It’s been a generally successful European campaign for the Italian clubs so far, with Juventus, Lazio and Atalanta all making their way through the Champions League knockout stage, and Inter’s elimination being the only disappointment for Calcio fans. For their part, the Serie A representatives in Europa League – Milan, Napoli and Roma have all managed to secure the top spot in their respective groups, and thus they can expect favorable opponents in the round of 32 draw.
So here’s how the draw would work. The 12 clubs who finished on top of their groups have naturally qualified to the knockout stage, along with their 12 runners-up. Joining these 24 sides, will be the 8 teams who finished 3rd in the Champions League groups.
The draw would split the 32 teams into two pools. 16 seeded sides and 16 unseeded. Having topped their groups, Milan, Roma and Napoli will be among the seeded, along with the other Europa League group winners, Arsenal, Hoffenheim, Dinamo Zagreb, Villarreal, Bayer Leverkusen, Rangers, PSV Eindhoven, Leicester City, and Tottenham.
On the other hand, the 12 Europa League groups runners-up will enter the draw as unseeded side. These clubs are Red Star Belgrade, Young Boys, Molde, Slavia Praha, Benfica, Granada, Real Sociedad, Sporting Braga, Lille, Maccabi Tel Aviv, Antwerp, and Wolfsberger.
As for the teams coming from the Champions League, the four sides with the highest UEFA ranking – Ajax, Club Brugge, Shakhtar Donetsk and Manchester United – will be joining to seeded clubs, while the other four – Dynamo Kyiv, Krasnodar, Olympiacos and Red Bull Salzburg – will be among the unseeded.
The Europa League draw will take place next Monday in Nyon, where the 16 seeded clubs will be drawn against the 16 unseeded. The rules state that two clubs from the same country cannot be drawn against one another at this stage of the competition, and the same goes for teams who qualified from the same group.
In conclusion, the three Italian clubs will receive their opponents among the unseeded sides, who are either the 12 group runners-up from the Europa League (in the exception of their own group runners-up) , or the four lower-ranked sides coming from the Champions League.
Round of 32 is set ✅
? 2021 #UEL winner will be __________ pic.twitter.com/JxMu8d8MmO
— UEFA Europa League (@EuropaLeague) December 10, 2020