The three continental competitions wrapped up their respective group stages on Thursday. No Serie A team has been eliminated, although Milan have been demoted from the Champions League to the Europa League. Most Italian sides will hope for an assist from the luck of the draw. Atalanta and Fiorentina were the only ones to finish first. They’ll have to wait for the playoffs to learn their next foes (via Sky).
Inter, Lazio, and Napoli are all in the second pool. The risk of being paired up with a juggernaut is tangible since the first comprises Bayern Munich, Arsenal, Real Madrid, Real Sociedad, Atletico Madrid, Borussia Dortmund, Manchester City, and Barcelona. As usual, they can’t face the team they already played against in the previous phase.
Roma will have to go through a playoff against a club coming from the Champions League: Benfica, Sporting Braga, Feyenoord, Galatasaray, Lens, Shakhtar Donetsk, or Young Boys. Instead, Milan will take on Freiburg, Olympique Marseille, Qarabag, Rennes, Sparta Prague, Sporting CP, or Toulouse. The two Serie A outfits can’t meet yet.
As far as the UEFA ranking is concerned, which is pivotal in this campaign, all Serie A are in first place, and all its sides are still alive. It’s also the case for Germany and Ligue 1. The French league had fewer representatives to begin with. The Premier League lost two teams, Manchester United and Newcastle, and La Liga one, Sevilla.
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