With the former French player Julien Escude, champion of the tournament with Sevilla in 2006 and 2007, as an innocent hand, fortune once again linked the Roman team and the Dutch, who already met two seasons ago in the final of the Conference League and the reached the semi-finals of the Europa League.
On both occasions, Jose Mourinho’s team emerged victorious, losing on penalties to Sevilla in the battle for this latest title.
On this occasion they find themselves in this so-called ‘play off’ after Roma finished second in group G of the Europa League, after Slavia Prague and Feyenoord, champions of this competition in 1974 and 2002, finished third in their group of the Champions after Atletico de Madrid and Lazio.
Milan, which also drops out of the first continental competition after failing to beat Borussia Dortmund and PSG in the group of death, and will meet Rennes, against whom a curious play at the end of the match against Villarreal (goal disallowed) after the ball returned to the thrower in an error without anyone touching him) prevented him from finishing as the leader and going straight to the second round.
Shakhtar Donetsk, winner of the Europa League in 2009, restarts its European path against a continental champion like Marseille who is trying to renew old laurels and who finished second in this tournament three times, in 1999, 2004 and 2018. For now After in the Champions League -preview against Panathinaikos after saying goodbye on penalties, the French team already left Ajax and AEK in the gutter and was only surpassed in their group by Brighton.
The Portuguese trio formed by Sporting Lisbon, Benfica and Braga, which wants to join Porto in the championship, will face the Swiss Young Boys, the French Toulouse and Qarabag, the first Azerbaijani team to reach this round.
The matches will be played on February 15 and 22. The winners will participate in the round of 16 draw on February 23, together with the first placed from the Europa League group stage: West Ham, Brighton, Liverpool (ING), Rangers (ESC), Atalanta (ITA), Villarreal (ESP), Slavia Prague (CZE) and Bayer Leverkusen (DU).
Source: El heraldo
I’m George Gonzalez, a professional journalist and author at The Nation View. With more than 5 years of experience in the field, I specialize in covering sports news for various print media outlets. My passion for writing has enabled me to craft stories that capture the attention of readers all over the world.
