EUROPA League
UEFA CHAMPIONS, EUROPA LEAGUES DRAWS: FANS ANTICIPATE OPPOSITIONS
BY APESIN ADEMOLA.
Football fans across Europe and the rest of the world will set their focus on the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland where the draws for the continent’s club competitions will be conducted. That of the elite Champions League will be held from noon local time (same time in Nigeria), followed by the Europa League’s an hour later.
Expecting is high. Which “big” club face-off? And which less-fancied side take on a “giant”?
For the Champions League, the eight group winners will be seeded and host the second leg of their respective Round of 16 tie, while the 12 group winners in the Europa League group phase plus four best third-ranked teams in the Champions League group stage are the top teams in that second tier competition’s Round of 32 draw.
Seeded teams in the Champions League are:
- Real Madrid, record 13-time winners of the competition, including being champions of the last three editions
- Bayern München, five-time champions, the last time being in 2013
- Barcelona, also five-time winners, 2015 being the last time
- Juventus, twice winners (1985 and 1996)
- FC Porto, champions in 1987 and 2004
- Borussia Dortmund, who won it in 1997
- Manchester City, semi-finalists in 2016 when Real Madrid triumphed 1-0 aggregate
- Paris Saint-Germaine, who have never advanced beyond the Round of 16
In the unseeded hat will be the runners-up of the group stage:
- Liverpool, winners on five occasions, the last being 2005
- AFC Ajax, four-time champions, including three successive victories from 1971
- Manchester United, champions in 1968, 1999 and 2008
- Atlético Madrid, who were in the finals of 1974, 2014 and 2016, losing the last two to cross-town team Real Madrid
- AS Roma, losing finalists to Liverpool in 1984
- Tottenham Hotspur, twice quarterfinalists (2011 and 2013)
- Olympique Lyonnais, quarterfinalists in 2005 and 2006
- Schalke 04, quarterfinalists in 2008
By the rules, teams that featured in the same group or are of the same federation will avoid themselves in the Round of 16.
Possible opposition:
Liverpool’s opposition will come from Barcelona, Bayern München, Borussia Dortmund, Juventus, FC Porto or Real Madrid
Previous
meetings
Barcelona P8 W3 D3 L2 F6 A6
Bayern P7 W2 D4 L1 F9 A7
Dortmund P5 W2 D2 L1 F8 A6
Juventus P6 W2 D1 L3 F4 A5
Porto P6 W3 D3 L0 F12 A2
Real Madrid P6 W3 D0 L3 F7 A7
AFC Ajax will challenge either Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund, Juventus, Manchester City, ParisSaint-Germaine, FC Porto or Real Madrid
Previous meetings
Barcelona P4 W1 D0 L3 F3 A10
Dortmund P4 W2 D0 L2 F4 A5
Juventus P12 W2 D4 L6 F9 A15
Manchester City P2 W1 D1 L0 F5 A3
PSG P2 W0 D1 L1 F2 A4
Porto P6 W1 D1 L4 F2 A6
Real Madrid P12 W4 D1 L7 F10 A24
Manchester United will go up against Barcelona, Bayern München, Borussia Dortmund, FC Porto, Real Madrid or ParisSaint-Germaine
Previous
meetings
Barcelona P11 W3 D4 L4 F15 A20
Bayern P11 W2 D5 L4 F13 A16
Dortmund P6 W3 D1 L2 F13 A5
Porto P8 W3 D3 L2 F14 A11
Real Madrid P11 W2 D4 L5 F17 A22
PSG No previous meeting
Atlético Madrid may face either Bayern München, Juventus, FC Porto, Paris Saint-Germaine or Manchester City
Previous
meetings
Bayern P6 W2 D1 L3 F4 A8
Juventus P7 W2 D1 L4 F7 A10
Porto P8 W3 D3 L2 F8 A9
PSG No previous meeting
Manchester City No previous meeting
AS Roma will square up against either Barcelona, Bayern München, Borussia Dortmund, Manchester City,FC Porto or Paris Saint-Germaine
Previous meetings
Barcelona P6 W2 D2 L2 F10 A12
Bayern P6 W1 D0 L5 F5 A17
Dortmund P2 W1 D0 L1 F1 A2
Manchester City P2 W0 D1 L1 F1 A3
Porto P4 W0 D2 L2 F1 A6
PSG No previous meeting
Tottenham Hotspur will be up against Bayern München, Borussia Dortmund, Juventus, FC Porto, Real Madrid orParis Saint-Germaine
Previous meetings
Bayern P4 W1 D1 L2 F4 A6
Dortmund P4 W2 D0 L2 F6 A7
Juventus P2 W0 D1 L1 F3 A4
Porto P2 W1 D1 L0 F3 A1
Real Madrid P6 W1 D2 L3 F4 A8
PSG No previous meeting
Olympique Lyonnais will take on either Barcelona, Bayern München, Juventus, FC Porto, Real Madrid or Borussia Dortmund
Previous
meetings
Barcelona P6 W0 D2 L4 F7 A16
Bayern P8 W2 D2 L4 F9 A11
Juventus P4 W0 D1 L3 F2 A5
Porto P4 W0 D1 L3 F2 A8
Real Madrid P10 W3 D4 L3 F11 A14
Dortmund No previous meeting
Schalke 04 will encounter either Barcelona, Manchester City, Paris Saint-Germaine, Real Madrid or Juventus
Previous
meetings
Barcelona P2 W0 D0 L2 F0 A2
Manchester City P3 W1 D0 L2 F2 A7
PSG P1 W1 D0 L0 F3 A1
Real Madrid P4 W1 D0 L3 F6 A11
Juventus No previous meeting
The first leg of these matches will hold next February 12, 13, 19 and 20, while the reverse fixtures come up on March 5, 6, 12 and 13.
The Champions League final will be stage at Estadio Metropolitano in Madrid on Saturday, June 1.
In the Europa League draw for the Round of 32, the seeded teams in former European champions Inter Milan, Benfica, Chelsea, Eintracht Frankfurt and Napoli.
Other top seeds are: Bayer Leverkusen, Red Bull Salzburg, Zenit Saint Petersburg, Dinamo Zagreb, Arsenal, Real Betis, Villarreal, Genk, Sevilla, Dynamo Kyiv and Valencia
The unseeded teams are: FC Zürich, Celtic, SK Slavia Prague, Fenerbahçe, Sporting CP, Olympiacos, Rapid Wien, Lazio, Malmö FF, FC Krasnodar, StadeRennais, FC BATE Borisov, Club Brugge, Galatasaray, Shakhtar Donetsk andFC Viktoria Plzeň
According to the rules, no club will be drawn against a team that played in their group or a side from their own national association.
But any other restrictions will be announced ahead of the draw.
Seeded group winners are away in the first legs on February 14, 2019, while Return matches hold on a week later.
List of teams which have qualified for the next round of the Europa League after the league phase concluded on Thursday, ranked by table position:
Directly to the round of 16:
1. Olympique Lyonnais (France)
2. Aston Villa (England)
3. Midtjylland (Denmark)
4. Real Betis (Spain)
5. Porto (Portugal)
6. Braga (Portugal)
7. Freiburg (Germany)
8. AS Roma (Italy)
Knockout phase play-off places (seeded)
9. Genk (Belgium)
10. Bologna (Italy)
11. VfB Stuttgart (Germany)
12. Ferencvaros (Hungary)
13. Nottingham Forest (England)
14. Viktoria Plzen (Czech Republic)
15. Red Star Belgrade (Serbia)
16. Celta Vigo (Spain)
Knockout phase play-off places (unseeded)
17. PAOK (Greece)
18. Lille (France)
19. Fenerbahce (Turkey)
20. Panathinaikos (Greece)
21. Celtic (Scotland)
22. Ludogorets (Bulgaria)
23. Dinamo Zagreb (Croatia)
24. SK Brann (Norway)
-Reuters
UEFA Europa League – Aston Villa v RB Salzburg – Villa Park, Birmingham, Britain – January 29, 2026 Aston
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Israeli club Maccabi Tel Aviv will not accept any away fan tickets for their Europa League match at Aston Villa next month, even if local authorities reverse the decision to ban their supporters, they said on Monday.
The ban followed safety concerns raised by British Police, who cited potential protests outside Villa Park, following demonstrations at Israel’s recent World Cup qualifiers in Oslo and Udine.
“From hard lessons learned we have taken the decision to decline any allocation offered on behalf of away fans and our decision should be understood in that context,” Maccabi said in a statement.
“We hope that circumstances will change and look forward to being able to play in Birmingham in a sporting environment in the near future.”
Aston Villa announced the decision last week, saying they were following instructions from the Safety Advisory Group (SAG), who are responsible for issuing safety certificates for games at Villa Park.
West Midlands Police described the match as high risk, past incidents, including violent confrontations and hate crime offences involving Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters ahead of a November 2024 game in Amsterdam.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar described the announcement as “shameful”.
Villa are third in the Europa League standings while Maccabi Tel Aviv are 30th after two rounds.
-Reuters
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Crystal Palace’s appeal against UEFA’s decision to drop them from the Europa League to the third-tier Conference League was dismissed by the Court of Arbitration for Sport on Monday.
UEFA demoted Palace while allowing Olympique Lyonnais to play in the Europa League as, at the time of assessment on March 1, the Eagle Football Group were majority owners of Lyon while their chairman, John Textor, owned a controlling stake in Palace.
Nottingham Forest, who finished seventh in the Premier League last season, will replace Palace in the Europa League.
“After considering the evidence, the panel found that John Textor, founder of Eagle Football Holdings, had shares in CPFC and OL and was a board member with decisive influence over both clubs at the time of UEFA’s assessment date,” the CAS said in a statement.
“The panel also dismissed the argument by CPFC that they received unfair treatment in comparison to Nottingham Forest and OL.”
Palace did not respond to a request for comment. Club chairman Steve Parish told reporters on Sunday that if Palace lost the appeal, they would “have to look if there’s any steps after that.”
The club, who qualified for the Europa League as FA Cup winners, appealed against UEFA’s decision last month.
The appeal came days before New York Jets co-owner Robert Wood “Woody” Johnson completed the purchase of Eagle Football Holdings’ stake in Palace.
Textor has also resigned from Lyon’s board of directors with Michele Kang appointed chairwoman and president.
As both Lyon and Palace had qualified for the Europa League, the French club were allowed to keep their place because they had finished higher in their respective league. Lyon finished sixth in Ligue 1 while Palace were 12th in the Premier League.
“Olympique Lyonnais welcomes today’s decision by the Court of Arbitration for Sport confirming its participation in the Europa League,” Lyon said in a statement.
Palace, who won the Community Shield on Sunday , beating Liverpool in a penalty shootout, are set to play in the Conference League’s qualifying playoff round later this month.
-Reuters
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