The Europa League makes its first 16-team play-off on Thursday, but Liverpool, West Ham, Brighton and Rangers are not included.
All four British teams advanced to the group stage. That meant they progressed to the round of 16 alongside Atalanta, Villarreal, Salvia Praga and Bayer Leverkusen. However, the eight second-placed teams in their group must win the playoffs to advance to the round of 16.
These teams will play the eight third-placed teams in the Champions League group after Thursday’s draw.
This tie will be contested over two legs, the first being played on Thursday and the second on February 22.
The eight clubs who won their play-off matches will face the winners of the last 16 groups in the draw on 23 February. This competition will be held over two days, March 7 and 14.
Last season, Barcelona and the Red devils met in the play-offs, with Erik ten Hag’s side winning 4-3 on aggregate.
There will be no British teams participating this year and the bottom team in their group will be eliminated from the Champions League.
Celtic, Newcastle and the Red Devils were all knocked out of Europe with just one win. Liverpool, Brighton and West Ham are of course among the favorites to win this season’s Europa League, along with Bundesliga leaders Leverkusen and Italian giants AC Milan.
Liverpool are heavy favorites as they bid farewell to manager Jurgen Klopp for his final European season at Anfield.
Klopp has announced that he will retire at the end of the season after almost nine years.
The Europa League is a trophy that Klopp won during his time at Liverpool, losing 3-1 to Sevilla in the 2016 final. Last September, Klopp spoke about his Europa League ambitions in an interview with TNT Sports:”First of all, I think we all have to respect the competition [but] respect the competition properly and respect the opposition in a way that respects” Road.
“We want to go as far as possible. Of course we want to get to the final, but I don’t know if you can because there will be a lot of fantastic football teams between us and that goal. So we have to guarantee delivery.”
