OK that’s enough from me. Only Christmas to get through now and it’ll be time for Midtjylland v Manchester United. I, for one, cannot wait. Adios
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Of those ties not involving English clubs, Borussia Dortmund v FC Porto and Villarreal v Napoli both look decent. And I’m sure there was delight in Istanbul when Fenerbahce were paired with Lokomotiv Moscow...
Ok, deep breath. Here’s that draw in full again in case you missed any of the ties:
Valencia v Rapid Vienna
Fiorentina v Tottenham Hotspur
Borussia Dortmund v FC Porto
Fenerbahce v Lokomotiv Moscow
Anderlecht v Olympiakos
Midtjylland v Manchester United
Augsburg v Liverpool
Sparta Prague v Krasnodar
Galatasaray v Lazio
Sion v Braga
Shakhtar Donetsk v Schalke
Marseille v Athletic Bilbao
Sevilla v Molde
Sporting Lisbon v Bayer Leverkusen
Villarreal v Napoli
Saint-Etienne v Basel
By the way...
First legs will be played “in principle” on 18 February and second legs on 25 February at 18:00 or 20:05 GMT but Uefa says it will confirm the exact dates later on.
The last 16 ties are scheduled for 10 and 17 March.
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Holding 30,000, Augsburg’s WWK Arena is a little bigger so should be plenty of room to accommodate all those Liverpool fans making the trip to Bavaria. They’d just better hope the tie doesn’t go to penalties if Marwin Hitz is about....
Fans of analytics will be excited though. Here’s Sean Ingle describing how Midtjylland won the Danish League last season.
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For any Man United fans planning a trip to see the away leg against Midtjylland, you’d better act quickly. Their MCH Arena in Herning only holds 11,800 spectators.
So not the toughest draw for the English clubs really. Midtjylland shouldn’t be a problem for Manchester United but then we thought that about their Champions League group as well didn’t we? Jürgen Klopp will be returning to Germany with Liverpool to face Augsburg, who have struggled to repeat their heroics from last season. Tottenham look like having the hardest task. They face a rematch of the tie they played last year against Fiorentina, which Mauricio Pochettino’s men ended up losing 3-1 on aggregate.
St Étienne v Basel
Villarreal v Napoli
Sporting Lisbon v Bayer Leverkusen
Sevilla v Molde
Marseille v Athletic Bilbao
Shakhtar Donetsk v Schalke
Sion v Braga
Galatasaray v Lazio
Sparta Prague v Krasnodar
Augsburg v Liverpool
Midtjylland v Manchester United
Anderlecht v Olympiakos
Fenerbahce v Lokomotiv Moscow
Borussia Dortmund v Porto
Fiorentina v Tottenham
And the first team out is Gary Neville’s Valencia, who will face Rapid Vienna
Gianni is calling for bigger bowls next time. I hope someone is listening.
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Just to remind you, no two teams from the same county can be drawn against each other. And neither can any teams who met in the group stage, plus clubs from Ukraine and Russia. Hence the vast number of pots.
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Ok now on to the main event. There’s a lot of balls on stage and a lot of pots...
Former Basel striker Alexander Frei is the special guest. In case you don’t remember him, here’s some of his best bit.
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The Fifa presdential hopeful is just guiding us through the process of the draw as laid out earlier. By the way ‘Together to Basel’ is the motto of this year’s tournament in honour of the final being played in the Swiss city. Roger Federer will be licking his lips if his beloved club can make it all the way...
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The draw is live
Welcome to the house of European football says Uefa’s Gianni Infantino
So all three English clubs should in theory have easier draws but with Borussia Dortmund among the unseeded teams, you never know. There’s also the intriguing prospect of Gary Neville’s Valencia playing Manchester United
Sitting comfortably? Then we’ll begin. It’s a straight draw of the 32 teams left in the competition, 24 of whom came through the group stages. The rest are the third-place finishers from their Champions League groups.
The teams have been split into two groups, with 16 seeded and 16 not. They are then drawn against each other in a straight knockout.
Seeded teams: Molde, Liverpool, Krasnodar, Napoli, Rapid Vienna, Braga, Lazio, Lokomotiv Moscow, Basel, Tottenham Hotspur, Schalke, Athletic Club, Manchester United*, Bayer Leverkusen*, Olympiakos*, Porto*
Unseeded teams: Fenerbahce, Sion, Borussia Dortmund, Midtjylland, Villarreal, Marseille, St-Étienne, Sporting CP, Fiorentina, Anderlecht, Sparta Prague, Augsburg, Shakhtar Donetsk*, Galatasaray*, Sevilla*, Valencia*
* transfer from Champions League
Preamble
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the Europa League draw. This should be exciting shouldn’t it? Today is the day Manchester United, Liverpool and Tottenham fans find out which teams they will play in the last-32 of the most important competition in European football. What, this isn’t the Champions League draw? Sorry my bus was late. We’ll start again shall we?
Ok so it may be the unfashionable sibling of old big ears but that’s no reason to hate now. Plus these days whoever wins the Europa League gets to party with the big boys next year so this is a serious business.
Ed will be here just as soon as he’s finished with the Champions League draw.
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