At 19:00 Beijing time on the evening of February 25, the draw ceremony for the round of 16 of this season's Europa League will be held. Due to the new format, this season's Europa League draw has become more interesting for the first time, and after the just-concluded play-offs, the 8 unseed teams represented by Barca and the 8 unseed teams represented by West Ham and Lyon are about to reveal their opponents.
According to the new rules, the eight teams in the Europa League group stage are seeded: Red Star Belgrade (Serbia), Frankfurt (Germany), Galatasaray (Turkey), Bayer Leverkusen (Germany), Lyon (France), Monaco (France), Sparta Moscow (Russia), West Ham United (England).
The eight teams that won the Europa League knockout play-offs were unseeded: Atlanta (Italy), Barcelona (Spain), Betis (Spain), Braga (Portugal), Leipzig (Germany), Porto (Portugal), Rangers (Scotland), Sevilla (Spain).
This ending shows three very obvious characteristics: First, the strength of the unseeded team is significantly stronger than the seeded team, and the teams with the weakest braga and the rangers are under great pressure in front of the seeded teams Red Star and Galatasaray. Second, teams from the five major leagues clearly accounted for the majority, with 10 teams from the five leagues accounting for 62.5% of the total. Third, La Liga and Bundesliga teams showed a trend of continuous development, among the 16 promoted teams, Barca, Betis, Sevilla and other 3 teams were selected, while the Bundesliga also had Eintracht Frankfurt, Bayer Leverkusen and Leipzig three teams selected.
It is no exaggeration to say that the composition of this round of 16 is more chaotic than the composition of the Champions League, including Barca, Lyon, Porto, Monaco and many other teams that have won the Champions League or Europa League, which makes the suspense of this season's Europa League title more prominent. Among many teams, Barca is undoubtedly the most championship-winning team, and after undergoing some tuning from Xavi, the team has now gradually become regular. If Barça can win the title, it will set a record for the first Europa League title in the club's history, which is the only trophy that Barça has lacked in its century-long history.