The Europa League can be Europe's secondary club competition at the back of the moneymaking UEFA Champions League, but the leisure fee and drama have to ratchet up substantially after the changes made to the 2021-22 event to make it more distinct and aggressive.
One of those modifications become the advent of a playoff stage before the Round of 16. The 8 Champions League 1/3-vicinity teams that within the past simply walked into the Europa League's knockouts as a consolation prize, will now must prove they belong through playoff matches. Gone is the inflated Round of 32 that allocated slots for those Champions League underachievers to drop in — the Europa League knockouts will now begin with the Round of 16, and 1/2 of the members will come via the playoffs.
That playoff draw passed off on Monday, Dec. 13. Here's the way it worked and which groups have been worried.
In the beyond, the Champions League 1/3-vicinity groups dropped into the Europa League knockouts because they have been deemed to be deserving based on the high-quality and credentials that allowed them to qualify for Europe's most desirable competition within the first vicinity. Beginning this season, they may should earn their spot within the Europa League Round of 16.
Those 8 Champions League teams were drawn against the 8 Europa League organization runners-up in playoff collection a good way to be played over two legs on Feb. 17 and Feb. 24. The crew with the maximum goals in each series will formally clinch a berth into the Round of sixteen.
Only 8 names from the sixteen above will increase from the playoffs to the Round of sixteen, wherein they will meet the Europa League organization winners. Here are those 8 institution winners which might be set to kick back and watch the playoffs unfold in anticipation of their fighters:
The Europa League knockout playoff draw become hung on Dec. Thirteen at 7 a.M. ET from the UEFA headquarters in Switzerland.
The 8 Europa League institution runners-up (Pot 1 above) have been seeded for functions of the draw. They made up one pot, while the opposite pot contained the third-region institution finishers from the UEFA Champions League.
The key details in this playoff draw:
Between the eight Europa League group runners-up and the 8 Champions League third-area groups, there are a complete of 16 teams worried within the knockout spherical playoffs.
