Arsenal will face Ostersund and their English manager Graham Potter in the last 32 of the Europa League. Monday’s draw paired Arsène Wenger’s men with the Swedish side, who the former Southampton and York defender Potter has taken from the fourth division to the top-ranked Allsvenskan in six years.
The 42-year-old has earned comparisons with Roy Hodgson – who himself managed in Scandinavia in his formative years – and this will be his first clash against English opposition. The draw also saw Brendan Rodgers’s Celtic come out against Russian outfit Zenit St Petersburg.
Arsenal face Ostersund in the Europa League round of 32. Photograph: David Price/Arsenal FC via Getty Images
Incredibly, I have found a weather forecast for Ostersund on 15 February. Feel free to totally ignore it. It looks like it’s going to be cloudy with flurries of snow, and somewhere between -5C and -10C. On 15 February this year it got down to -7C.
Back to the Champions League for a moment, as Uefa have announced the dates for those Round of 16 matches:
Juventus v Tottenham Hotspur: 13 February & 7 March Basel v Manchester City: 13 February & 7 March Porto v Liverpool: 14 February & 6 March Real Madrid v Paris: 14 February & 6 March Chelsea v Barcelona: 20 February & 14 March Bayern Munich v Besiktas: 20 February & 14 March* Sevilla v Manchester United: 21 February & 13 March Shakhtar Donetsk v Roma: 21 February & 13 March
That leaves Marseille playing Braga, and the final draw looks like this:
Borussia Dortmund v Atalanta Nice v Lokomotov Moscow Copenhagen v Atlético Madrid Spartak Moscow v Athletic Bilbao AEK Athens v Dynamo Kyiv Celtic v Zenit St Petersburg Napoli v RB Leipzig Red Star Belgrade v CSKA Moscow Lyon v Villarreal Real Sociedad v Salzburg Partizan Belgrade v Viktoria Plzen Steaua Bucharest v Lazio Ludogorets v Milan Astana v Sporting Ostersunds v Arsenal Marseille v Braga
Now Napoli, probably the shortest straw in the unseeded hat, or whatever. Representatives of Milan, Arsenal, Braga, CSKA Moscow, Lazio, Leipzig, Viktoria Plzen, Salzburg, Sporting, Villarreal cross their fingers and say, “not me”.
Celtic are up next. The shrinking list of potential opponents is now comprised of Milan, Arsenal, Braga, CSKA Moscow, Lazio, Leipzig, Viktoria Plzen, Salzburg, Sporting, Villarreal and Zenit.
Now AEK Athens, who could face any of Milan, Arsenal, Braga, CSKA Moscow, Dynamo Kyiv, Lazio, Leipzig, Viktoria Plzen, Salzburg, Sporting, Villarreal and Zenit.
FC Copenhagen are the third unseeded side out of the pot. Any of Milan, Arsenal, Athletic Bilbao, Atlético Madrid, Braga, CSKA Moscow, Dynamo Kyiv, Lazio, Leipzig, Lokomotiv Moscow, Viktoria Plzen, Salzburg, Sporting, Villarreal and Zenit could be paired with them.
Next up is Nice, who will face one of Milan, Arsenal, Athletic Bilbao, Atlético Madrid, Braga, CSKA Moscow, Dynamo Kyiv, Leipzig, Lokomotiv Moskva, Viktoria Plzen, Salzburg, Sporting, Villarreal and Zenit.
They can be drawn against Milan, Arsenal, Atalanta, Athletic Bilbao, Atlético Madrid, Braga, CSKA Moscow, Dynamo Kyiv, Lazio, Lokomotiv Moskva, Viktoria Plzen, Salzburg, Sporting, Villarreal or Zenit. It takes a while to get all the right balls together.
As with the Champions League draw, the unseeded teams will be picked first, and balls containing the names of all the teams they could be paired with will then be poured into a big pot, which is when Abidal will do his thing.
Michael Heselschwerdt, the Uefa Head of Club Competitions, explains the rules of the draw. His actual surname is indistinguishable from the sound you would make if you forgot his actual surname and just tried to fudge it, which is handy.
“It’s the most European competition,” he says. This reminds me of the time I bought a carton of orange juice from a popular supermarket chain that said it was “now even juicier!”. How is that even possible? What’s juicier than juice?
So Borussia Dortmund and Napoli are among the unseeded teams, as indeed are Lyon, Marseille and Celtic. There’s certainly potential for this competition to throw up some difficult draws, if not quite as sexy as some of the Champions League ties. But then, without meaning any disrespect for Viktoria Plzen, the big unseeded teams could also be handed relatively unshowy, potentially straightforward encounters.
You wait for ages* for a decent draw and then two come along at once. The dust only just having settled on the Champions League round-of-16 pot-picking, it’s time to turn our attention to the Europa League. Here, then, are the names in the hat:
The seeded teams: Milan, Arsenal, Atalanta, Athletic Bilbao, Atlético Madrid, Braga, CSKA Moscow, Dynamo Kyiv, Lazio, Leipzig, Lokomotiv Moskva, Plzen, Salzburg, Sporting, Villarreal and Zenit.
Important information: No team can draw another who was also in their Europa League group, or a side from the same country. Also, teams from Russia and Ukraine will be kept apart for reasons of diplomacy.
Dates for the diary: Games will be played on 15 and 22 February, unless there’s a really good reason why they shouldn’t be. Seeded teams shall be at home in leg two.
