The draw for the Europa League playoff round, held today (Monday) at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, resulted in exciting matches, most notably the encounter between Dutch club Feyenoord and Italian club Roma.
Eight teams, which finished in the top positions in the group stage, qualified directly for the round of 16 of the Europa League. These teams include the English trio: West Ham, Brighton, and Liverpool, along with Scottish club Glasgow Rangers, Italian club Atalanta, Spanish club Villarreal, German club Bayer Leverkusen, and Czech club Slavia Prague.
The Europa League playoff round features eight teams that finished in second place during the group stage and eight teams that finished third in the UEFA Champions League. The matches will be played in a home-and-away format.
Participating in the Europa League playoffs are: Toulouse, Rennes, Marseille, Freiburg, Czech club Sparta Prague, Portuguese club Sporting Lisbon, Roma, and Azerbaijani club Qarabag.
The third-placed teams from the Champions League are: Feyenoord (Netherlands), Young Boys (Switzerland), Galatasaray (Turkey), Lens (France), Braga and Benfica (Portugal), AC Milan (Italy), and Shakhtar Donetsk (Ukraine).
The draw stipulates that the teams finishing second in the Europa League will play the second leg at home, and it also prevents teams from the same country from facing each other.
The draw results are as follows:
- Feyenoord (Netherlands) – Roma (Italy)
- AC Milan (Italy) – Rennes (France)
- Lens (France) – Freiburg (Germany)
- Young Boys (Switzerland) – Sporting Lisbon (Portugal)
- Benfica (Portugal) – Toulouse (France)
- Sporting Braga (Portugal) – Qarabag (Azerbaijan)
- Galatasaray (Turkey) – Sparta Prague (Czech Republic)
- Shakhtar (Ukraine) – Marseille (France)
The first leg matches of the Europa League playoff round will take place on February 15, with the second leg matches scheduled for February 22.
