Europa League draw LIVE: AC Milan and Roma discover fates for play-off round
The Champions League third-place finishers take on the Europa League group stage runners-up in a play-off clash to see which teams will reach the last 16
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Your support makes all the difference.The draw for the Europa League play-off round takes place today as the teams who finished second in their groups will take on the clubs dropping down from the Champions League for a spot in the last-16.
There are eight play-offs and the Champions League clubs falling down into the Europa League play-offs include big names like Galatasaray, Benfica and Feyenoord. They will be pitched up against the likes of Sporting, Marseille and Roma.
The Europa League play-off draw decides which club plays which, and the eight winners of those matches will progress to the last-16 draw, where they will join the eight Europa League group winners in the latter knockout stages.
Follow all the updates from the draw below and get the latest betting offers right here:
Champions League last-16 draw
John Terry now pulls Napoli out of the unseeded pot...
... the Italian side will take on Barcelona!
Champions League last-16 draw
The first team drawn out is FC Porto...
... they will be facing Arsenal!
Champions League last-16 draw
The rules of the draw are now being explained.
Seeded teams are drawn against unseeded teams. Teams cannot face others from their own domestic leagues nor anyone they faced in the group stages.
Seeded teams, or group winners, will play their home leg second.
Champions League last-16 draw
Uefa Deputy Secretary General Giorgio Marchetti is introduced to oversee the draw as he does with all the draws for European competitions.
Despite the previous video, he gives an opening speech recapping the group stages before explaining that this season was the last to feature a group stages ahead of the new format being introduced next year.
John Terry, the former Chelsea captain, will be helping out with the draw.
A reminder of the last 16 teams
Group winners (seeded): Arsenal (ENG), Atlético de Madrid (ESP), Barcelona (ESP), Bayern Munich (GER), Borussia Dortmund (GER), Manchester City (ENG), Real Madrid (ESP), Real Sociedad (ESP)
Group runners-up (unseeded): FC Copenhagen (DEN), Inter Milan (ITA), Lazio (ITA), RB Leipzig (GER), Napoli (ITA), Paris Saint-Germain (FRA), Porto (POR), PSV Eindhoven (NED).
Champions League last-16 draw
Here we go then.
You can watch the draw for free on Uefa’s website or on TNT Sports 1 if you have a subscription. The representatives for all 16 clubs are waiting in Nyon.
A quick video is played recap how each of them reached the knockout rounds.
Arsenal break Brighton spell to set up early Premier League title showdown
Onto Liverpool. If Arsenal returning to the top of the Premier League table felt like a statement before Jurgen Klopp’s side were held by Manchester United in the final fixture of the weekend, it also sends a message ahead of what is shaping up to be one of the defining clashes of the campaign on the Saturday before Christmas. As Manchester City jet off to the Club World Cup amid their worst run of form in years under Pep Guardiola, it leaves a clear top two in the Premier League table: they meet at Anfield next weekend.
After defeat at Aston Villa, who may feel they should also be in the conversation after their late win at Brentford, returning to winning ways was the objective here for Mikel Arteta’s side. They managed to do so against a Brighton team whose struggles in the Premier League continued after hitting further heights in Europe in midweek. Arsenal had almost all the chances and almost all the shots against Roberto De Zerbi’s visitors and for the first time in 33 top-flight matches, Brighton failed to score.
Arsenal break Brighton spell to set up early Premier League title showdown
Arsenal 2-0 Brighton: Goals from Gabriel Jesus and Kai Havertz earned the hosts victory as Roberto De Zerbi’s side failed to score in the Premier League for the first time in 33 games
Arsenal‘s ‘positive' Champions League campaign
Mikel Arteta believes his Arsenal side have shown enough in the group stage to prove they can compete back in the Champions League.
“Overall, I think, very positive,” he said in his press conference when asked how Arsenal’s return to the Champions League had gone.
“Having not been in the competition for six or seven years and having a team that hasn’t got that much experience, I think we’ve competed really well.
“I really liked the approach of the team in every single game, the way we’ve tried to play. We had some big results and big experiences, like the one we had in Seville or Lens, or even today looking at how the team can act and how fair it is to give certain players that exposure when you make so many changes.
“Overall finishing first with a game to play we have to be really happy. Now we have to now close that chapter until February and make sure that when that chapter opens up again that we’re in the best place to compete against another top side.”
Man City faced with frustrating form irony just as they look to win crown of world’s best team
Manchester City have often been described as the best team in the world. The penultimate step to officially claiming that title falls on the 25th anniversary of a historic low. On 19 December 1998, City lost 2-1 to York: their fifth consecutive league game without a win left them 12th in the old Division 2, rendering them the 56th best team in England. On 19 December 2023, they face Urawa Red Diamonds in the semi-final of the Club World Cup. Win then and only Fluminense or Al Ahly stand in their way in Friday’s final.
“Years ago we could not imagine to be there and we are there,” said Pep Guardiola. “I’m very pleased and excited to go there to try and win it.” It has been a remarkable rise, albeit one facilitated by about £2bn of investment from Sheikh Mansour and one clouded by 115 Premier League charges. But now, a quarter of a century after City were 15 points behind Walsall, City have one of the greatest managers in history and a treble only previously achieved by Manchester United in a season when their neighbours were a third-tier club.
Now they arrived in Saudi Arabia as favourites to retain both the Premier League and the Champions League. And yet, for a club on the brink of adding a fifth trophy of 2023 and an achievement that would symbolise a time of dominance, at something of a low.
Man City faced with form irony as they look to win crown of world’s best team
Pep Guardiola’s team head for the Club World Cup semis on Tuesday and could be crowned the game’s finest side on Friday
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