Europa League and Europa Conference League last-16 draws and reaction, as it happened

Leicester, West Ham, Rangers and Barcelona among the teams who have discovred their next European opponents

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Europa Conference League last-16 draw
(Image: © Getty Images)

In the Europa League last-16 draw, West Ham have been handed a tough tie against Sevilla, while Rangers will play Red Star Belgrade. In the Europa League last-16 draw, Leicester have been given French side Rennes.

Full Europa League last-16 fixtures:

Bodø/Glimt (NOR) vs AZ Alkmaar (NED)

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Welcome to FourFourTwo's Europa League and Europa Conference League draws liveblog! We'll be covering all the build-up ahead of the draw starting at 11am, then a bit of reaction as we find out who the likes of West Ham, Rangers, Barcelona and Leicester will play next.

The next round draws aren't the only thing happening today: UEFA has also called an extraordinary meeting to discuss the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

As things stand, May's Champions League final is set to take place in the Russian city of Saint Petersburg. This meeting, which is currently taking place, is expected to decide to move the venue, though it may not decide on a new host city today.

There is also the matter of what to do about next month's World Cup qualifiers. Poland are set to play Russia away on Thursday, March 24, with either Sweden or the Czech Republic then playing away at Russia should Russia win.

Yesterday, Poland, Sweden and the Czech Republic's football associations co-signed a statement refusing to travel to Russia for those games.

We'll update you on the outcome of that meeting when we have that news. Current expectations are that the Champions League final will be moved but no new host decided yet, and that Russia World Cup qualifier play-offs will be moved to a neutral country.

For now, though, back to the draws.

Let's start with the Europa League. Sixteen teams go into the next round, with eight progressing from the round that finished last night (more on those games shortly) and eight seeded teams progressing straight from having topped their groups earlier in the competition.

Latest reports from Martyn Ziegler at The Times, the Champions League final will be in Paris, at the Stade De France:

The biggest story of last night was probably Rangers holding on to a home draw to Borussia Dortmund, securing a 6-4 victory for the Scottish side.

It's a massive win for Rangers, that cements their restoration to former glories in recent years. Being unseeded also means they will avoid the likes of Barcelona, Sevilla and RB Leipzig in the next round – but a draw against West Ham is not impossible...

For West Ham, of course, the opposite is true. Having soared through a group with Dinamo Zagreb, Rapid Wien and Genk, they bypassed the next round and sit on the opposite side of this draw to the Champions League dropouts. Fixtures against the likes of Rangers, Barcelona, Real Betis, Sevilla, Porto or RB Leipzig await.

UEFA has now confirmed the news that the Champions League final moves from Saint Petersburg to the Stade De France in Paris.

This relates both to the upcoming World Cup qualifying play-offs in March, where Russia is a home side, but also to today's draw: Spartak Moscow are in the seeded side of the draw, and could be drawn against the likes of Rangers.

There could have been two Russian sides in the next round: Real Betis only progressed without extra time last night thanks to a very late VAR decision to rule out a Zenit Saint Petersburg goal. And it was a pretty soft decision...

Meanwhile, in Naples, Adama Traore set up a lovely Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang goal to round off a 4-2 victory for Barcelona:

Let's check in on the Europa Conference League (that's the one you're in, Brendan).

UNSEEDED

Bodø/Glimt (NOR)

Leicester are the only British team left in the competition. Tottenham, of course, stank out the group stage, while Celtic suffered a 5-1 aggregate defeat to Bodo/Glimt.

Bodo/Glimt? Randers? Roma?

If you're struggling to recognise some of these teams, don't worry, you're not alone. We asked Twitter to name some of the most obscure teams their club has come up against in European competitions last week, and some of the replies were... baffling.

Could Leicester win the Europa Conference League? There's the prospect of Feyenoord or Roma in the next round, while PSV Eindhoven and Marseille are probably the toughest teams in their own side of the draw.

Other than that, though, no remaining sides should trouble them. The winners earn a spot in next season's Europa League – probably Leicester's best shot of Europe next year – and, well, it's nice to win a European title anyway, isn't it?

Just under 20 minutes until the Europa League draw gets underway. You'll be able to watch it live on UEFA's website, on BT Sport, and we'll also post the live YouTube video here when it begins.

The Europa League final this year will be held in Seville, at Sevilla's Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán Stadium.

Sevilla, who have lifted the trophy six times since their first win in 2006, are still in the competition in the unseeded side of the draw – so a home victory is not out of the question.

More delicious though is that Real Betis – Sevilla's city rivals – are also still in the Europa League, raising the prospect that they could lift the trophy at Sevilla's own ground.

And here we g... er, what's that noise?

Don't worry if you're hearing an atonal beep – FourFourTwo has checked several feeds and that's all we can hear too.

Rejoice! The sound is now working as it should. Here we go, for real this time!

Still, that was a minor hiccough compared to UEFA's Champions League draw in December – a miscalculation somewhere led the whole draw to be redone.

Giorgio Marchetti, UEFA deputy general secretary, makes a statement of solidarity with Ukraine before the draw begins.

Marchetti, who also moonlights as a Claudio Ranieri lookalike, praises West Ham for making it to the last 16 for the first time.

Andres Palop, the former Valencia and Sevilla goalkeeper, is here to help with the draw. He won three UEFA Cups in his career: one with Valencia, and two with Sevilla.

Bit of chat as filler before we get going. The teams are all great, aren't they? I would pick Barcelona out as a good team. Next, the weather.

Once again, here are the teams. Remember, teams from the same country can't be drawn together, though – that only really applies to RB Leipzig's opponents.

First fixture:

Second fixture:

Third fixture:

Fourth fixture:

Fifth fixture:

Oof! That's a really, really hard tie for the Hammers.

Sixth fixture:

Seventh fixture:

Eighth fixture:

Full Europa League last-16 fixtures:

Red Star Belgrade won't be an easy tie for Rangers, but there's still a reasonable chance of making the quarter-finals, especially after beating Borussia Dortmund in the last round.

West Ham's draw against Europa League specialists Sevilla is about as tough as it gets, though. David Moyes' team will really need to be on top form to overcome Julen Lopetegui's side, who last lifted the trophy in 2020.

Still, at least Seville will be a nice trip, eh?

The first legs for this round of the Europa League will take place on Thursday, March 10, except for the Real Betis and Porto home games. FFT didn't catch exactly why, but presumably it is to do with the Sevilla and Porto home games also taking place on the same night.

Forty-two years since West Ham played a Spanish team, according to Opta:

Let's remind ourselves of the Europa Conference League teams, then. Once again, teams from the same country can't be drawn together, so AZ Alkmaar and Feyenoord can't be drawn against PSV or Vitesse, and Rennes can't be drawn against Marseille.

UNSEEDED

Bodø/Glimt (NOR)

Almost there! If there's one team Leicester want to avoid at this stage it's surely Jose Mourinho's Roma?

If you're looking to watch the draw, you can press play on the YouTube video at the top of the page.

And we're off! Our host Pedro Pinto is back, which is like if UEFA let Stan Lee name their presenters.

Fully expecting Claudio Ranieri lookalike Giorgio Marchetti (who is also UEFA deputy general secretary) to return for this, which makes the Leicester link all the more fun.

Marchetti again opens with a statement of solidarity with Ukraine. UEFA this morning decided to move the Champions League final to Paris from Saint Petersburg, and Russian and Ukrainian teams in UEFA competitions will have to play home games at neutral venues.

The final is in Tirana this year, so the ex-footballer they have to help with the draw is former Albanian captain Altin Lala, who's from Tirana and made over 300 appearances for Hannover 96 during his career. But you knew that.

First fixture:

Second fixture:

Third fixture:

Fourth fixture:

Fifth fixture:

Sixth fixture:

Seventh fixture:

Bodø/Glimt (NOR) vs AZ Alkmaar (NED)

Eighth fixture:

Here's the full list of Europa Conference League last-16 fixtures:

Bodø/Glimt (NOR) vs AZ Alkmaar (NED)

So, Leicester face Rennes in the next round – probably one of the tougher ties.

"Brendan Rodgers flexed/added to this season's general malaise by suggesting that he didn't even realise Leicester would drop into this competition, after being feebly knocked out of the Europa League – but the truth is, this is our best shot of making it back into Europe next season.

"We brushed aside Randers 7-2 on aggregate, even if the Danes should have scored more goals, but now there'll be far less room for error against Rennes. Unlike us, they're going well in Ligue 1 (currently fifth) – and very much unlike us, they don't concede many goals. It's not the hardest draw we could have got, but it's not far off either. A proper test awaits."

The Europa Conference League last-16 games will have their first legs on Thursday, March 10, with the second legs on Thursday, March 17. Then the quarter-final draw takes place on Friday, March 18, along with the Europa League and Champions League draws.

That's us done for now, so: we'll see you then...