Last 16 fixtures schedule, and who Man Utd and Arsenal will play in the next round
Manchester United’s reward for eliminating Barcelona from the Europa League is a round of 16 match against another Spanish opponent at Real Betis, while Premier League leaders Arsenal take on Sporting Lisbon.
Betis picked up more points than any other club in the group stage, winning five and drawing one of their six games to put Jose Mourinho’s Roma at the top.
Betis, managed by former Manchester City and West Ham boss Manuel Pellegrini, are currently fifth in the Spanish top flight and their squad includes World Cup winners Nabil Fekir and Ayoze Perez, on loan from Leicester in January .
Arsenal’s opponents Sporting Lisbon, meanwhile, beat Danish club FC Midtjylland 5-1 on aggregate in the play-off round after dropping out of the Champions League group stage despite taking four points from Tottenham.
Mikel Arteta and his players will find a familiar face in Hector Bellerin, who joined Sporting in January, six months after ending his decade-long association with the Gunners from Barcelona.
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The Red Devils will be confident of going all the way and lifting the trophy for the second time in six years after sensationally advancing in a play-off with a 4-3 aggregate win at the expense of Barcelona.
Second-half goals from Fred and Antony at Old Trafford saw United overcome a 1-0 deficit to win 2-1 over the La Liga title favorites, with Erik ten Hag calling the result his “biggest win” since taking charge announced last summer.
“If you can beat Barcelona, one of the best teams in Europe at the moment, then your faith can be really strong, then you can beat anyone,” said Tan Hag. “We’ve had some good wins, Liverpool and Arsenal at home, really good wins, but I think that over two games, a draw, Barcelona: it’s a big win.”
When will the last 16 games be played?
The final 16 games will be played on Thursday 9th March and Thursday 16th March.
The quarter-final and semi-final draws will take place one day after the end of the second legs on Friday 17 March.
Europa League round of 16 draw complete
- Bayer Leverkusen versus Ferencvaros
- Juventus vs Fribourg
- Man Utd vs Real Betis
- Roma vs Real Sociedad
- Seville vs Fenerbahce
- Shakhtar Donetsk vs Feyenoord
- Sporting Lisbon vs Arsenal
- Union Berlin versus Union Saint-Gilloise
Arsenal avoided being dragged into a play-off tie with a Champions League exit after topping a group with PSV, Bodo/Glimt and FC Zürich, meaning they were one of eight seeded teams in the draw for the last 16 was drawn.
United and Arsenal were kept separate for the draw as two clubs from the same national association cannot play each other at this stage of the competition. However, they could be drawn together from the quarter-finals onwards as that rule no longer applies.