Six possible Europa League opponents

Following Thursday’s Europa League games, Barça now know that they could meet any one of six possible opponents in the knockout round play offs, in which the eight runners-up from the group stage will play the eight teams that finished third in the Champions League.

Rangers FC (Scotland), Napoli (Italy), Olympiacos (Greece), Lazio (Italy), Braga (Portugal) and Dinamo Zagreb (Croatia) are the possible sides that the Catalans could face.

Because they play in the same league, Barça will be separated from Real Sociedad and Real Betis, although they too finished second in their Europa League groups.

They will find out which on Monday at 1.30pm CET, and the first leg will be played on February 17 at Camp Nou and the return a week later, on February 24 at their opponents’ ground.

The eight teams that won their Europa League groups will advance directly to the last sixteen (namely Lyon, Monaco, Spartak Moscow, Eintracht Frankfurt, Galatasaray, Red Star Belgrade, Bayer Leverkusen and West Ham).

The other teams in the competition are the ones that, like Barça, finished third in their Champions League groups: RB Leipzig, Porto, Borussia Dortmund, Sheriff Tiraspol, Atalanta and Zenit.

Road to Seville

If Barça make it through the playoff round, there will be a further draw on February 25 to decide the last sixteen match-ups. Barça will need to negotiate this round, plus the quarter finals and semi finals if they are to play at the Europa League Final in Seville on May 18.