Sir Alex Ferguson is targeting a Champions League win over Sporting Lisbon tomorrow to give Manchester United a smooth run to their Barclays Premier League crunch with Liverpool.
Having seen his side slip to a shock defeat at Bolton on Saturday and fall three points adrift of Arsenal, who also have a game in hand, Ferguson knows United cannot afford to make any more mistakes in the foreseeable future.
While home games against Fulham next Monday and Derby immediately afterwards should allow the Red Devils to recover the winning habit, the trip to Anfield on December 16 now takes on huge significance.
Although Ferguson still expects Liverpool to qualify for the latter stages of Europe's major competition, the Scot knows it will require two big wins over Porto and Marseille to get there.
In contrast, his own side are already through and if they beat Sporting tomorrow will confirm top spot in Group F, rendering their trip to AS Roma, immediately before the Liverpool showdown, meaningless.
"The Liverpool game is one thing we have looked at," admitted Ferguson.
"We know Sporting Lisbon need to get a result tomorrow as well which is why I am not playing too many younger players.
"It indicates our desire to make sure we win to give us the opportunity to play the way we want to against Roma."
Any arguments over United playing fair by the remainder of the teams in their group can be ended by a home win as Sporting would be unable to catch Roma in second, no matter how the Italians fare against whipping boys Dynamo Kiev.
With an impressive record of just one defeat on home soil in 32 Champions League outings and seven wins and a draw in eight appearances at Old Trafford against Portuguese opposition, United will fancy their chances.
A win will provide Ferguson with some much-needed breathing space in a packed fixture programme and ensure United a top seeding in the knock-out phase.
"Liverpool have recovered from their early position and have a good chance of qualifying, which would mean most of the favoured clubs will get through," he said.
"Once the knock-out starts and all the big teams are together you can start to assess it a little bit more."
Ferguson took the unusual step of confirming "two Portuguese players" will play, which means Cristiano Ronaldo - the matchwinner on the previous meeting in Lisbon - and Nani will feature against their former club.
The Scot's stated intention of including Darren Fletcher and John O'Shea only complicates forecasting team selection, with the latter able to fill both full-back roles, as well as appear in central defence and central midfield.
Owen Hargreaves has yet to play two games in a week since his arrival from Bayern Munich, so the £18million man might be given a rest, while Louis Saha's dodgy knees could see him drop to the bench.
Tomasz Kuszczak will replace Edwin van der Sar in goal, taking the Pole's number of appearances to seven for the season, experience that could prove invaluable as the season drags on.
For Ferguson, the path towards his second - and United's third - European Cup continues but he wishes the route to Moscow on May 21 could be made a little easier by the powers who control the English game.
"I have always had the feeling that other countries do help their clubs better than we do in England," he said.
"That is counter balanced by the number of games you have in England, which make fixtures more difficult to re-arrange.
"But I just feel there could be a better move forward in terms of helping English teams, particularly when we get to the latter stages of Europe.
"Some consideration should be given about what to do if United or Arsenal or Chelsea were to be involved in the semi-finals of the FA Cup, still going in the league and having internationals being played as well."
