The Europa League knockout round play-offs were drawn on Monday. Borussia Dortmund will now face Glasgow Rangers after their elimination in the top flight. RB Leipzig will take on Real Sociedad.
In the knockout round play-offs of the Europa League, the group runners-up of the Europa League will meet a group third from the Champions League. Borussia Dortmund will travel to Scotland to face Glasgow Rangers. BVB has already met the 55-time Scottish champions eight times, with Dortmund winning only one match, otherwise there were four draws and three defeats.
RB Leipzig travel to Real Sociedad San Sebastian in Spain. It will be a reunion with Alexander Sörloth, who is on loan at Real Sociedad. “Real Sociedad is an attractive draw that all of us at RB Leipzig were very happy about, as it will be a reunion with Alex Sörloth,” said Florian Scholz, Commercial Director of Sport at RB Leipzig, expressing the wish and hope “that we will be able to play in front of fans again against Sociedad.”
Famous duel between Barcelona and Napoli
Since teams from the same national association are not yet allowed to meet at this stage, that limited the Spaniards’ options in particular. FC Barcelona, in the Europa League for the first time, will have the first duel in this competition with Napoli. Diego Maradona’s two ex-clubs have only met in the last 16 of the Champions League in 2019/20. On that occasion, Barça prevailed 1-1 and 3-1.
Sevilla will face Dinamo Zagreb, Betis Zenit. Incidentally, the EL final on 18 May 2022 will be played at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan stadium – the home ground of Sevilla FC.
Atalanta as the second Italian representative has to play against Olympiakos Piraeus. Underdog Sheriff Tiraspol will meet Sporting Braga.
The intermediate round at a glance
As unseeded teams, Dortmund and Leipzig play at home first. The first legs of the knockout round play-offs will take place on 17 February, the second legs a week later on 24 February – on Thursdays in each case.
The winners of the eight second-round play-offs will join the eight Europa League group winners – including Eintracht Frankfurt and Bayer 04 Leverkusen – in the round of 16.
