The all-important draws for the knockout stages of both premier European club tournaments will take place this Thursday.
Manchester United and Arsenal will find out who they will face in the last 16 of the UEFA Champions League when the draw is made at the headquarters of European football in Nyon, Switzerland.
This will be closely followed by the draw for both the last 32 and last 16 stages of the UEFA Europa League, where Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur, Newcastle United, and tournament newcomers Chelsea will learn their fate.
Coverage of both draws will feature on Sky Sports News and British Eurosport.
Live streaming from Nyon will also be available via the UEFA website.
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The draw for the last 16 of Europe’s greatest club competition will feature nine former title winners and three British representatives.
There are three British teams remaining with anchester United, Arsenal and Celtic all managing to reach the knockout stage.
Defending European champions Chelsea finished third in their group and drop into the Europa League, while Premier League title holders Manchester City finished bottom of their group and are eliminated from Europe outright.
Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger and Neil Lennon’s teams will now find out who they will meet in their first encounter of the knockout stages.
Other than debutants Malaga, all the other 15 teams have been at this stage before.
Two seeding pots will be used for the draw, with one consisting of group winners and the other of runners-up.
No team can be drawn to play a club from their group or any side from their own association.
Group winners: Paris Saint-Germain (FRA) Schalke (GER) Malaga CF (ESP) Borussia Dortmund (GER) Juventus (ITA) Bayern Munich (GER) Barcelona (ESP) Manchester United (ENG) Group Runners-up: Porto (POR) Arsenal (ENG) AC Milan (ITA) Real Madrid (ESP) Shakhtar Donetsk (UKR) Valencia (ESP) Celtic (SCO) Galatasaray (TUR)CLICK HERE for more on the draw permutations
Seeded group winners will be away in the last 16 first legs on February 12/13 and 19/20, then at home in the return matches on March 5/6 and 12/13.
Thursday’s draw will be conducted by UEFA General Secretary Gianni Infantino and UEFA director of competitions Giorgio Marchetti, assisted by final ambassador Steve McManaman, a twoi-time Champions League winner with Real Madrid.
Live coverage of the proceedings will be broadcast on Sky Sports News and British Eurosport.
Julian Warren will host a special 90-minute show from 10am featuring all the build-up and reaction to the draw, with guests Jamie Redknapp, Ray Wilkins, Alan Smith and Charlie Nicholas joining him in the studio to provide expert analysis.
… Thursday 20th December UEFA Champions League – Last 16 Draw – Start: 10.30am LIVE: 10.00am-11.30am – Sky Sports News LIVE: 10.30am-11.00am – British Eurosport UPDATE: UEFA Champions League Last 16 Draw Galatasaray (TUR) v Schalke (GER) Celtic (SCO) v Juventus (ITA) Arsenal (ENG) v Bayern Munich (GER) Shakhtar Donetsk (UKR) v Borussia Dortmund (GER) AC Milan (ITA) v Barcelona (ESP) Real Madrid (ESP) v Manchester United (ENG) Valencia (ESP) v Paris Saint-Germain (FRA) Porto (POR) v Malaga (ESP)….
The draw for European football’s second major club competition will also be made in Nyon, featuring four English teams.
All three Premier League clubs that entered the tournament at the group stages – Liverpool, Tottenham and Newcastle – managed to progress through to the knockout phase.
They will be joined in the last 32 by reigning Champions League winners Chelsea, who were knocked out at the group stages as a result of two away defeats to Juventus and Shakhtar Donetsk.
The Blues’ relatively strong record compared to other third-placed teams from the elite competition makes them a seeded team but there are plenty of big names swimming around in the unseeded pot, including Inter Milan, Atletico Madrid, Ajax and Dynamo Kiev.
Europa League group winners are all seeded for the draw, along with the four UEFA Champions League qualifiers with the best record in their section.
The other four sides transferring from the elite competition and the Europa League group runners-up are in the unseeded pot and are drawn first, meaning they are drawn to play the first-leg matches at home.
CLICK HERE for full list of teams in the Europa League last 32 & last 16 draws
They cannot be paired with either the winners from their section or clubs from the same association.
The draw for the last 16, which will be played on March 7 and 14, follows the last 32 draw and there are no seeded teams for this section.
The 16 balls containing slips of paper for ‘Winners of match 1’ to ‘Winners of match 16’ are placed in one bowl and shuffled.
The first team drawn are to play their first match at home against the second team drawn and the same procedure is then repeated for the other matches.
There are no restrictions on the round of 16 draw.
Live coverage of the entire Europa League last 32 and last 16 draw will be shown on British Eurosport, with updates and reaction on Sky Sports News.
… Thursday 20th December UEFA Europa League – Last 32 & Last 16 Draw – Start: 1.00pm LIVE: 12.45pm-1.30pm – British Eurosport.
