Europa League draw LIVE: Liverpool get Atalanta, while Europe’s most-wanted manager Xabi Alonso is headed to West Ham with Leverkusen… plus Conference League draw to come
Follow Mail Sport’s live blog for the quarter and semi-final draw of the 2023-24 Europa League and Conference League. Liverpool, West Ham, Aston Villa, Rangers and Bayer Leverkusen will all learn their quarter-final fate this morning.
Viktoria Plzen vs Fiorentina!
That just leaves us with Viktoria Plzen to host Fiorentina!
The Italians have amde it back-to-back quarter-finals and were runners-up last time out of course, falling to West Ham.
Aston Villa vs Lille!
QF 3 will be played between Aston Villa and Lille!
Great match-up there for Unai Emery’s side.
Olympiacos vs Fenerbahce!
Next up in QF2 we’ve got Olympiacos at home to face Turkish giants Fenerbahce!
Club Brugge vs PAOK!
After a bit of a faff opening the ball, the first name is… Club Brugge!
The Belgian side will take on PAOK in QF1
An ‘honour’ for Athens to play host
Tsiartas is conducting his interviews in Spanish, having spent four years at Sevilla.
He’s praised Olympiacos’ comeback last night against Maccabi Tel-Aviv and says it’s an honour for Athens to host the match.
Tsiartas is backing both the Greek sides to make it to the final – let’s find out if he’s right!
A Greek legend is among us!
Seven nations represented across the eight clubs in the quarter-finals, and the person to help us get these names out is…
Greek legend Vasilis Tsiartas!
He has 10 UEFA club competitions goals to his name, and was part of that fairy-tale 2004 Euros win.
Anticipation building in Switzerland
It does seem strange not to have a different theme tune if you’re going to stage two separate draws, have different trophies and completely different tournaments, but there we go.
Not exactly the biggest concern for today, though.
No, we’re still to find out who are special draw assistant will be!
And the teams after that of course…
Here we go then…
All righty then, time for all final draw of the day!
We’ve had the UCL, seen the UEL, but now it’s the big one – the ECL!
We’re back over to Switzerland now to map out the rest of the Road to Athens!
Huge achievement for the Greek Super League
We’ve got some history in this draw, as two Greek clubs have made the quarter-finals of a European club competitions for the first time ever!
Olympiacos sealed that memorable comeback that we went through earlier, whil PAOK overcame the challenge of Dinamo Zagreb to make it a memorable year for Greek fans!
Can either of them go all the way?
Save of the week?
We took a look at the goal of the round a bit earlier, but take a look now at some of the best saves from the Conference League.
And yes, that is a 36-year-old ex-Arsenal and Sunderland goalkeeper Vito Mannone in the net for Lille.
Take a look at the nominees…
So as we’ve already established Aston Villa are the last of the British sides left to be drawn today.
They made the last-eight by beating one of the biggest sides in European history in Ajax – albeit in something of a rough patch over in Amsterdam – and now they’re surely among the favourites to go all the way.
Here’s a look at how they sealed a dominant aggregate win over the Dutch giants.
A very shiny ECL trophy
Although, not too many hands have been on it so far, just West Ham and Roma able to lift the newest of the European trophies.
Tasty ties in the Europa League to come
So for those of you just joining us, you can take a look through the Europa League draw in full below!
There are a couple of tasty fixtures in there too with an all Italian derby between AC Milan and Roma, as well as West Ham vs Leverkusen, Liverpool vs Atalanta and of course Marseille vs Benfica.
Take a look at this one to refresh yourselves and find out a bit more!
So, we’ve got a little under a half hour now until the Conference League draw, so don’t go anywhere!
Still plenty of action to come with Aston Villa waving the flag for the Premier League, with the likes of Lille, Olympiacos, Fenerbahce and Fiorentina on offer.
Stick with us until 1pm to find out where they’re going, and of course, which Conference League legend will be unveiled as the special guest!
To be fair, there’s only been two Conference Leagues, so they should be a pretty familiar face indeed.
Here’s a look at the draw in full…
So here’s the quarter-final draw for you so you can visualise it a bit better, and they’ve helpfully been grouped by semi-final pairings too!
Here’s what it’s all about
Don’t think I’ve ever seen the base of the Europa League trophy, but here’s a look at the cup they’re all battling it out for.
Pick of the ties?
Well, just as quickly as it began, the draw is all wrapped up for the Europa League, but don’t forget, there’s still the Conference League to come!
Which do we think is the pick of those ties? Leverkusen vs West Ham looks a fantastic one.
Mind you, if both Leverkusen and Liverpool make the final it could be a real showdown with Xabi Alonso tipped as a contender to takeover from Jurgen Klopp at Anfield this summer by many…
Liverpool would be the ‘home side’ in the final
Not that it would impact the game all too much, but if Liverpool and West Ham do both get to the final, the Reds would be named as the hosts.
Just a formality, of course.
West Ham could take on AC Milan in SF 2
the victor of Milan or Roma will be the home side against Bayer Leverkusen or West Ham, that means.
And yep, no shocks from the balls, and that’s confirmation of that one.
SF1 could see Liverpool vs Benfica
Now it’s timew for the semi-final match ups…
First up in semi-final No 1 will be the winner of Benfica vs Marseille against the victor of Liverpool against Atalanta!
Benfica vs Marseille
And that of course us leaves us with Benfica, who come out first, and the Portuguese side will face Marseille!
Leverkusen vs West Ham!
Quarter-final No 3 now, and it’s Leverkusen up first.
Who will the unbeaten side be taking on?
West Ham are the next name out!
Mark Noble doesn’t look too fussed by that one…
Liverpool vs Atalanta!
And next up is, oh, three-time winners Liverpool.
Jurgen Klopp and Co will face… Atalanta!
AC Milan vs Roma!
First name out is… AC Milan!
And the Italian giants will face Roma!
No country protection
reminder, there is no country protection for this draw, meaning two sides from the same nation can face one another.
Right then, let’s get some names out, shall we?
It’s Fernando Llorente!
The Spanish striker who won the Europa League with Sevilla in 2015-16, but will also be fondly reminded for his goals for Swansea in the Premier League not too long ago.
Llorente is a veteran of two Europa League finals, winning just the one of them, and speaks of his love for the tournament.
He has 18 goals to his name in the competition, and surprise surprise, has tipped Liverpool or Leverkusen to go all the way this year.
Time for our special guest…
The final this year will be played in Dublin, at the approriately named Dublin Arena.
This is of course the final Europa League before the change in format across the three competitions, as we are reminded almost ominously before the announcement of the special guest…
Underway in Switzerland
Well we’re underway in Nyon, Switzerland as we’re treated to a rundown of all the best action from the previous round from the Europa League, which will be drawn first off.
A few famous faces in the crowd, too, and we’ve still got the special guest to meet!
Good news Liverpool fans
I’m sure this is exactly the news that every other team in the draw was hoping to read.
Klopp has claimed that Salah ‘will not stop’ scoring goals.
One of those that sort of doesn’t really need to be said, that.
Salah has scored 20 in 31 games this term in all competitions to take his Liverpool tally to a staggering 206 in 336, plus another 92 assists.
Read more on that one below…
FIVE MINUTES TO GO!
All you draw enthusiasts out there will know there’s not much better than a tournament theme tune.
Here’s a nice little clip from the Europa League to get yourselves in the mood with just five minutes to go until we start the ceremonies…
Here’s an interesting one.
There’s been a battle to secure a fifth Champions League spot next season by virtue of coefficient scores across the top leagues.
Essentially, leagues with clubs that perform well in Europe can earn more coefficient points that are ranked against other divisions, with England and Germany trailling Italy for that fifth spot, with the UCL expanding to 36 teams next season.
However, with Villa, Liverpool and West Ham all making it deep into the Europa and Conference Leagues – as well as Arsenal and Man City in the UCL – the Premier League is picking up more points and has since pulled ahead of germany.
As such, West Ham’s success could mean a boost to their near rivals Tottenham, who are currently in fifth spot…
Read more at the link below for more on that one…
Plenty of goals in the Europa League last night
Leverkusen managed the only really notable comeback of the round in the Europa League last night, but there were still plenty of goals on offer.
West Ham came into their clash with Freiburg 1-0 down but five goals – including that Kudus stunner – quickly put away the Bundesliga outfit with a dominant 5-1 win in east London.
Similarly, Liverpool beat Sparta Prague 6-1 at home to win 11-2 on aggregate, while Brighton beat Roma 1-0 but were unable to overturn the 4-0 deficit, as the Seagulls came crashing down to earth.
A grand total of 30 goals across the eight games last night!
One of the great European comebacks
At first glance this just looks like a normal run of results from the previous round, doesn’t it?
Take a look at that one down the bottom between Maccabi Tel-Aviv and Oympiacos – the visitors had been beaten 4-1 on home turf but managed to turn it around, making it 4-1 on the night before forcing extra time and sealing a magnificent 6-1 win – 7-5 on aggregate!
Certainly makes that 0-0 aggregate draw between Viktoria Plzen and Servette look that little bit more drab, doesn’t it?
We’ve still got about half an hour to go until we get a few names on the board in these competitions so…
Feel free to get your heads round the draw from the Champions League, the less impressive, less prestigious older brother of the mighty Europa and Conference Leagues, which has only just come to an end!
There are some scintillating ties on offer, not to mention Arsenal vs Bayern Munich and Man City vs Real Madrid – and who could forget a replay of the icnoic La Remontada game beetween Barcelona and PSG?!
Check it all out below…
All ready to go
We’re all ready for the draw to get going as evidenced by two nearly identical videos…
Who’s in the hat?
So which 16 teams are going into the hats?
Take a look at these two handily put together graphics which show you the contenders, and there are some huge names in there.
Liverpool and West Ham bear the Premier League flag for the Europa League, while Aston Villa are doing the same in the Conference League.
Some giant names though to try and get past in the Europa League, with AC Milan, Atalanta, Benfica, Marseille, Roma and unbeaten Leverkusen all in the mix.
Two staggering goals this week
But it was also a round of stunning goals in the Europa League and Conference League this week.
Take a look at these two offerings from both competitions and see if you can pick a winner.
That Kudus one is pretty special for my money.
One of the great moments in European football
This is a great one to kick us off.
Bayer Leverkusen scraped through to the last-eight of the Europa League and preserved their precious unbeaten record in the process, but it was a game that saw one of the greatest moments in European club football history.
In an incredibly, skin-crawlingly awkward passage, Qarabag defender Elvin Cafarguliyev was left hanging by Anthony Taylor before being sent off in a double whammy – compounded further by the fact his side were knocked out of the competition in added time.
Read the story below for more on that one!
Good morning!
Welcome everyone to this morning’s Europa League and Conference League draw coverage, which we will be bringing to you live as names come out of balls.
Stick around as we build up to the ceremony and bring you all the latest news from UEFA’s second and third tier competitions!