Cheltenham may be just around the corner, but it was once again the football that took centre stage in another action-packed midweek. With the three European club competitions all in the knockout phases there was plenty of excitement across the continent.

Closer to home, Everton, Leeds, Norwich, and Watford all suffered setbacks in their quest to avoid the drop.

The coming weekend sees Six Nations action, Manchester United v Tottenham and eight racing fixtures on a busy Saturday ahead of the Festival.

If you are after some punting pointers, then why not check out the big winning markets from the past week.

Please remember that unlike fixed odds betting, losses can exceed deposits when spread betting.

BAYERN MUNICH v SALZBURG TOTAL GOAL MINUTES x CORNERS (SETTLED AT 3048)

There may well have been a couple of nervous Bayern fans heading into the second leg after they only managed to draw with Salzburg in the first leg of their round of 16 tie with the Austrian champions. However, those fears were swiftly allayed thanks to a hat-trick from Robert Lewandowski in the first 23 minutes.

Serge Gnabry continued his one-man mission to prove Tony Pulis wrong with his third goal of the European campaign as Bayern took complete control with a Thomas Muller brace and an effort from Leroy Sane rounding off a 7-1 win for the hosts.

With so many goals there were a couple of big makeups but the Total Goal Minutes x Corners was worthy of note. With eight corners and 381 goal minutes, the final market settled at 3048 against a pre-match spread of 2050-2225 and buyers were able to win 823x their stake.

MICHAEL VAN GERWEN v JOE CULLEN HIGHEST CHECKOUT x TOTAL 180s (SETTLED AT 1020)

MVG made it a quickfire double of Premier League successes as he followed up his Exeter victory with a triumph at the Brighton Centre on the south coast. Wins over James Wade, Joe Cullen, and Michael Smith in the final helped the Dutchman on his way, but it was the semi-final with Cullen which was of particular note.

Both Cullen and MVG can pepper the trebles when they are on song and the match covered the Total 180 spread with 6 scored altogether, four of them coming from Cullen (spread was 5.3-5.8). Coupled with a stunning 170-checkout from Mighty Mike, the Highest Checkout x Total 180s market settled at 1020. With the market at 632-692 beforehand buyers landed a bullseye with a win of 328x their stake.

MANCHESTER CITY v SPORTING SHIRTS x BOOKINGS (SETTLED AT 0)

After a 5-0 win in Portugal, Manchester City had this tie wrapped up by the time Sporting came to town and as is often the case in these kinds of matches, the second match was nothing to shout about.

City huffed and puffed and whilst they were good for the clean sheet against the visitors who had brought a vociferous travelling army, they couldn’t break them down to get a goal of their own.

Halil Umut Meler dished out three yellow cards (which equates to 30 booking points) but that mattered not one bit to sellers on the Shirts x Bookings market who rejoiced a scoreless draw as they collected a whopping 1850x their stake. The spread before the match was 1850-2100.