Sports editorial, Jan 30 (EFE).- The draw for the round of 32 (‘play-offs’) of the Europa League produced two stellar duels, Celtic-Stuttgart and Fenerbahce-Nottingham, and Celta’s confrontation with the Greek PAOK, whom they already beat in the first phase.
The Scottish team, one of the historic teams on the continent, has had a somewhat irregular league phase, although it managed to react in time and, with a victory on the last day against Utrecht, confirmed its continuity in the tournament.
Now he places his hopes on this evolution that he needs to ratify against one of the contenders to go far, Stuttgart, who was left out of the ‘top eight’ mainly due to their defeat in Rome.
Fenerbahce, who have gone from strength to strength and have entered this round with certain difficulties, will face Nottingham, whose path is radically opposite. After a bad start, they recovered remarkably and, with three victories in the last four games, reached thirteenth place.
Meanwhile, Celta will face PAOK again, whom they beat 3-1 in the League phase in Balaídos. Claudio Giráldez’s team, penalized by its three defeats, does not want to wake up from the European dream and hopes to emerge victorious from the Toumba stadium to win in its fiefdom, although the draw is far from easy because then it will have to face one of the first two, Lyon or Aston Villa.
Rafa Benítez’s Panathinaikos will face the tough Czech Viktoria Plzen, who does not know defeat and with whom they drew 0-0 in the first phase in Athens; Ludogorets and Ferencvaros announce two matches of great rivalry; Norwegian Brann, ranked twenty-fourth by best goal difference, will be the rival of Italian Bologna; Genk, who almost reached the top eight, will play against Dinamo Zagreb; and French side Lille will face Serbian Red Star. EFE
