Along with the Champions League last 16 draw; the draw for the last 32 of the Europa League was also made in Nyon today. There is no doubt about the fact that there are some high octane clashes in this round to blow the world football fans away.
The stand out tie of this round will be played between Sevilla FC of Spain and FC Porto of Portugal. The two sides are the hot favourites for the title this year but they will clash at a very early stage in the competition. Although, FC Porto has climbed
to the 5th in the ECI ranking index just last week but Sevilla are a very strong side and have two lethal marksmen; Fredrick Kanoute and Luis Fabiano who can demolish any defense on their day.
Porto on the other hand boast the top scorers of this years Europa League in Hulk and Falcao and will fear no one going into this match.
Another action packed encounter will be played in Belgium when two former winners in Anderlecht and Ajax Amsterdam clash for a place in the last 16.
Ajax are only in this competition as they finished third in their Champions League group.
Another team who was demoted from the Champions League to the Europa League are Glasgow Rangers of Scotland and they will face a tricky tie in the last 32 against Sporting Lisbon.
Manchester City will perhaps be happiest with the draw for the last 32 as Mancini’s men have been paired against minnows from Greece Aris Thesaloniki.
No matter what they say about the draw but Mancini’s men could not have been luckier than this to have been paired against a team that has virtually no experience of the continental football.
Another important clash in the last 32 will be between Sparta Prague and Liverpool but this is not going to be a cakewalk for Roy Hodgson’s men. Prague will be in confident mood after having knocked out defending Champions Atletico Madrid in the group stages
by piping them to second place in their group.
Villareal of Spain will travel to Italy to face an extremely dangerous Napoli side in the last 32 of the Europa League and will have to consider of the threat posed by the three dynamic Napoli attackers in Edinson Cavani, Merek Hamsik and Ezequel Lavezzi.
Other important clashes at this stage will be the batter between Turkish Side Besiktas against Dynamo Kiev, Braga v Lech Poznan and FC Basel V Spartak Moscow.
The young Boys from Switzerland will face the recently crowned champions of Russia in Zenit S Petersburg while another Russian side Rubin Kazan will face FC Twente of the Netherlands.
Benfica v Stuttgart will be another action packed encounter in the Europa League at this stage with Paok V CSKA Moscow, also promising to be entertaining for the fans.
The first Legs of these ties will be played in the second week of February.
The Draw for the last 32 of the Europa League is as follows:
Napoli v Villarreal
Rangers v Sporting Lisbon
Sparta Prague v Liverpool
Anderlecht v Ajax
Lech Poznan v Braga
Besiktas v Dynamo Kiev
Basel v Spartak Moscow
Young Boys v Zenit
Aris v Manchester City
PAOK v CSKA Moscow
Sevilla v Porto
Rubin Kazan v Twente
Lille v PSV Eindhoven
Benfica v Stuttgart
FC Bate v Paris St Germain
Metalist v Bayer Leverkusen
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