When is the Europa League last-16 draw?
The Europa League last-16 draw takes place on Friday February 21 from 12pm – follow the draw live on Sky Sports digital platforms.
The teams who finished in the top eight of the competition’s new league phase table automatically qualified for the last 16. They are Lazio, Athletic Bilbao, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur, Eintracht Frankfurt, Lyon, Olympiakos and Rangers.
They will be joined by the eight winners of the knockout play-offs following Thursday’s second legs.
From the knockout play-offs onwards each team has a set pathway in the tournament, with potential opponents in the last 16, quarter-finals and semi-finals pre-defined by pairings which are determined by teams’ final league positions.
There will also be a draw for the quarter-finals and semi-finals to decide which team will host the first leg and which team will host the return leg.
The draw allocates the side of the bracket for all the seeded teams, starting with the teams ranked 7th and 8th and finishing with the teams 1st and 2nd.
One ball is taken from the bowl containing the two relevant ranked teams and is opened to display the team. The first team drawn from this bowl is placed in their reserved spot on the bracket. The other seeded team of the pairing is then drawn and displayed, and allocated in the corresponding reserved spot on the blue side of the bracket.
The Moroccan hasn’t scored in six games after a spell of bagging nine from 10 Premiership matches and also hitting a Europa League double against Nice and one against Tottenham.
The clubs in each seeded pair are drawn into one of two positions in the round of 16 against the relevant winner of the knockout phase play-offs, whose position was determined by the knockout phase play-off draw.
Four bowls are prepared for the draw, with the balls containing the names of each pair of seeded teams placed in the corresponding marked bowls according to the league rankings.
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