England's former UEFA Cup Winners Cup holders Everton have endured a torrid season thus far but on Wednesday they can give themselves a boost with victory in Greece against AEK Athens and at the same time end their opponents' interest in the competition.

While Everton cannot wrap up a spot in the knockout stages as they lie joint second on six points with Belarus outfit BATE Borisov with two matches remaining, Scotland's former European powerhouse Celtic are on the brink of adding to their country's footballing woes by bowing out of the competition. The former European Cup winners need to beat group leaders Hapoel Tel Aviv and hope Hamburg fail to beat Rapid Vienna if they are to retain any hopes to avoid the ignominious exit of Rangers from the group stage of the UEFA Champions League.

Elsewhere, both Rome clubs still have work to do if they are to make the last 32 - which sees the top two from each group join the third-placed teams from the UEFA Champions League group stage which includes such intimidating opposition as Liverpool. Lazio share second with Spanish side Villarreal but six points off leaders Salzburg and the Italian side face the tricky task of playing the Austrians away on Wednesday while Villarreal have the relatively easier task of playing away at pointless Bulgarian side Levski Sofia.

Roma play on Thursday at home to group leaders Basel and should they win and in the unlikely event of English Premier League side Fulham slipping up at home to bottom side Levski Sofia the Italians would progress leaving Fulham out of the picture. Fulham, though, are at least quite respectably placed in the Premier League whereas Everton are flirting with the relegation zone despite outplaying Liverpool in their 2-0 derby defeat on Sunday.

Toffees' sticky position
However, with just one win in 11 matches - their city neighbours Liverpool are scarcely better with three in 12 - the pressure is growing on their highly-rated manager David Moyes, who has admitted he is 'choking on a lump at the back of my throat' at the shuddering progress made by Everton this season. Moyes, though, is adamant that the players showed a much better attitude in the Liverpool match than they had in an abject 3-2 defeat away at Hull last week and his words were echoed by Australian international midfielder Tim Cahill.

"It's just one of those things and nothing's going to fix it except our mental attitude as individuals and a team," he added. "I'm a lot more positive though - we played better football and had a much better attitude.

"We couldn't hit a barn door at the minute but I'm much happier with our approach. It's the overall attitude and mental toughness that counts." Everton are still in contention for a place in the last 32 but defeat for AEK would signal the end of their hopes and leave them staring into the abyss of a trophyless season as they are 12 points off league leaders Olympiacos and already out of their domestic cup.

However, they are mustard keen to avenge their humiliating opening 4-0 defeat by Everton and one man especially fired up for the challenge is Argentinian striker Ismael Blanco, who like the team has not been firing on all cylinders unlike last season after netting 45 times in 64 appearances for AEK before this season. "We still have a thorn in our side over the way they stuck so many goals past us," said the 26-year-old Blanco, who has shown a semblance of a return to form of late.

"It'll be a tough match. A final for us because we cannot lose. But the fact that it's an all-or-nothing game is because we lost a good opportunity to beat BATE at home (they drew 2-2). Our season hasn't gone well and sadly we are probably too far behind to win the league so going far in the UEFA Europa League is crucial to the fans and players," Blanco, known as 'El Zorro Blanco' told UEFA.com.