Certain to end in failure (2-3)
I believe the answer is:
no-win
<span class="explanation-format__ClueExplanation">'<span class="explanation-format__original">certain to end in failure</span>' is the definition.<br/ ><span class="explanation-format__explanation">(I've seen this before)</span><br/ ><br/ >This is all the clue.<br/ ></span>
(Other definitions for no-win that I've seen before include "Denoting situation in which success is impossible" , "Certain to end in failure" .)