Arsenal are set to be involved in the Europa League last-16 draw later this week, let’s take a look at all the details.
The Europa League Round-of-16 draw takes place on Friday, 24th February at 11am GMT, and Arsenal will be involved after topping their group last November.
The draw will be streamed live on UEFA’s website and on BT Sport, for those in the UK.
As one of the group winners, Arsenal will play against one of the play-off round winners.
As a result, we won’t know Arsenal’s potential opponents until after the play-off second-leg matches on Thursday.
Play-off round first-leg results
- Ajax 0-0 Union Berlin
- Barcelona 2-2 Manchester United
- Salzburg 1-0 AS Roma
- Shakhtar 2-1 Rennes
- Juventus 1-1 Nantes
- Leverkusen 2-3 AS Monaco
- Sevilla 3-0 PSV
- Sporting 1-1 Midtjylland
It’s hard to write any team off at the moment. Sevilla have the strongest lead going into the second leg, but PSV have the second leg at home, and they averaged 2.5 goals per game in the group stage. So you never know.
One team from each of the above ties will face one of the group winners below.
Group winners
- Arsenal
- Real Betis
- Fenerbahce
- Ferencvaros
- Feyenoord
- Freiburg
- Real Sociedad
- Union Saint-Gilloise
Clubs from the same association cannot draw each other, so if Manchester United triumph over Barcelona, they won’t be able to face Arsenal – yet.
As a group winner, Arsenal’s first leg will be away from home, with the second leg at the Emirates Stadium. The first leg takes place on March 9th, and the second leg on March 16th.
Arsenal face Bournemouth at home on the Saturday before the first leg, Fulham away on the Sunday between the two legs, and Crystal Palace at home after the second leg.
With all three league games (and one of the Europa League legs) in London, that’s certainly not as bad as it could have been.
Now we await the results of the play-off round before Friday’s draw.