EUROPE beckons again next week for the last time before Christmas for those Reds of England - Manchester United and Liverpool.

And both will be straining to make sure it's not the last time this season. Each outfit faces Continental collisions that could wreck respective Euro dreams and leave Chelsea as the only Premiership party on foreign duty for the first half of 1999.

On first inspection United's task should be considerably easier than that of their deadly rivals down the East Lancs Road.

A win for United over crack German unit Bayern Munich at old Trafford on Wednesday will guarantee top spot in their Champions' League group and with it automatic qualification for the quarter-finals to kick off in spring.

Even a draw might be good enough. Such is United's standing among the rest of the groups they could yet qualify as one of the favoured group runners-up.

But rather than leave anything to chance United must go for the conquest that will confirm last eight status. To achieve that they must also subdue the nemesis that is often posed by German opposition.

The Red Devils have suffered lapses in defence, once infrequent now increasing, notably from goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel. But with the active axis of Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole in such irrepressible form then Old Trafford can anticipate a nice little Bay-earner.

No such similarly breezy prospect at Anfield 24 hours earlier. Liverpool, too, bristle with attacking potency. Messrs Fowler, Owen and Riedle will surely test the resolve of Spain's surprise package of the season Celta Vigo.

But as so rudely demonstrated in the first leg defence is an elusive quantity for the Merseysiders. At best they are as convincing in defence as the Venus de Milo is at wind-surfing.

The odds are against them beating a cultured and menacing Celta Vigo, who in the previous round shocked Aston Villa. Even if Liverpool do win the likelihood of keeping a clean sheet is remote. So a case of one red in, one out.

IT used to be steak. Then, chicken and beans had their champion in Alan Shearer. There is even a fad for broccoli.

Now, according to Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, it's caviar and sausages, which, in less salubrious north London circles, may well be translated as good old-fashioned eggs and bangers. Whatever, the staple diet of football today has clearly gone mad, absolutely mad.

The caviar-sausages combination was forked over by Wenger in the remnants of the Gunners' salvaging of a 1-1 draw at home to Middlesbrough. The game ended with the Highbury faithful booing their favourites, who back in May, were the greatest thing since sliced bread, in 'norf Lahndan' any way, following their double triumph.

That ace brace of Premiership and Cup success was the equivalent of feeding the masses caviar, said Monsieur Wenger. Now the diet was sausages, his Gallic discourse less in common with chef Delia Smith than with his compatriot Eric Cantona of sardines and seagulls infamy.

Still, if it avoids a menu of Wenger and crash then I suppose his curious analogy will have hit the spot.

AS the FA Cup unfolded from the second round this weekend to herald the big guns in the most romantic round of all - the third - another hammer-blow is primed to fall.

The likely increase of European games for the Continent's super-powers next season is set to rebound on the world's oldest, and most glamorous, club competition.

Advocates of the Euro push for more money and air-time for the select few say there will not be enough midweek 'windows of opportunity' for replays.

By the time the new century dawns the FA Cup could be nothing more than an intrusion, its inherent appeal consigned more to history.

BACK to the food counter. A camera shot of the Luton Town substitutes' bench during their Worthington Cup quarter-final at the Stadium of Light showed the replacements all sucking on lollipops as they waited to be sprung into action. Gives a whole new meaning to a team being licked into shape.

AND staying with the Worthington Cup. Wimbledon's tradition for respecting no-one blazed to the fore when they downed holders and cosmopolitan crew Chelsea.

He may not be at one of the game's most fashionable clubs, but Joe Kinnear is arguably one of the best managers operating in the top-flight. Now though if he is to shatter his own semi-final hoodoo he has to inspire the Dons to eliminating the Tottenham team for whom he starred as a defender in the 1960s and 1970s.

Before that prospect however Kinnear may yet be brought to book after revealing his belief that several players might have had a flutter on lifting the cup at the start of the season. Headlines never seem far away from the dogged Dons.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.