The ‘Martin O’Neill factor’ was in full force when Sunderland inflicted only a second defeat in the Premier League on Roberto Mancini’s men on New Year’s Day but normal service was resumed with a convincing 3-0 defeat over Wednesday’s opponents only last week.

Then the wheels came off in spectacular style against local rivals Manchester United in the FA Cup on Sunday, although Mancini took heart from a gutsy second-half performance which, in turn, exposed the frailties which could yet haunt Sir Alex Ferguson when the biggest prize on the domestic stage is handed out in May.

Now, the experienced Italian must galvanise his troops for the Carling Cup and the visit of Kenny Dalglish’s top-four hopefuls.

The demanding nature of two-legged ties means it could pay for punters to err on the side of caution in Manchester on Wednesday, while the visitors do not have to rush this fixture and team news is also pivotal.

Conversely, punters may argue any price just shy of evens about the Premier League leaders on home soil (City 20/21 draw 12/5 Liverpool 16/5 – first leg 90 minutes betting) is appealing.

Mancini could be without six senior professionals, including Kolo and Yaya Toure, who are on African Nations Cup duty with Ivory Coast, for the visit of the Merseysiders.

Edin Dzeko and Mario Balotelli are both major doubts, along with star midfielder David Silva, who was replaced at half-time in the derby on Sunday.

Goals have become a problem for Liverpool on the road and they failed to find the net against City last week and Wigan before, all of which lends itself to a low goals expectation in the first leg.

Craig Bellamy, who starred for Liverpool in the FA Cup win against Oldham last Friday, could make an appearance against his old club and the 32-year-old can backed at 9/4 (Anytime Goalscorer) or, for the value hawks, an even bigger 8/1 (Last Goalscorer), should he come off the bench.

The fiery Welshman, who left City in August on a free transfer and has scored six goals in eight starts and 10 substitute appearances so far this season, thought Liverpool were better than the scoreline suggested last week and is convinced they have more than a puncher’s chance.

“This is why you play for Liverpool and this is what it brings,” he said.

“It’s a two-legged match and we have to make sure we are still in the tie. We have the second leg at Anfield and this club knows all about two-legged games. If we can get it back to Anfield still very much in the tie we will have a great chance of getting to Wembley.”

City will find out ahead of the game whether their appeal over Vincent Kompany’s red card given against United in their FA Cup third-round clash on Sunday is successful.

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Tottenham

Spurs go to the San Siro hoping to continue the strong start to their first outing in the Champions League after an away draw with Werder Bremen and a home win against FC Twente.

The north London club are on four points in Group A alongside Inter (11/10 Serie A outright) and Redknapp believes that a cautious approach is the right way to go against the European champions.

He said: “We can’t go out there and be wide open. We’ve got to be sensible against the better teams.

“We have to be difficult to beat, first and foremost. I wouldn’t sit here and kid ourselves – if we came back with a point we would all be delighted.

“We want to win, obviously, but you have got to hit them on the break. You are not going to suddenly start swarming all over them. They are a top team.”

Spurs have had their big challenge made easier as Inter will be without Diego Milito and Esteban Cambiasso, who both picked up injuries playing for Argentina.

Cambiasso is key in midfield for the Italian side as he manages to break up play and has a strong passing game.

Milito was key for the San Siro club last season, scoring vital goals in the Champions League final against Bayern Munich as well as hitting the back of the net in the Italian domestic cup final and scoring important goals in the Serie A.

Redknapp thinks that Spurs will still face a tough task despite the absence of the two Argentineans.

He said: “They have real dangers. [Samuel] Eto’o is playing fantastic at the moment for them. It will be a great game for the players to go there and show what they can do.

“We have always got attacking players. Whoever we pick we will have our share of players who want to go forward and create and score goals. That is how we play.

“It’s a big challenge and a fantastic game to look forward to.”

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The Serbs’ hopes of qualifying for the last 16 were hanging in the balance before the start of Friday’s match after their 1-0 defeat to Ghana in their opening game.

With Germany having blown Australia away in their first match it looked ominous for Serbia, who, before the start of the tournament, had been tipped as potential dark horses after an impressive qualifying campaign.

However, after their slow start the Serbs bounced back with a controversial victory over Germany.

The Germans will count themselves a little unfortunate not to have got anything out of the Group D match, the three time champions having been reduced to ten men after Miroslav Klose was shown a second yellow card in the first half.

Milan Jovanovic then gave the Serbs the lead just a minute later and Radomir Antic’s side were good enough to hold on for a much needed win.

While Ivanovic insists he was over the moon about the win he says their heroics in Port Elizabeth will count for nothing if they don’t finish the job against Australia.

“It’s given us back the respect that we lost in the first game. But we have not finished. We must perform, we must stay compact, we must stay strong in our third game. We must now start thinking of the third game against Australia,” said the Chelsea defender.

“In this game, we showed character and we will just try to do our best on the pitch.

“Everyone is happy now at the moment and there’s a great feeling – but we are not qualified. We just have three points and we need to keep the same focus for the third game.”

Serbia will be full of confidence going into the game with Australia who looked a shadow of the side that reached the last-16 four years ago in their 4-0 defeat to Germany.

However, despite the Socceroos (17/2 to qualify from Group D) poor performance against Germany (2/7) Serbia centre half Nemanja Vidic is reluctant to talk up his team’s chances.

“I have played against a few of their players in England – Lucas Neill, Tim Cahill, Brett Emerton – and I have a big respect for their team. Physically, it will be a difficult game,” said Vidic.

“Our people will be satisfied after we won this game, and that’s the most important thing. If we get to the second round, they will be very, very happy.”

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