Liverpool and Bayer Leverkusen on course for Europa League final meeting

Liverpool is set to face Atalanta in the Europa League quarter-finals, while Bayer Leverkusen, the current leaders of the Bundesliga, will be up against West Ham United. The draw took place at UEFA's headquarters in Nyon on Friday, March 15th.

Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool team is in pursuit of another trophy before the season's end, with the possibility of facing Xabi Alonso's Leverkusen in the final. Alonso, a former Liverpool midfielder, is among those being considered to take over from Klopp at Anfield.

In the 2020/21 Champions League group stage, Liverpool faced Atalanta, suffering a 2-0 defeat at home but securing a 5-0 victory in Italy.

Klopp mentioned in a press conference on Friday that Atalanta poses a challenge due to their structure and organization, making them a tough opponent in the quarter-finals.

AC Milan, aiming for their first Champions League title, will go up against AS Roma, last season's runners-up, in an all-Italian showdown. Milan currently sits second in Serie A, trailing Inter Milan by 16 points, while Roma, under the guidance of Daniele De Rossi, have shown improvement with six wins in eight league matches.

Benfica and Olympique de Marseille have been drawn against each other in the Europa League quarter-finals. Interestingly, both clubs have reached the final of the competition three times in the past. The winner of this quarter-final will then face either Liverpool or Atalanta in the semi-finals.

On the other hand, the other semi-final will feature an Italian side, either Milan or Roma, going up against either Bayer Leverkusen or West Ham.

It is worth noting that West Ham, who won last season's Conference League and made it to the semi-finals of the Europa League in 2022, have a challenging task ahead of them as they face Leverkusen.

The German side has an impressive unbeaten record across 37 games in all competitions this season and currently sits comfortably 10 points clear in the Bundesliga.

Leverkusen managed to keep their unbeaten run intact and narrowly made it through to the quarter-finals after a thrilling comeback from being 2-0 down against Qarabag, resulting in a 3-2 victory and a 5-4 aggregate win.

Lastly, the Europa League final is scheduled to take place on May 22nd at Dublin's Aviva Stadium.

Europa League quarter-finals:

QF1: AC Milan vs Roma

QF2: Liverpool vs Atalanta

QF3: Bayer Leverkusen vs West Ham

QF4: Benfica vs Marseille

Semi-finals:

SF1: Winners of QF4 vs winners of QF2 (winner to be nominal home side in final)

SF2: Winners of QF1 vs winners of QF3

Dates:

Quarter-finals

First legs: April 11th

Second legs: April 18th

Semi-finals

First legs: May 2nd

Second legs: May 9th

The Final

Wednesday, May 22nd, Dublin Arena