Arsenal Football Club has been drawn with Portuguese side Benfica in the last 32 stage of the Europa League. Manchester United, on the other hand will gear up for a fight against Spanish side Real Sociedad who have been a team in form this season.
United, led to the trophy by Jose Mourinho in 2017, dropped into the draw after being eliminated from the Champions League and must now prepare to face Real Sociedad as former player Adnan Januzaj and ex-Manchester City midfielder David Silva return to Old Trafford.
Mourinho who now leads a another Premier League side, Tottenham Hotspur, would be looking to repeat his heroics of 2017 when his side plays Austrian side Wolfsberger, who currently sit seventh in the Austrian league.
Leicester City, in the last 32 for the first time, play Slavia Prague and the winners of the competition will qualify for next season’s Champions League.
Europa League last-32 draw in full
- Wolfsberger vs Tottenham
- Dynamo Kiev vs Club Brugge
- Real Sociedad vs Manchester United
- Benfica vs Arsenal
- Red Star Belgrade vs AC Milan
- Royal Antwerp vs Rangers
- Slavia Prague vs Leicester
- Salzburg vs Villarreal
- Braga vs Roma
- Krasnodar vs Dinamo Zagreb
- Young Boys vs Bayer Leverkusen
- Molde vs Hoffenheim
- Granada vs Napoli
- Maccabi Tel-Aviv vs Shakhtar Donetsk
- Lille vs Ajax
- Olympiakos vs PSV
Draw format
Twelve (12) winners who topped each group were selected alongside twelve (12) group runners-up with another eight third-placed sides from the Champions League made it into the Europa League knockout phase.
The clubs were split into two pots, with the 12 group winners and the four teams with the best Champions League record all seeded.
No team can play a club from their Europa League group or a side from the same national association at this stage, meaning there is no all-Premier League tie just yet.
The ties will take place over two legs, with the seeded teams at home in the second legs.
Important dates
- February 18 & 25, 2021: Round of 32
- March 11 & 18, 2021: Round of 16
- April 8 & 15, 2021: Quarter-finals
- April 29 & May 6, 2021: Semi-finals
- May 26: Final (Gdansk, Poland)
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