Europa League draw LIVE: Man Utd draw Barcelona in knockout round play-off
Juventus will take on Nantes, having failed to make it out of the Champions League groups
Manchester United will face Barcelona in a blockbuster Europa League knockout round play-off tie.
Erik ten Hag’s side finished second in their group, narrowly missing out on top spot to Real Sociedad despite a 1-0 win in Spain on the final matchday, and promptly drew the Catalan giants in what promises to be a mouth-watering tie for a place in the last 16.
Another big-name side to drop down from the Champions League, Juventus, drew French side Nantes, while Bayer Leverkusen take on Monaco in another intriguing tie and Jose Mourinho’s Roma face FC Salzburg.
The Europa League play-offs will be held over two legs, with matches played on 16 and 23 February. United will play the second leg against Barca at home at Old Trafford.
Follow all the updates from the Europa League play-off draw:
Champions League draw
Of course one of Marchetti’s other roles is to introduce the former players who will be helping to draw the balls.
Former Bayern Munich and Real Madrid midfielder Hamit Altintop is introduced onto the stage.
Champions League draw
Here’s Giorgio Marchetti!
Uefa’s Deputy General Secretary is the face of these draws and he comes out onto the stage to recap the group stages after a video showing a recap of the group stages.
Champions League draw
The draw ceremony is about to get going in Switzerland. Here’s a reminder of the two pots:
Seeded: Bayern Munich, Benfica, Chelsea, Manchester City, Napoli, Porto, Real Madrid, Tottenham.
Unseeded: AC Milan, Borussia Dortmund, Club Bruges, Eintracht Frankfurt, Inter Milan, Leipzig, Liverpool, Paris St-Germain.
Teams cannot face a side they played in the group stages nor another team from their home country.
Antonio Conte admits Spurs are ‘far’ from winning trophies and need time
Antonio Conte reiterated his calls for time and patience at Tottenham after admitting they were far off from winning a trophy following Sunday’s home defeat to Liverpool.
The Italian celebrated a year in charge at Spurs last week and has made big progress during his 12 months, taking over a club in the Europa Conference League and guiding them in the knock-out stage of the Champions League.
Tottenham’s style of play still draws detractors but they remain fourth in the table despite three losses from their last four Premier League fixtures.
Conte has repeatedly talked down their chances of competing for the title and called on fans to trust the process after they booed the team off at half-time of the 2-1 defeat to Liverpool.
Antonio Conte admits Spurs are ‘far’ from winning trophies and need time
The Spurs boss has faced injury issues with Son Heung-min, Dejan Kulusevski, Richarlison and Lucas Moura this season
Chelsea’s attacking impotence is a familiar riddle for Graham Potter to solve
The soundtrack is blander, biting criticisms replaced by forgettable musings, the sense of a self-destructive manager blowing his empire up has gone, with quiet, vague notions of progress in vogue instead, but in a sense Chelsea have not been transformed by regime change.
At least one problem remains the same. They do not score enough goals. Not under Thomas Tuchel and not under Graham Potter either. Compile a league table over the last four rounds of fixtures and Chelsea are the lowest scorers: two goals in four games leaves them behind even Wolves. A meagre haul of two points in four games is why they will not spend the World Cup in the top four. A derby defeat to Arsenal was an exercise in attacking impotence: just five shots, with only one on target, a mere eight touches for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, an expected goals total of 0.28, their lowest in the top flight for over a year. There was a bland bluntness to Chelsea.
A beguiling trait of Chelsea over the last two decades is how the characteristics could remain as the manager changed. Potter got the new-manager bump that Tuchel experienced; that most of their predecessors did, too. For years, Chelsea were resourceful, redoubtable winners, no matter who was in charge. They were a byword for pragmatism. Now, whoever is in the dugout, they struggle to be prolific enough.
Chelsea’s attacking impotence is a familiar riddle for Graham Potter to solve
Potter is entitled to talk of being at the start of a ‘process’, but part of the rationale for his recruitment was that if he was given superior players he could get the goals that eluded Brighton
Bayern not worried about drawing Liverpool
Bayern Munich head coach, Julian Nagelsmann, was asked about his thoughts on drawing Liverpool in the last-16 after Jurgen Klopp’s men finished second in Group A and the German was pretty nonplussed about the prospect.
“There are easier draws [than getting Liverpool], but there’s always a chance that you can turn the tables.” he said, “There are not too many teams that finished second in their groups who would want to play against us.”
PSG boss ‘relaxed’ about last-16 opponent
Paris Saint-Germain head coach, Christophe Galtier, says his side are relaxed about the draw for the last-16 despite finishing second in Group H and facing the prospect of a group winner in the first knockout round.
“We know that to lift the trophy means we’ll have to take the best teams and we’ll find out the first one we’ll play at this draw.” said the PSG boss, “We’re calm and relaxed.”
Who can the English teams get?
Given the restrictions meaning you can’t play a team who were in your group or are from the same country, there are a limited number of sides each English team could face.
Chelsea can only draw: Borussia Dortmund, Club Brugge, Eintracht Frankfurt, Inter Milan, PSG, RB Leipzig
Liverpool can only draw: Bayern Munich, Benfica, Porto, Real Madrid
Man City can only draw: AC Milan, Club Brugge, Eintracht Frankfurt, Inter Milan, PSG, RB Leipzig
Tottenham can only draw: AC Milan, Borussia Dortmund, Club Brugge, Inter Milan, PSG, RB Leipzig
Potential trip ups
There are a few surprises in the seeded pot this year after both Liverpool and PSG missed out.
Benfica are one. They have yet to lose a competitive game all season and clinched the top spot in Group H by the narrowest margin in Champions League history.
The Portuguese side scored a sixth goal at Maccabi Haifa in stoppage time to take them level on points, head-to-head record, goals scored and goals conceded with Paris St-Germain. Meaning they won the group due to scoring more away goals than the French side.
Napoli have also been a clear force throughout the group stages and their loss to Liverpool on the final matchday is the only time they’ve been defeated this season. Thankfully for the Reds, Napoli cannot be drawn against them but the Serie A side may be a testing prospect for PSG.
From the unseeded pot, the English sides will be hoping to avoid the French champions who have Lionel Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe to call on. The big surprise of the group stages though was Club Brugge, who were in the bottom seeds when the group draw was made, yet reached the knockout stage for the first time.
The Belgian side qualified after just four games but failed to score in their final three group matches.
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