New Delhi: The final matchday of the UEFA Europa League had a lot of excitement and thrill on offer with 18 games taking place all at once. There was a lot at stake with a lot of the clubs with no European football to play for if they finish outside the top 24 and there were 12 unlucky teams that failed to make the cut. French outfit OGC Nice bowed out the tournament with zero wins while former Manchester United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s new side, Besiktas also failed to qualify as they finished 28th.
Both Premier League clubs, Manchester United and Tottenham moved forward with a top eight finish and they move directly into the Round of 16 as they finished third and fourth respectively. Lazio finished the league stage at the top of the standings while Real Sociedad and FC Porto would be disappointed at missing out on the automatic qualification spot. The draw consisted of all teams that finished between ninth and 24 and featured some heavy hitters in there which makes for some exciting clashes in the knockout round.
How does the UEFA Europa League knockout draw work?
In the revamped UEFA Europa League format for the 2024-25 season, the knockout playoff draw features teams that finished 9th to 24th in the league phase. These teams are split into two groups: seeded (9th to 16th place) and unseeded (17th to 24th place). Each seeded team is drawn against an unseeded side, with the seeded teams earning the advantage of playing the second leg at home.
UEFA Europa League 2024/25 knockout playoff fixtures
The knockout phase play-off ties 🤩#UELdraw pic.twitter.com/vsja5RsiXM
— UEFA Europa League (@EuropaLeague) January 31, 2025
The biggest game to come out of the UEFA Europa League knockout draw was a mouth watering clash between two of the biggest sides entering the draw. Italian outfit AS Roma have been drawn against Portuguese giants FC Porto and only one of these two early season favourites for the tournament will go through. Both remaining Turkish sides were present for the draw as well as Galatasaray and Fenerbahce finished outside the top eight.
Gala were drawn against Dutch club AZ Alkmaar while Jose Mourinho’s Fenerbahce were pitted against Belgian outfit Anderlecht. Another big Dutch club in the draw was Ajax and they were drawn up against Union SG of Belgium. Danish side FC Midtjylland have a huge task on their hands as they face Real Sociedad in the knockout round while Greek outfit PAOK face Romanian side FCSB. The knockout rounds will be played in the normal two-legged format that we’re used to seeing in the UEFA Europa League with the first leg being played on Feb 12 with the return leg on Feb 19.
The UEFA Europa League knockout round draws are now in the history books with some exciting fixtures ahead of us. Let’s dive in to find out who faces whom in the knockouts to proceed through to the next round! Football Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
