Europa League draw LIVE: Liverpool, West Ham, Brighton and Rangers learn last-16 fate
Jurgen Klopp’s Reds are the favourites to triumph in the Dublin final, with West Ham, Brighton and Rangers also in contention
Liverpool will face Sparta Prague in the Europa League last-16 while Brighton play Roma in what will be a historic knockout tie for the Seagulls.
Rangers were drawn against Benfica as West Ham were paired with German side Freiburg, who David Moyes’s side defeated twice in the group stages.
Brighton are playing their first ever European campaign under Roberto De Zerbi and the Italian will take his team to Rome before hosting the Serie A side on the south coast.
Liverpool received a favourable draw against Sparta Prague while Rangers will face Portuguese giants Benfica in a glamour European tie.
West Ham received a familiar draw against Freiburg, who they have already played this season - winning in London and in Germany.
Xabi Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen play Qarabag, Sporting Lisbon face Atalanta, Villareal play Marseille and AC Milan take on Slavia Prague.
The last-16 ties will take place on 7 March and 14 March, with the seeded teams - in this case all four British sides - at home for the second leg.
Follow the last 16 draw and reaction as Jurgen Klopp eyes glory in Dublin to end his reign at Anfield:
Europa Conference League draw LIVE
Servette are the first team drawn out of the pot...
... they’ll be playing Viktoria Plzen.
Europa Conference League draw LIVE
Here’s a reminder of the 16 teams in the draw:
Seeded teams:
- Aston Villa (ENG)
- Club Brugge (BEL)
- Fenerbahçe (TUR)
- Fiorentina (ITA)
- LOSC Lille (FRA)
- Maccabi Tel-Aviv (ISR)
- PAOK (GRE)
- Viktoria Plzeň (CZE)
Unseeded teams:
- Ajax (NED)
- Dinamo Zagreb (CRO)
- Maccabi Haifa (ISR)
- Molde (NOR)
- Olympiacos (GRE)
- Servette (SUI)
- Sturm Graz (AUT)
- Union SG (BEL)
Europa Conference League draw LIVE
Greek football legend and Euro 2004 winner Kostas Katsouranis will be drawing the balls out of the pots for this draw. He says that his only hope for the competition is that a Greek team reaches the final which will be played in Athens.
Europa Conference League draw LIVE
Giorgio Marchetti is back on the stage for this draw and once again recaps the previous rounds before congratulating the teams that progressed through the play off rounds.
Europa Conference League draw LIVE
And we’re back in Nyon.
This time for the Europa Conference League draw. The British interest here lies with Aston Villa but who will they be playing in the last-16?
We’re about to find out.
Europa Conference League draw LIVE
Viktoria Plzen defender Robin Hranac on the draw: “We will watch the draw together in the changing room and predict our opponent.
“I don’t have any preferences, we will put up a good fight no matter who we get.”
Europa Conference League draw LIVE
Martrin Baturina, Dinamo Zagreb midfielder said:“We already faced the most difficult opponent and we defeated them [Betis]. That’s why I don’t have any preferences for the draw.
“Whoever we get, we can play against them.”
Liverpool confirm key trio ruled out of potential Premier League title decider
Liverpool have confirmed Trent Alexander-Arnold, Alisson Becker and Curtis Jones will be out until after next month’s international break and will therefore miss the potential Premier League title decider against Manchester City.
Jurgen Klopp’s side host the champions at Anfield on 10 March but the key trio are set to be absent for the crucial fixture, as well as being unavailable against Chelsea in Sunday’s Carabao Cup final.
Liverpool confirm key trio ruled out of potential Premier League title decider
Trent Alexander-Arnold, Alisson Becker and Curtis Jones have been ruled out of the home clash against Manchester City next month, as well as Sunday’s Carabao Cup final
Europa League draw LIVE
The British teams will all be content with their opponents.
Rangers have undoubtably the most difficult tie against Benfica but the Portguese club bring weight and history to the fixture meaning a decent away trip for the fans and with the Scottish team top of the league at present they’ll take some confidence in the matches.
West Ham are well versed with SC Freiburg having beaten them twice in the Europa League group stages and they should prove no match for David Moyes’ side if he can get them back into form.
Liverpool, meanwhile, will be strong opponents for any of the teams left in the competition but a fixture against Sparta Prague could be the ideal scenario for Jurgen Klopp to rest a few players and allow his injury list to shorten.
Finally, Brighton face Roma. Tough test but much like Rangers they’ll be taking on a team with European pedigree and should they get through the tie then it’ll buoy them on to better things in the quarter-finals.
Europa League Conference draw LIVE
As we wait for some reaction to the Europa League last 16 draw, here’s what’s still to come this afternoon.
The Europa Conference League round of 16 draw takes place at Uefa’s headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland on Friday 23 February. The draw is set to commence at 12pm GMT.
It is a very similar draw to the previous one with seeded and unseeded teams drawn against each other. Aston Villa are the only British team in the competition.
The draw features 16 teams. The eight group stage winners from the Conference League group stage are seeded, and will face the knockout round play-off winners.
No side can face another team from the same national association.
Ties take place over two legs, with group winners at home in the second legs. Ties level after 180 minutes will go to extra time irrespective of the number of goals each team has scored at home and away.
If the teams still cannot be separated after the additional 30 minutes, the tie goes to a penalty shoot-out.
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