Liverpool and Bayer Leverkusen draw tricky Europa League round-of-16 opponents

The attention of many was focused on the selection of opponents for Liverpool and Bayer Leverkusen in the Europa League's round-of-16 draw, which took place on Friday. The complete schedule for the upcoming knockout phase in March has been revealed.

Liverpool must be content with drawing Czech champions Sparta Prague as their opponent, especially given the other options. On the contrary,

Sparta Prague's victory against Galatasaray exhibited that they are a competitive team that should not be underestimated.

Bayer Leverkusen, on the other hand, faces a lengthy trip by meeting Azerbaijani side Qarabag, who eliminated Braga earlier.

Additionally, fans can anticipate exciting matches such as Roma against Brighton, and Sporting against in-form Serie A team Atalanta. AC Milan will be competing against the other Prague team, Slavia.

Furthermore, multiple Europa League games are rematches from the group stages. In the Europa Conference League draw, Aston Villa will play against Ajax next.

Dates:
The two rounds of 16 will take place in March, with each competition having two legs. The group-stage winners will have the advantage of playing the return legs at home.

The first legs are scheduled for March 7th, while the second legs will be held a week later on March 14th. However, there is a slight change for Sporting's first-leg match. Due to an anticipated city clash with Benfica in the Europa League, Sporting's match will be played on Tuesday, March 5th instead.

Rules:
To conduct the draws, the 16 teams were divided into two groups. The first group consisted of the seeded teams, which were the group-stage winners. The second group comprised the unseeded teams, which were the winners of the first knockout stage.

In the draw, the seeded teams were not allowed to be paired with each other, and the same applied to the unseeded teams. Furthermore, teams from the same national federation were prohibited from facing each other in the last 16.