Harry Diamond
The five British sides remaining in this season’s Europa League have learned their opponents for the round of 32, with Manchester United and Arsenal having been handed difficult knockout stage ties.
Manchester United dropped into the Europa League following their elimination at the Champions League’s group stage and have been rewarded with a clash against Real Sociedad. The Spanish side have impressed this season and are currently leading the La Liga title race.
Arsenal have endured their worst ever start to a Premier League season but progressed to the knockout stages in emphatic fashion with a perfect record of six wins from six fixtures, and the Gunners will meet a Benfica side who finished as runners-up in Group D to Rangers.
Jose Mourinho’s quest to win the trophy with a third different club will begin in the knockout stages with a clash against Austrian minnows Wolfsburg, whilst Leicester’s reward for winning Group G is a meeting with Slavia Prague.
Rangers were also seeded for the draw after impressively qualifying as group winners and will meet Royal Antwerp, who finished as runners-up to Tottenham and shocked the north London side 1-0 during the group stages.
Elsewhere AC Milan meet Red Star Belgrade and Napoli face Granada, with the two-legged ties set to be played in February.
Europa League Round of 32 draw in full:
Wolfsburg v Tottenham Hotspur
Dynamo Kyiv v Club Brugge
Real Sociedad v Manchester United
Benfica v Arsenal
Red Star Belgrade v AC Milan
Royal Antwerp v Rangers
Slavia Prague v Leicester City
Red Bull Salzburg v Villarreal
Braga v Roma
Krasnodar v Dinamo Zagreb
Young Boys v Bayer Leverkusen
Molde v Hoffenheim
Granada v Napoli
Maccabi Tel-Aviv v Shakhtar Donetsk
Lille v Ajax
Olympiacos v PSV
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