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Betis will face Manchester United, Real Sociedad against Roma and Sevilla will host Fenerbahçe first in the Europa League round of 16 matches. It is the result of the draw held in the Swiss city of Nyon, conditioned because the first in the group stage, in the case of Betis and Real Sociedad, started as seeded teams and could not face teams from the same Federation. These duels of the round of 16 of the second European competition will be played next Thursday, March 9 and 16. The Europa League final will be held on May 31 in Budapest, the capital of Hungary.
The other pairings were Union Berlin-Union Saint Gilloise; Juventus-Freiburg; Leverkusen-Ferencvaros; Sporting de Portugal-Arsenal and Shakhtar-Feyenoord.
Betis had the worst possible rival, Manchester United. He will play first on English soil due to his seeding status, but United has just eliminated Barcelona and is an opponent with enormous potential, as they are one of the fittest teams in Europe. Their striker Rashford is going through a good run and the English team is the favorite to pass the tie and even win the title of this competition. Ten Haag, his coach, has a very competitive squad at his disposal. Despite the resounding decline of Jadon Sancho, the team of players stands out for footballers like De Gea, Casemiro, Varane, Bruno Fernandes, Antony, or Garnacho. Freed from the dependency of Cristiano Ronaldo, United has positioned itself as third classified in the Premier. There is a factor that can help the Verdiblancos in the development of the tie. The owners of the English club, the American brothers Joel and Avram Glazer, have asked their coach to put the reserve team while they play in the Europa League and focus their forces on the Premier and qualifying for the Champions League.
Real Sociedad will face José Mourinho’s Roma, current champion of the Conference League. It is a team with great potential, but Real will have its options. In the group stage, Roma fell behind Betis. Paolo Dybala is his best man. “He is a rival we have never played with. I am not going to discover what Roma is, what Mourinho is. It is an open playoff. I think we have enough chance. I am optimistic. We are going to face a great team that has just eliminated Salzburg and is the Conference champion. It is third in the Italian league. It will be an open tie in which we have many options”, Mikel Ubarretxena, vice president of Real Sociedad, indicated in the Movistar Plus microphones.
Sevilla, who did not start as a seed, was the best placed of the Spanish teams in a fetish competition for the Sevilla team, which they have won six times. Fenerbahçe is an affordable rival for Jorge Sampaoli’s men despite their delicate situation in the League (ranked 12th). Second ranked in the Turkish League and led by the Portuguese Jorge Jesús, formerly of Benfica, his team includes players such as the Ecuadorian Enner Valencia or Batshuayi. Fenerbahçe eliminated the Andalusians in the only precedent between the two teams, in the penalty shootout of this same round of the Champions League in the 2007/08 season. On that occasion, the first leg was played in Istanbul and ended 3-2 (Kezman, Lugano and Semih scored for the Turks and Sevilla’s goals were scored by Dracena, an own goal, and Escudé), a score that was replicated at the Sánchez-Pizjuán with Sevilla goals from Dani Alves, Keita and Kanouté and a brace from visiting Deivid. “It is their field they are very complicated. They have players with a lot of experience at this level of competition. We must recover players, especially in defense, to be able to face the tie with guarantees”, said Monchi, Sevilla’s sports director.
Villarreal, against Anderlecht in the Conference
Villarreal, the Spanish representative in the Conference League, the third continental competition, will face Anderlecht. It is a history of European and Belgian football, although at the moment it is experiencing lower sporting moments, being ninth in the Belgian League. The Spanish team is favorite to go to the quarterfinals. The first leg will be played in Belgium.
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