18 December 2023 , 09:49
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Liverpool, Brighton, West Ham and Rangers will not be involved in Monday's Europa League play-off draw because they have already progressed to the last 16 of the tournament.
The draw for the first knockout stage of the Europa League takes place at the House of European Football in Nyon, Switzerland. The draws for the last 16 of the Champions League and the play-off of the Europa Conference League will also be held on Monday.
The Europa League play-off draw will involve 16 teams: the eight teams who finished second in the group stage, and the eight teams who finished third in the Champions League group stage. The draw will be seeded to ensure each runner-up from the group stage is pitted against a team dropping into the tournament from the Champions League.
As Liverpool, Brighton, West Ham and Rangers all topped their group, they have automatically progressed to the last 16 of the Europa League. They will not find out their next opponents until the eight winners of the play-off round are confirmed.
Freiburg, Marseille, Sparta Prague, Sporting, Toulouse, Rennes, Roma and Qarabag are the eight Europa League teams who finished second in their group (seeded). Galatasaray, Lens, Braga, Benfica, Feyenoord, AC Milan, Young Boys and Shakhtar Donetsk are the eight Champions League teams who finished third in their group (unseeded).
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Clubs from the same country cannot be drawn against each other in the play-off round. So, there is no chance of Marseille playing Lens or Roma taking on Milan.
The play-off system was introduced ahead of the 2021/22 season. Before, teams who finished top of their Europa League group would enter the last 32 of the competition along with the runners-up and those dropping into the tournament from the Champions League.
The current system rewards teams who finish top of their group, such as the four British entrants. The Europa Conference League works in a similar manner, as the teams who finished third in their Europa League group have dropped into that competition.
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Olympiacos, Ajax, Real Betis, Sturm Graz, Union Saint-Gilloise, Maccabi Haifa, Servette and Molde have all dropped into the Europa Conference League (unseeded). They will be pitted against Slovan Bratislava, Gent, Dinamo Zagreb, Bodo/Glimt, Legia Warsaw, Ferencvaros, Eintracht Frankfurt and Ludogorets Razgrad in the play-off round (seeded).
Aston Villa are not involved in the Europa Conference League play-off draw after finishing top of their group. Lille, Maccabi Tel Aviv, Viktoria Plzen, Club Brugge, Fiorentina, PAOK and Fenerbahce have also progressed to the last 16 of that tournament.
In terms of the Champions League, the eight group winners will be drawn against the eight group runners-up. Clubs from the same country can't be drawn against each other, and group winners must be pitted against runners-up from a different group.
Bayern Munich, Arsenal, Real Madrid, Real Sociedad, Atletico Madrid, Borussia Dortmund, Manchester City and Barcelona are all seeded. Copenhagen, PSV, Napoli, Inter Milan, Lazio, Paris Saint-Germain, RB Leipzig and Porto are all unseeded.
The Champions League draw will be held first on Monday at around 11am. The Europa League draw will follow at around 12pm before the Europa Conference League draw takes place at around 1pm (all UK times).