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The second leg of the Europa League Round of 32 just completed, and Tottenham Hotspur now know who their potential opponents are ahead of tomorrow’s draw. Spurs dispatched Austrian Bundesliga side Wolfsberger AC yesterday at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium with a combined aggregate win of 8-1, and today 15 other European clubs joined them in the next round.
There were some pretty fun games. Slavia Prague knocked off Leicester City with a 2-0 win at the King Power. Arsenal needed an 88th minute goal to slip past Jan Vertonghen and Benfica, winning 3-2 and 4-3 on aggregate. Molde also sent Bundesliga side Hoffenheim packing with a 2-0 away win in Germany, and Young Boys beat Bayer Leverkusen 2-0 to advance to the next round as well.
Here are the 16 remaining teams. And remember — at this stage, they can draw ANY of the teams below, whether or not they were in Spurs’ group or are English.
Europa League Round of 16
Tottenham Hotspur |
---|
Tottenham Hotspur |
Ajax |
Arsenal |
Molde |
Granada |
Rangers |
Shakhtar Donetsk |
Villarreal |
Young Boys |
Dynamo Kyiv |
Dinamo Zagreb |
Slavia Prague |
Manchester United |
AC Milan |
Olympiacos |
Roma |
What does this mean for Tottenham? Well, their odds of winning the whole thing probably went up by a tick or two after today’s results. Here’s a quick and dirty surface level analysis of Spurs’ potential opponents.
Easier matchups
Molde
With apologies to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s old side, Molde is probably the worst club left in the competition, but scored some pretty cool goals go slip past Hoffenheim. The travel isn’t too bad and this is a team Spurs should probably beat easily. Let’s draw them.
Granada
With apologies to Roberto Soldado (who’s injured right now), Granada would be a pretty good draw for Spurs. They’re currently ninth in La Liga and while Spurs don’t really have the right to talk about table position at present this would be a team that Spurs should feel comfortable beating over two legs.
Dinamo Zagreb
It’s a longish flight, but Dinamo just got past a relatively tame opponent in Krasnodar and haven’t really been challenged. I’d feel okay about drawing them.
Young Boys
Young Boys played well in beating Bayer Leverkusen 6-3 over two legs, but I’m still not sure if they’re actually GOOD. Really I just want a rematch on the plastic pitch after what happened in 2012 and to make fun of their name on Twitter.
Fun opponents
Ajax
Come on, who doesn’t want a rematch after the Miracle of Amsterdam? It’d be a tough matchup and scary as hell, but it’d certainly be a fun one. Ajax aren’t as good as they were in 2019, but then again neither are Spurs.
Rangers
Rangers aren’t at Spurs’ level, but they’re playing some pretty good football and under Steven Gerrard. There’d be tons of #narrative swirling around this matchup.
AC Milan
Milan have been a trash fire for the past several years but they’re starting to turn things around now. Playing Milan just gives me the European glory, glory nights feels and I’d like that again, even if it’s tough.
Roma
I like Roma. Always have. I don’t want to draw them especially but I think the matchups could be super exciting.
Ugh, no thanks
Manchester United / Arsenal
Not until the final, please. And maybe not even then.
The draw for the Round of 16 takes place tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. ET, noon GMT. It will be streamed live on UEFA’s website.