BEVERLY HILLS, February 26, (THEWILL) – With the round of 32 concluded this week, UEFA held the draw for the next knockout stage, which was completely open with no seeded teams and no country protection.
English Premier League club Manchester United will continue their 2020/21 Europa League campaign with a last 16 tie against AC Milan, while Arsenal have been drawn against Olympiacos for the second consecutive season.
The Red Devils booked their place at this stage of the competition by seeing off Real Sociedad in an impressive 4-0 aggregate win, but AC Milan is a huge tie for both clubs especially this stage of their domestic runs. The both sides were top of their leagues but have let city rivals upstage them to the leadership of the table in England and Italy respectively.
For the second year running also Rangers are paired with Slavia Prague. The Czech team it was who knocked out EPL third-placed side Leicester from the last 32. Rangers manager Steven Gerrard will be hoping to take the Scottish club into the quarter-finals of a European competition since 2008 when they reached the final of the UEFA Cup.
For Tottenham, manager Jose Mourinho will be expecting to, once again, win this competition but with a third different club after previous triumphs with Porto and Manchester United in his kitty. His Spurs side will go into a double header against Croatia’s Dinamo Zagreb in the last 16.
The full draw for the 2020/21 Europa League last 16 is:
Ajax vs Young Boys
Dynamo Kyiv vs Villarreal
Roma vs Shakhtar Donetsk
Olympiacos vs Arsenal
Dinamo Zagreb vs Tottenham Hotspur
Manchester United vs AC Milan
Slavia Prague vs Rangers
Granada vs Molde
The last 16 games will be played on Thursday 11 March and Thursday 18 March. Those who scale through will enter the draw for the quarter-finals, which will be held the day after the second legs have been played, with UEFA also intending to draw the entire tournament bracket for the semis and final at the same time.
The 2020/2021 final will be played on Wednesday 26 May in Gdansk in Poland. It was originally supposed to be the venue for the 2020 final until last season’s competition was delayed by the coronavirus pandemic and staged as a mini-tournament in Germany instead.
About the Author
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
