Manchester City (11/4 Outright) and Manchester United (10/3) will continue their quest for Europa League success on Thursday evening as they look to secure positive results in their respective last-16, first-leg ties against Sporting Lisbon and Athletic Bilbao respectively.

There is a full round of Championship fixtures on Tuesday night and Nottingham Forest look set to continue their resurgence with a win over fellow strugglers Doncaster Rovers.

Republic of Ireland coach Giovanni Trapattoni will start his preparations for this summer’s Euro 2012 finals (66/1 – Outright) with a tricky international friendly test against the Czech Republic at the Aviva Stadium on Wednesday.

There are three important matches in the Championship on Tuesday evening which will all have a big impact on the promotion race, with the pick of the games coming at Bloomfield Road where Blackpool and West Ham go head to head.

With only one game taking place in the Football League on Monday night, all eyes will be on the clash between Brentford and Carlisle United at Griffin Park (Brentford 21/20, draw 12/5, Carlisle 13/5).

Barcelona know they cannot afford another La Liga slip up this weekend with the pressure likely to be turned up again if Real Madrid (1/12 in Match betting) win at home to Racing Santander (22/1, Draw 9/1) 24 hours before Pep Guardiola’s men tackle Valencia.

Chelsea striker Fernando Torres bids to end his 17-game goal drought against champions Manchester United on Sunday while Aston Villa travel to face a Newcastle United side that can recall in-form striker Demba Ba after he returned from the Africa Cup of Nations.

Following their goalless draw at St Andrew’s in their first FA Cup encounter earlier this month, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Birmingham City are set to do battle once again in the replay clash at Molineux on Wednesday night (Wolves 21/20, draw 12/5, Birmingham 13/5 – Match Betting).

Saturday sees the final round of Championship matches of 2011 and the sides jostling for position at the top of the table will all be desperate to end the year on a high. We’ll take a look at four key games and try to pick a winner or two (West Ham 6/4 – Championship Outright).

The Championship reached its halfway point on Boxing Day with Southampton leading the race after starting where they left off in League One last term, pre-season favourites West Ham occupy the second automatic spot, while Middlesbrough are the surprise package so far. Looking ahead to the next 23 fixtures it will be a difficult task to determine which clubs will stay the distance. However, we will endeavour to look at who could be on their way to the promise land of the Premier League by next May.