on Wednesday night. Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s side, off the pace in the Scottish Premiership, were beaten 3-0 by the Serie A side last month at Ibrox and have lost all four games in the group stage so far.
Arsenal will be aiming to return to winning ways and complete the double over PSV Eindhoven on Thursday night. The Gunners secured their place in the next round of the Europa League with a 1-0 win over the Dutch side last week, but were held by Southampton in the Premier League on Sunday.
Manchester United cannot afford to ease up if they are to clinch the all-important top spot in their Europa League group. Winning the group would see them go straight through to the last 16 rather than face a team eliminated from the Champions League in the play-off round but they trail Real Sociedad by three points with two games remaining.
Celtic cannot qualify for the knockout stage of the Champions League but a Europa League place is still up for grabs in their final two matches. The 2-0 defeat against RB Leipzig two weeks ago left bottom of Group F with one point from four matches and with no chance of making second place following Shakhtar Donetsk’s draw against Real Madrid in Warsaw.
Borussia Dortmund will look to join Manchester City in the knockout stages of the Champions League as they prepare to welcome Erling Haaland back to BVB Stadion Dortmund. The Bundesliga side have a five-point cushion over Sevilla heading into matchday five while City advanced after three successive wins and a draw.
RB Salzburg and Chelsea both have a chance of progressing to the Champions League round of 16 when they meet in Austria on matchday five. Chelsea lead Group E by a point over Salzburg following back-to-back wins over AC Milan while the Austrians are the only unbeaten side in the group, drawing three of their four matches.
West Ham will be chasing a fifth straight home win when entertaining Bournemouth in Monday’s night Premier League clash. The Cherries are doing better than most pundits predicted this term, lying two places and a couple of points above the Hammers in 11th in the table.
United produced their most complete performance for several years when beating Tottenham and will be hard to beat at Chelsea if in the same mood. The Blues have gone seven games without losing but were far from convincing at Aston Villa and Brentford in their last couple.
Liverpool have looked more like their old selves over the past 10 days and will be eyeing a fourth straight win when visiting Nottingham Forest. The hosts have tightened up at the back of late but do not seem equipped to match any elite-level Premier League team.
Leicester are bottom of the Premier League but will take heart from their head-to-head record against Palace in recent years. The Foxes have beaten the Eagles at King Power Stadium for the past three seasons, as well as being undefeated at Selhurst Park during that time.
Brighton did the double over Brentford last season and look in better shape again this term ahead of Friday night’s Premier League clash. The Bees have enjoyed a couple of flashy home wins over Manchester United and Leeds but their recent results offer cause for concern.
Manchester United should close in on qualifying for the Europa League knockout stage by brushing aside Omonia Nicosia at Old Trafford. The Red Devils made hard work of winning last week’s clash in Cyprus 3-2 but are backed to enjoy a much smoother success on home turf.