This year’s Europa League is advancing to its latter stages, and it’s an exciting one to see as there are several big clubs competing for Europe’s second-best club competition this season. Sixteen teams were involved in the play-offs yesterday, with just eight making it out to qualify for the Round of 16 of the competition, where things are now supposed to get tougher.
Sevilla won the Europa League last season over Jose Mourinho’s Roma, who has since been fired by the Italian club. While we prepare for the toughest stage of the tournament, when is the Round of 16 going to be played, and what teams are qualified to play in the round?
UEFA Europa League round of 16 draw qualified teams & schedule
Sixteen teams played in the playoffs yesterday, all fighting for qualification to the Round of 16 of the competition. However, only eight teams could make it out to join the group stage winners, who are referred to as the ‘seeded teams.’ The ones that just earned their qualification via the playoffs are the unseeded teams, which will come in handy during the draw.
According to UEFA documents, these seeded teams will be pitted against the unseeded ones, who just made it out of the playoffs that took place yesterday, but there’s a catch. Two teams from the same country cannot play against each other in this round of the tournament, which means Atalanta from the seeded group cannot play against AC Milan from the unseeded group because they’re from the same country. This is also similar to the rule for the UEFA Champions League round of 16.
This rule is only applicable to this round. Starting from the next round, two teams can play against each other even if they’re from the same country. Atalanta, Brighton & Hove Albion, Bayer Leverkusen, Liverpool, Rangers, Slavia Praha, Villareal, and West Ham are in the seeded group, while AC Milan, Benfica, Freiburg, Marseille, Qarabag, Roma, Sparta Praha, and Sporting CP belong to the unseeded group.
How to watch UEFA Europa League round of 16 draw?
All 16 teams have confirmed their spot in the next round of the Europa League, with the group stage winners playing against the ones who made it through the playoffs in the round of 16 after the draw is made. The draw will take place today in Switzerland, the headquarters of UEFA, and streaming will be made available to viewers worldwide.
The round of 16 of the Europa League, which will be played over two legs, will see the clubs drawn against each other today, as they learn their opponents in the next round soon enough. You can stream the event live on UEFA’s official website, although you’ll need a registered account on the website to access the live broadcast, which is completely free.
The winner of the competition, whose final will be played in Dublin, will automatically qualify for next season’s UEFA Champions League, even if they can’t achieve this feat through their standing in the league at the end of the season.
