Europa League draw: Barcelona takes on a nasty Napoli! Rangers go to Dortmund

This year’s Europa League knockout stage will be extremely busy. Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund, Sevilla and Leipzig were relegated from the Champions League.

One thing is for sure, winning the Europa League this year will be much harder than in any other edition. For lurking in the pool are some of the famous teams we have regularly seen in the knockout stages of the Champions League.

Take for example Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund, Sevilla, Atalanta and Porto. All of them played in the eighth round of the Champions League last year, with Dortmund and Porto even sneaking into the quarter-finals.

Add to that West Ham, Leipzig, Betis, Real Sociedad and Bayer Leverkusen and this year’s Europa League could be really interesting.

It starts at the unseeded side’s ground (teams from the Champions League), the rematch at the seeded side’s stadium (teams from the EL). For the playoffs, teams from the same country still can’t face each other.

The first play-off matches will be played on 17 February, the rematches on 23 February. The winners of the play-offs will be entered into the draw for the Europa League semi-finals as unseeded against the seeded teams, i.e. the winners of the Europa League groups. Lyon, Monaco, Spartak Moscow, Frankfurt, Galatasaray, CZ Belgrade, Leverkusen, West Ham.

Europa League play offs 2021/22

Sevilla – GNK Dinamo
Atalanta – Olympiacos
Leipzig – Real Sociedad
Barcelona – Napoli
Zenit – Real Betis
Borussia Dortmund – Rangers
Sheriff Tiraspol – Braga
Porto – Lazio

Source: UEFA