Manchester may be the battleground for the 2011-12 Premier League title race but will either City or United overcome first-leg deficits to reach the last eight of Europe’s less glamorous competition - the Europa League.
United (6/4 in Match Betting) have it all to do in Bilbao, having been outplayed at Old Trafford by Athletic Club (13/8, Draw 5/2) last week.
The Basque club’s 3-2 win (25/1 Athletic Club 3-2 in Correct Score) makes them favourites to progress to the last eight, but coach Marcelo Bielsa is set to be without the services of Spanish international striker Fernando Llorente for the second leg.
Llorente scored in Athletic’s 2-1 defeat to Osasuna at the weekend but has not trained for the last three days and could be replaced by Gaizka Toquero (13/8 Anytime Goalscorer) in possibly the only change from the line-up that won in Manchester.
The United line-up will reveal how much Sir Alex Ferguson rates his side’s chances of rescuing the tie.
Antonio Valencia has made the trip to Spain but Phil Jones, Anderson and Nani have not while Chris Smalling is back in contention after a head injury.
Wayne Rooney (11/8 Anytime) has scored goals in spurts throughout his career and the United forward has now scored nine in his last six appearances. Red-hot Rooney should be backed to bag in Bilbao and it may well be the first strike of the match – as it has been on five of the six occasions he has scored in since Christmas (5/1 First Goalscorer).
Back in Manchester, City (2/7 in Match Betting) should be highly motivated to beat Sporting Club (10/1, Draw 9/2) convincingly after the Lisbon club celebrated like they had won the Europa League after last week’s 1-0 first-leg win.
Roberto Mancini will still be without captain and key centre-back Vincent Kompany after his calf injury in Portugal – an incident which surely contributed to City’s back-to-back defeats to Sporting and Swansea.
But Sporting will not cause City as many problems at the Etihad Stadium, where Mancini’s men are unbeaten in European competition since August 2008.
Mario Balotelli (10/11 Anytime Goalscorer) went close to equalising for City in Lisbon last week when his late header hit the bar and his ability to finish coolly could be in evidence again on Thursday night.
Former Liverpool full-back Emiliano Insua looked shaky for Sporting at the Alvalade and he could be run ragged by Adam Johnson (15/8 Anytime) at the Etihad.
The England winger should play a big role if City are to win by the minimum 2-0 scoreline that would see them into the hat for the quarter-finals (5/1 Man City 2-0 in Correct Score).
Of the other ties, expect Olympiacos (10/11 in Match Betting) to secure their passage through against Metalist Kharkiv (3/1, Draw 12/5) – who they beat 1-0 in the Ukraine last week (9/2 Olympiacos 1-0 in Correct Score).
The Greek side have one of the best defensive records in Europe since Christmas and have now kept ten consecutive clean sheets.
PSV Eindhoven (6/4 in Match Betting) have changed coach since their 4-2 first leg defeat to Valencia last Thursday night with former Dutch World Cup star Philip Cocu stepping up from assistant to take over from Fred Rutten.
The Philips Stadion side are not out of the tie with two away goals to their credit, scored late on at the Mestalla after they were 4-0 down.
A spirited display from PSV (50/1 in Europa League Outright Betting) could cause Valencia (5/1) a wobble and the Spaniards are by no means certain of their last-eight spot.
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