Both Chelsea and Liverpool can pretty much assure themselves of a place in the Champions League knockout stages on Tuesday with victories over AS Roma and Atletico Madrid respectively.
Victory for Chelsea, who will travel to Italy full of beans after thrashing Sunderland 5-0 at the weekend, would put them on 10 points and even were Bordeaux to beat Romanian side Cluj it would need the latter side to win their final two matches and Chelsea lose both theirs for the Londoners to miss out.
Liverpool, who will be looking to bounce back after their unfortunate 2-1 defeat to Spurs in the Premier League on Saturday, for their part need a win at Anfield, combined with a PSV Eindhoven loss to Marseille, which would guarantee the top two finish needed to reach the lasde that the 29-year-old has been linked with in the past.
However despite still wanting to play in England one day Simao realises how important the Champions League is to Atletico after being absent from it for so long.
"It's really important for the club, as it gives us a very positive image," he told uefa.com. "It's a very important competition and all the best players want to play in it."
By contrast to their cross channel neighbours the two French sides in action are in desperate need of victories to keep their hopes of qualifying alive.
Marseille, who are pointless, host PSV on the back of a moraleboosting 3-1 win over St Etienne at the weekend and certainly if they play as they did in the opening match against Liverpool then they can think of climing all three points.
{{/usCountry}}Marseille, who are pointless, host PSV on the back of a moraleboosting 3-1 win over St Etienne at the weekend and certainly if they play as they did in the opening match against Liverpool then they can think of climing all three points.
{{/usCountry}}Bordeaux, though, lost to Nancy in the league and coach Laurent Blanc has made it clear to his side what he expects of them when they travel to Cluj another win over the Romanians.