Europa League round of 16 draw summary: teams, games, dates
UEFA Europa League draw: as it happened
Europa League round of 16 draw in full
Sparta Prague vs Liverpool
Marseille vs Villarreal
Roma vs Brighton
Benfica vs Rangers
Freiburg vs West Ham
Sporting CP vs Atalanta
AC Milan vs Slavia Prague
Qarabag vs Bayer Leverkusen
Thank you for joining!
We're going to wrap up this live feed; many thanks for reading.
Be sure to join us for coverage of the Europa League round of 16, and we'll see you in three weeks' time for the quarter-final draw.
Bye!
Second-leg home comforts for seeds
Just a final reminder that the seeded teams in each tie will be given the apparent benefit of having home advantage in the second leg.
And, in case you are still wondering (you probably aren't): there is no away-goals rule in the Europa League last 16, or indeed any other round in any other European club competition.
Here's a piece by my colleague Andy Hall on the abolition of the away-goals rule.
When are the round of 16 ties?
The first legs of those eight ties will be played on Thursday 7 March, with the returns scheduled for Thursday 14 March.
We'll then be back in Nyon the day after the second legs - Friday 15 March - for the quarter-final draw.
Draw complete!
Here's that draw in full:
Sparta Prague vs Liverpool
Marseille vs Villarreal
Roma vs Brighton
Benfica vs Rangers
Freiburg vs West Ham
Sporting vs Atalanta
Milan vs Slavia Prague
Qarabag vs Leverkusen
Qarabag vs Leverkusen
And finally, the two teams left in the draw are: Qarabag and Bayer Leverkusen.
Milan vs Slavia Prague
AC Milan, the third favourites according to the bookies, get Slavia Prague.
Sporting vs Atalanta
Sporting CP, beaten finalists on their own ground in 2005, are to face... Atalanta.
Freiburg vs West Ham
And now… Freiburg are paired with West Ham, the holders of the Conference League.
Benfica vs Rangers
Benfica are drawn with… Rangers. Five lost finals between them.
Roma vs Brighton
Third tie is out: Roma will take on Brighton. De Zerbi to take the Seagulls back to his native country, then.
Marseille vs Villarreal
Next out, it’s… Marseille vs Villarreal.
That pits Villarreal's head coach, Marcelino García Toral, against the club where he began this season.
First tie out: Sparta Prague vs Liverpool
Sparta Prague are the first of the unseeded teams out of the hat. To face the Czechs, O’Shea plucks out… Liverpool!
A reminder that the group winners in each tie, so in this case Liverpool, will be at home in the second leg.
Draw time!
"Atmosphere building" in Dublin ahead of UEL final - O'Shea
And now the Dublin final ambassador, former Ireland international John O'Shea, is brought out. He'll be helping with the draw.
"The atmosphere is building and I think they can't wait to showcase what Dublin has to offer," O'Shea purrs.
He says the Premier League clubs in the draw are among the favourites for the trophy, together with Bayer Leverkusen - oh, and the Italian teams, too. About half of the teams left in the draw, then.
Mr Marchetti is here...
Pinto now welcomes UEFA's deputy secretary-general, Giorgio Marchetti, onto the stage to lead the draw.
He begins with a word for Qarabag, who are there first Azerbaijani team to make the Europa League last 16.
Who is in the UEL draw? Another look at the line-up
We begin with a video reminder of all the teams left in the Europa League hat. That seems like a good opportunity for me to remind you, too. They are:
Seeded teams:
Atalanta (ITA)
Brighton (ENG)
Leverkusen (GER)
Liverpool (ENG)
Rangers (SCO)
Slavia Prague (CZE)
Villarreal (ESP)
West Ham (ENG)
Unseeded teams:
AC Milan (ITA)
Benfica (POR)
Freiburg (GER)
Marseille (FRA)
Qarabag (AZE)
Roma (ITA)
Sparta Prague (CZE)
Sporting CP (POR)
Almost UEL draw time!
OK, UEFA comms chief Pedro Pinto is out on the stage at Nyon and the draw event is underway.
Let the exhaustive exposition commence.
Can Benfica break the Guttman curse?
Benfica, famously, have not won a European trophy since their former coach, Hungarian Béla Guttmann, placed a curse on the club after a contract dispute.
My colleague Kieran Quaile explains:
"With Guttmann in the dugout, Benfica beat Barcelona 3-2 to win the European Cup in 1961. Just a year later, in 1962, they faced Real Madrid in the final, and once more, were victorious, winning 5-3 to claim back-to-back European titles.
"After leading the Lisbon club to consecutive European Cups, Guttmann requested a pay rise. The club refused his request and he allegedly placed a curse on the Portuguese team.
"'Not in a hundred years from now will Benfica ever be European champion,' he said. Guttmann left Benfica later in 1962 to join Uruguayan giants Peñarol.
"Since he made the remark, Benfica have lost eight European finals in a row, their last coming in 2014, when they lost 4-2 to Spanish side Sevilla on penalties."
Several serial runners-up in UEL draw
On top of three past tournament winners, today’s draw also features the two clubs who hold the unwanted distinction of having lost more UEFA Cup/Europa League finals than anyone else.
Benfica and Marseille have both lost all three finals they’ve contested.
The Lisbon club were beaten in the showpiece event in 1983, 2013 and 2014, while Marseille were runners-up in 1999, 2004, 2018.
The draw additionally includes a pair of two-time losing finalists, in Rangers and Roma.
How many former winners are in the hat?
By my count, three.
As I mentioned a little earlier, Liverpool are three-time winners of the competition. Their trio of triumphs all came in the UEFA Cup era - in 1973, 1976 and 2001.
There are no other multiple winners in the draw. Leverkusen (1988) and Villarreal (2021) have both lifted the trophy once.
Can Milan join select European club?
After beating Rennes in a thrilling knockout round playoffs tie, AC Milan are still in the hunt for a little piece of history.
If they lift the trophy in May, the Rossoneri will become only the sixth side to have won each of the European Cup/Champions League, UEFA Cup/Europa League, Cup Winners’ Cup and UEFA Super Cup at least once.
So far, only Ajax, Bayern Munich, Chelsea, Juventus and Manchester United have managed that feat.
Alonso in for Klopp next season?
And Klopp's successor could well be Leverkusen boss Alonso, who is being heavily linked with the Liverpool job after not only guiding his team to the top of the Bundesliga, but also overseeing six wins from six in the Europa League group stage.
The Reds may face competition from Bayern Munich, however, after it emerged this week that the Bavarians' head coach, Thomas Tuchel, is to depart at the end of the season.
Here's what Alonso had to say about his future on Thursday:
Can Klopp sign off with quadruple?
Liverpool, of course, are still in contention to go one better than the FA Cup-League Cup-UEFA Cup treble they did under Gérard Houllier in 2000/01.
In Klopp’s final season in charge at Anfield, the Merseysiders also lead the Premier League, are in Sunday’s Carabao Cup final against Chelsea, and remain alive in the FA Cup.
Who are the favourites to win the Europa League?
After progressing to the round of 16 by winning Group E ahead of Toulouse, Jürgen Klopp's Liverpool head into the knockout stages as the favourites to win the fourth UEFA Cup/Europa League in their history.
The Reds are price at 2/1 to lift the trophy in Dublin, per Oddschecker.
They're followed by German league leaders Bayer Leverkusen on 9/2, and AC Milan on 8/1.
(Photo: EFE/EPA/PETER POWELL)
When and where is the 2024 Europa League final?
This season’s Europa League final is to be held at Dublin’s Aviva Stadium on 22 May.
It will be the arena’s second Europa League final: Aviva Stadium also hosted Porto’s 1-0 win over fellow Portuguese club Braga in the 2011 trophy decider.
When are the round of 16 ties?
The first legs are to be played on Thursday 7 March, with the second legs a week later, on Thursday 14 March.
Once the round of 16 is complete, the draw for the quarter-finals will take place on Friday 15 March. Annoyingly (in my view), that last-eight draw will also determine each team's path through the semi-finals.
How will the Europa League round of 16 draw work?
As you may well have surmised by yourself, each round of 16 tie pulled out of the hat will see a seeded team paired with an unseeded team.
Clubs from the same national association cannot face each other at this stage. So despite Sparta Prague and Slavia Prague both being in the draw, and in separate pots, we cannot have a Czech capital derby in the last 16.
It's also worth noting that the seeded team in each tie will be given home advantage in the decisive second leg.
Knockout round playoffs: results in full
While the eight group winners have been hanging around since the Europa League’s round-robin stage ended in December, the eight unseeded teams in today’s draw were decided yesterday.
That’s when the two-legged knockout round playoff ties, each contested by a Europa League runner-up and a Champions League third-placer, were completed.
Here’s how yesterday’s second legs finished up:
Qarabag 2-3 Braga (6-5 agg)
Rennes 3-2 AC Milan (3-5 agg)
Freiburg 3-2 Lens (3-2 agg)
Toulouse 0-0 Benfica (1-2 agg)
Marseille 3-1 Shakhtar (5-3 agg)
Roma 1-1 Feyenoord (2-2 agg, Roma won on pens)
Sparta Prague 4-1 Galatasaray (6-4 agg)
Sporting CP 1-1 Young Boys (4-2 agg)
(Photo: Alberto PIZZOLI / AFP)
Who's in the UEL draw? The unseeded teams
The eight teams that aren't seeded either finished second in their Europa League group, or dropped down into the competition after coming third in their Champions League group. They are:
AC Milan (ITA)
Benfica (POR)
Freiburg (GER)
Marseille (FRA)
Qarabag (AZE)
Roma (ITA)
Sparta Prague (CZE)
Sporting CP (POR)
Who's in the UEL draw? The seeded teams
There'll be two eight-team pots in today's draw at UEFA's House of Football; one containing the seeded clubs, and another containing the unseeded clubs.
The eight seeded sides, who all won their Europa League group, are:
Atalanta (ITA)
Brighton (ENG)
Leverkusen (GER)
Liverpool (ENG)
Rangers (SCO)
Slavia Prague (CZE)
Villarreal (ESP)
West Ham (ENG)
I very much hope you’ll join me for the draw, but if you’re keen to see the balls emerge from the hat with your very own eyes, let me point you in the direction of our guide on how you can watch along.
What time is the UEL draw in the US?
For those of you following from the United States, a noon CET start means it’s a horrifically early one for you, particularly if you’re on the west coast. The draw gets going in about an hour's time - at 6am ET and 3am PT.
(Photo: NICOLAS TUCAT/AFP)
UEL draw live online: welcome!
Hello! You’ve obviously heard there’s a football draw happening today. At midday local time in Nyon, Switzerland, we’ll find out who’ll be facing who (sorry, whom) in the last 16 of the UEFA Europa League.