By Victor Kanayo
For the first time in the competition, Barcelona and Manchester United will battle each other in the Europa League knockout round play-offs, organisers revealed after Monday’s draw.
It will be a meeting between two hitmen Cristiano Ronaldo and Robert Lewandowski.
While Barcelona were eliminated from the Champions League group stage to drop into the Europa League for the second season running, United came second in their Europa League group.
The last continental clash of both clubs happened in the quarter-finals of the Champions League in 2018/19.
Barca triumphed 4-0 on aggregate, afterwards.
They have met in two Champions League finals and in the 1991 Cup Winners’ Cup final, but this will be the first ever encounter of the sides in the Europa League.
This is the preliminary round between the teams that finished third in the Champions League and the runners-up in the Europa League groups, with the winners proceeding to the next round where they will face the group winners who have all qualified automatically.
Premier League leaders Arsenal along with Fenerbahce, Real Betis, Union Saint-Gilloise of Belgium, Real Sociedad, Feyenoord, Freiburg and Ferencvaros have all qualified for the last 16.
The Europa League final of 2022/23 season will be stage in Budapest on May 31, 2023.
Other Playoffs Schedule
Having also dropped out of Europe’s elite club competition, Juventus were drawn to play French club Nantes in what will be a repeat of the 1996 Champions League semi-final tie won by the Italians.
Sevilla, who have won the Europa League or its predecessor the UEFA Cup a record six times, will play PSV Eindhoven.
Ajax were drawn against Bundesliga high-fliers Union Berlin, while Shakhtar Donetsk of Ukraine will play French side Rennes.
Bayer Leverkusen will play Monaco and Jose Mourinho’s Roma will take on Red Bull Salzburg.
