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Louise Thomas
Editor
Manchester United crashed out of the Champions League on Tuesday night and will now have to try their luck in the Europa League.
If Louis van Gaal’s team make it all the way to the final of the bloated competition it’ll mean they have to play an additional nine matches, starting with the round of 32.
Nineteen teams, including four from the Champions League have already qualified for that stage, with the rest of the places to be decided in the final group game of the Champions League (Wednesday) and the Europa League (Thursday).
Premier League rivals Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool have also qualified for the knockout stages of the competition. There is still a chance United could draw one of those two sides.
United are likely to be one of the 16 seeded teams, along with the 12 group winners. The four teams with the highest points tallies from the Champions League group stages are seeded. United finished with eight points but there is a (slim) chance their record could be topped by all four of tonight’s third-placed teams.
Tottenham and Liverpool currently top their groups and will want to stay that way to avoid facing the better sides that remain in the competition.
Shakhtar Donetsk, Galatasaray and Sevilla are the other teams to have fallen out of the group stage of the Champions League to play in the Europa League. Chelsea and Arsenal are among a number of teams who will be hoping to avoid the same fate in the competition tonight.
Napoli, Lazio, Basel and Athletic Bilbao are already seeded having won their groups.
The other teams to have definitely qualified are Molde, Krasnodar, Borussia Dortmund, Villarreal, Rapid Vienna, Braga, Saint Etienne, Schalke and Sparta Prague.
The draw for the last-32 will take place at 12pm on Monday, 14 December.
The first leg will be played on 18 February, second leg a week later 25 February.
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