LONDON: Manchester United and last season’s runners-up Juventus will be among the sides looking to punch their tickets to the last 16 of the Champions League with victories on Wednesday.

United can advance by beating PSV Eindhoven at Old Trafford in Group ‘B’ while Juve can join them in progressing from Group ‘D’ with a win against their city rivals Manchester City in Turin.

Juventus, unbeaten in their group, are second with eight points from four games, one less than City who have already qualified and stunned Manuel Pellegrini’s men 2-1 in September at the Etihad.

“The important thing is to try to recover our performance, said Pellegrini, whose side were thrashed 4-1 at home to Liverpool on Saturday that left them two points behind surprise Premier League leaders Leicester City. “We are not going to go to Juventus just to try to draw.”

Louis Van Gaal’s United lie second in the Premier League, a point ahead of City, and face Leicester in a top-of-the-table clash on Saturday.

The lead Group ‘B’ with seven points, one ahead of both PSV and VfL Wolfsburg, and playmaker Juan Mata is eyeing victory on Wednesday before the game against Leicester.

“We could make an important step to finish first in our group in the Champions League and we could climb to the top of the Premier League,” Spaniard Mata wrote in his weekly blog on kicca.com on Monday. “This is how we face this new week.”

A win for Paris St Germain at Malmo will also send them through to the knockout phase of Europe’s premier club competition with a game to spare from Group ‘A’ which will also see already-advanced Real Madrid under intense pressure to win at Shakhtar Donetsk.

Real have lost two straight games in La Liga and fans called for coach Rafa Benitez to be fired after their humiliating 4-0 loss at home to Barcelona in the Clasico at the Santiago Bernabeu on Saturday.

That left Real six points adrift of leaders Barca in La Liga and president Florentino Perez felt compelled to call a press conference on Monday to give Benitez the dreaded vote of confidence.

And the 10-time European champions need a convincing win in Ukraine, which will see them win Group ‘A’, to restore the faith of their disgruntled fans.

“I am worried about restoring my team’s spirits,” Benitez said.

In Group ‘C’, two-time European Cup champions Benfica lead with nine points, two more than Atletico Madrid, ahead of their trip to Kazakhstan to face Astana.

Benfica will qualify for the knockout round with a victory, and can advance with a draw unless Galatasaray beat Atletico in the other match.

Beaten 2014 finalists Atletico need only draw against the Turks at the Vicente Calderon to secure their place in the last 16, although they may have to win to retain a chance of finishing top of the section.

ZLATAN’S HOMECOMING

PSG’s match away to Malmo would normally have been a celebration of Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s return to the Swedish club where he scored the first goal of his glittering career, way back in 1999.

Instead, his mind is still very much on last week’s attacks in Paris, which cost the lives of 130 people and injured hundreds more.

“[There is] news all the time,” the 34-year-old Ibrahimovic said. “It’s difficult to focus.”

PSG’s players returned to domestic duty on Saturday, wining 2-1 at Lorient, but their celebrations were very much muted.

PSG’s 1-0 defeat at Real three weeks ago remains their only loss this season but a win here will take Laurent Blanc’s side through to the last 16 and a draw would suffice depending on the result in the other game in Ukraine.

Sevilla need a victory at winless Borussia Moenchengladbach and hope Juve fail to beat City to keep alive their faint hopes of progress in the Group ‘D’ basement battle.

A win at bottom side Gladbach is the only way Sevilla will still have any hope of reaching the last 16, when they host Juve on December 8.

Victory at Borussia Park would guarantee them at least a place in the Europa League, which they have won for the last two years running.

With Gladbach’s Champions League exit already confirmed, defeat would confirm the Germans will finish bottom of the group, but they want to knock Sevilla from third to advance to the Europa League.

“We need to be courageous and play our own game,” said Gladbach’s Guinea winger Ibrahima Traore. “Our confidence is high and our goal is third place to qualify for the Europa League.”

In one of the closest groups to call, CSKA are bottom with four points in Group ‘B’ but could move into second place if they beat Wolfsburg at the Arena Khimki and United beat PSV.

However, they could also be eliminated in case of a defeat.

Wolfsburg are coming off a 6-0 thrashing of Werder Bremen in the Bundesliga and Dieter Hecking’s team appear to have improved its defence and attack.

“When we work so well both in the defence and in the attack, we are hard to beat,” defender Marcel Schaefer said.

Schaefer is one of the two players still on the team from the 2009 side that failed to progress after losing their last two group matches — against CSKA and United.

That’s the same schedule Wolfsburg face now.

Wednesday’s fixtures (kick-offs 1945GMT unless stated):

Group ‘A’: Malmo v Paris St Germain; Shakhtar Donetsk v Real Madrid.

Group ‘B’: CSKA Moscow v VfL Wolfsburg (1700GMT); Manchester United v PSV Eindhoven.

Group ‘C’: Astana v Benfica (1500GMT); Atletico Madrid v Galatasaray.

Group ‘D’: Borussia Moenchengladbach v Sevilla; Juventus v Manchester City.

Published in Dawn, November 25th, 2015