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
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Your support makes all the difference.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 League draw LIVE
The procedure of the draw - seeded teams face unseeded teams etc - is now explained just so that everyone knows how things work and which teams can be drawn against which.
No team from the same domestice league can face each other at this stage.
Europa League draw LIVE
Giorgio Marchetti is brought onto the stage to talk about next season’s Europa League expansion before explaining the rules for the draw with a bit of flair and style.
He also congratulates Qarabag for becoming the first team from Azerbaijan to reach the knockout stage of this competition.
John O’Shea is then introduced to help out with the draw.
Europa League draw LIVE
Here’s a reminder of the teams in the draw:
Seeded teams
- Atalanta (ITA)
- Brighton (ENG)
- Bayer Leverkusen (GER)
- Liverpool (ENG)
- Rangers (SCO)
- Slavia Prague (CZE)
- Villarreal (ESP)
- West Ham (ENG)
Unseeded teams
- AC Milan (ITA)
- Benfica (POR)
- Freiburg (GER)
- Marseille (FRA)
- Qarabağ (AZE)
- Roma (ITA)
- Sparta Prague (CZE)
- Sporting CP (POR)
Europa League draw LIVE
Here we go.
The draw for the Europa League last-16 is just getting started. As always there’s a recap of the group stages and the play-off round with the teams who have progressed being announced.
Fifa and Uefa face unfixable problem over multi-club ownership
Uefa and Fifa are in a stand-off over regulation on multi-club ownership, as the two biggest confederations struggle to find a solution for one of the biggest issues facing football today.
The European body are pushing for Fifa to come up with rules before next year’s inaugural Club World Cup in the USA, especially with the possibility that it could feature clubs from multiple groups. Manchester City and Chelsea are both certain to be involved, as two examples, and the former are part of one of the biggest such groups in the world as City Football Group while the London club’s owners investigating the possibility of expanding beyond the recent purchase of Strasbourg.
Fifa are at the same pushing Uefa to clarify its own rules, that have so far led to situations like Leipzig and Salzburg - both from the Red Bull group - meeting in the Europa League. That is despite the rules notionally supposed to keep such teams apart to prevent conflict of interest. The two clubs were able to prove sufficient separation, which has left a consistent question over whether the regulations are fit for purpose.
Fifa and Uefa face unfixable problem over multi-club ownership
Several top European teams including Man City are part of multi-ownership groups which can impact on transfers and tournaments as well as actual club history
Klopp compares Liverpool comeback to Liverpool’s famous Barcelona win
Jurgen Klopp broke his promise.
A few months ago, he had vowed to stop talking about his greatest comeback, his greatest night. There can be a temptation to mention the most famous of his 472 games in charge of Liverpool, in part because it combined so many of the elements that have defined his reign.
But after another four-goal comeback, against Luton this time, he reached for the ultimate in his search for something reminiscent.
“I promised my team a few months ago that I would never mention the Barcelona game as an example and I used it again today so I broke my promise,” he said.
“Just because this game was, before the game, kind of similar. This is now their Barcelona, it was against Luton.
“Difficult situation, plenty of reasons to give up in moments but not tonight and I saw only a super group fighting. If you don’t limit yourself with bad thoughts you can fly, that’s what the boys did.”
Europa League draw LIVE
Sparta Prague forward, Jan Kuchta said: “I don’t have any preferences for the draw, but I’m certain that we will now play with courage against other big clubs as we did against Galatasaray.”
Mohamed Salah injury update as Liverpool made to wait ahead of Carabao Cup final
Mohamed Salah faces a late fitness test ahead of the Carabao Cup final with the Liverpool forward yet to have been ruled out of the Wembley clash against Chelsea.
Darwin Nunez and Dominik Szoboszlai will also be assessed ahead of Sunday’s showpiece.
“Dom, Darwin and Mo we have to really see,” Liverpool’s assistant manager Pep Lijnders said. “We have two more days, so at the last minute we will check if they can be there.”
Mohamed Salah injury update as Liverpool made to wait ahead of Carabao Cup final
The Liverpool forward was ruled out of the 4-1 win over Luton on Wednesday
Europa Conference League draw
Knockout round play-off winners and unseeded teams:
- Ajax (NED)
- Dinamo Zagreb (CRO)
- Maccabi Haifa (ISR)
- Molde (NOR)
- Olympiacos (GRE)
- Servette (SUI)
- Sturm Graz (AUT)
- Union SG (BEL)
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