The Europa League round of 16 draw takes place on Friday with Arsenal and Manchester United among the sides waiting to find out who they will face in the next knockout stage of the competition
Arsenal will finally find out who they will face in the Europa League round of 16 today. The Gunners reached the final of the competition in 2019 but were beaten 4-1 by Chelsea and, at the time, that defeat extended their absence from the Champions League to four consecutive seasons.
Three more have passed without this particular sequence coming to an end, but the north London outfit are very much on course to be back at Europe’s top table in the very near future, whether that’s via their Premier League finish or lifting the Europa League trophy come May.
Despite establishing themselves as genuine Premier League title contenders, the Europa League is somewhat of an insurance policy for Arsenal in their quest to be playing Champions League football next season and they’ve been handed a nice boost by being seeded for the round of 16 draw having topped their group.
This means the Gunners can’t face Real Betis, Fenerbahce, Ferencvaros, Feyenoord, Freiburg, Real Sociedad or Union Saint-Gilliose as they are the other seven UEFA Europa League group stage winners. Furthermore, as per UEFA’s ruling that clubs from the same association cannot be drawn against each other, Mikel Arteta’s side will avoid an all-Premier League clash against Manchester United.
So who could Arsenal get? Well, as the knockout round play-off ties concluded on Thursday, all teams involved in the draw have been confirmed so we decided to run a simulation.
If this simulator is correct then Jose Mourinho will be in line for a return to London after Roma were handed a tough round of 16 clash meeting with Arsenal with the decider taking place at the Emirates Stadium on March 16.
Elsewhere this simulator has set up an intriguing clash between Real Sociedad and Bayer Leverkusen, whilst Man United will face Fenerbahce.
Simulated Europa League round of 16 in full:
Bayer Leverkusen vs Real Sociedad
Juventus vs Feyenoord
Sevilla vs Freiburg
Sporting CP vs Ferencvaros
Roma vs Arsenal
Shakhtar vs Union Saint-Gilloise
Man United vs Fenerbahce
Union Berlin vs Real Betis
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