Sometimes, I wish football matches can be settled in a best of seven series like basketball, as the Europa League clash between Manchester United and Barcelona should have been more than two legs. As a neutral watching with several bottles of Heineken, I loved the waves and waves of end to end attacking football from both sides, and it’s fair to say that the best team won. There was no shortage of drama as you’d expect, but the important thing is that a very big team has crashed out of the Europa League.

At the start of the competition, 32 teams competed in eight groups knowing that the format had somewhat changed with only the group winner qualifying to the Round of 16 while the second placed team was going to face off the Champions League has beens in a playoff encounter that would be decided over two legs. Arsenal, Fenerbahce, Real Betis, Union Saint-Gillioise, Real Sociedad, Feyernoord, SC Freiburg and Ferencvaros, which essentially meant that second placed teams like PSV Eindhoven, Stade Rennais, AS Roma, Union Berlin, Midtjylland SC, Nantes, Manchester United and AS Monaco were scheduled to battle those useless teams that finished in third place in their respective Champions League group.

In my personal opinion, I believe that teams that finished in third place in the Champions League should go home disgracefully, rather than come to the Europa League to bully their way into the competition. More times than naught, its those annoying third grade teams from the Champions League that usually end up winning the damn thing, but hey, rules are rules.

From the table above, five third-placed Champions League triumphed over their Europa League counterparts, so massive credit will go to the likes of Manchester United, Union Berlin and AS Roma for flying the competition’s flag in the midst of Champions League adversary.

The draws will take place this afternoon, and Arsenal is set to be drawn with any of the non-English winners of the playoff round. So let’s have a review of Arsenal’s potential opponents in the Europa League Round of 16.

Bayer 04 Leverkusen

Current League Position: 10th in Bundesliga

Head to Head with Arsenal: Two matches played – One draw and one Arsenal win. 

When I think about Bayer Leverkusen, the only thing that comes to mind is that magnificent performance in 2002 that saw them go all the way to the Champions League final. Funnily enough, Bayer Leverkusen was in the same group with Arsenal that season, drawing 1-1 with the Gunners in BayArena, before losing 4-1 in Highbury courtesy of goals from Robert Pires, Thierry Henry, Patrick Vieira and Dennis Bergkamp.

Leverkusen managed to still win the group that contained Arsenal, Juventus and Deportivo La Coruna, then went on to defeat Liverpool and Manchester United in the knockout rounds before squaring off against Real Madrid in Hampden Park, Glasgow. Raul Gonzalez scored the opening goal before Lucio scored the equalizer, but the world will always remember that Zinedine Zidane wonder goal that settled the contest.

21 years on, Arsenal can potentially face Bayer Leverkusen again with the club’s main threat being their prized winger, Moussa Diaby that has 10 goals in all competitions this season. Bayer’s league form is quite terrible, with 10 losses from 21 games played so far, and they also had a messed up form in the Champions League as well, losing three of their six games. 

In the playoffs, they had to rely on the heroics of their captain and goalie, Lukas Hradecky, who managed to stop the decisive penalty from Eliot Matazo, as Bayer Leverkusen qualified following a 5-5 aggregate scoreline over two legs.

FC Union Berlin

Current League Position: Third in Bundesliga

Head to Head with Arsenal: Never met.

Union Berlin has been one of the surprise packages of the Bundesliga this season, amassing a total of 43 points from 21 games played, sitting pretty at the Champions League qualification spots in third place. The club is level on points with league leaders, Bayern Munich, and second placed Borussia Dortmund, which has earned them rave reviews this campaign.

The team lost their first two encounters in the Europa League group stage to SC Braga and eventual group winners, Union Saint-Gilloise but four wins on the trot saw the German outfit seal second place and locked horns with overwhelming favorites, Ajax Amsterdam, who are of course, no longer with Erik Ten Hag. After holding their own with a stalemate at the Johan Cruyff Arena, Union Berlin qualified to the Round of 16 by defeating their illustrious European visitors in their home turf, Stadion An Aer Alten Forsterei.

Should Arsenal get the draw against Union Berlin, they will underrate them at their own peril and be on the lookout for their star winger, Sheraldo Becker, that has scored eight goals this season.

Juventus

Current League Position: Seventh in Serie A

Head to Head with Arsenal: Six games played – Three Arsenal wins, one draw, two Juventus wins

Juventus has been in the spotlight for the wrong reasons this season, after they were docked 15 points for artificially inflating transfer fees to falsely boost capital gains, a decision which the club is currently appealing to the Italian National Olympic Committee. With 14 wins and five draws already in the Serie A, Juventus has only 32 points, instead of 47. However, there is still hope for domestic silverware for the Old Lady as they are scheduled to lock horns with Internazionale in the semifinals of the Coppa Italia. 

In the Champions League this season, Juventus’ form was downright abysmal, losing five of their six games in a group that had Benfica, Paris St. Germain and Maccabi Haifa. The disgusting form seemed to have creeped into the playoffs when the Italian giants drew 1-1 at home to FC Nantes, but last night at Stade de la Beaujoire, the World Cup winner, Angel di Maria, turned up the style with a magnificent hattrick that saw the Old Lady book a Round of 16 berth.

Former Arsenal target, Dusan Vlahovic, leads the scoring charts for Juventus and the Gunners will need to keep him quiet if both teams are paired.

AS Roma

Current League Position: Third in Serie A

Head to Head with Arsenal: Four games played – Two Arsenal wins, one draw, one AS Roma win

The legendary Jose Mourinho has been enjoying his time out of the spotlight since he took over the reins of AS Roma, and was very elated to win the maiden UEFA Conference League trophy last season. His AS Roma side was paired in a relatively easy Europa League group that had the likes of Real Betis, HJK and Ludogorets Razgard, but two losses in the six group stage games saw AS Roma finish behind Real Betis, earning themselves a playoff spot. 

Red Bull Salzburg had the first leg advantage with a narrow 1-0 lead at the Red Bull Arena, but two goals from local lads, Andrea Belotti and top scorer, Paulo Dybala, saw AS Roma overturn a first leg loss to see the game out on aggregate. Arsenal has some history with Jose Mourinho and it will be interesting to see how things pan out.

Sporting Lisbon

Current League Position: Fourth in Premeira Liga 

Head to Head with Arsenal: Four games played – Two Arsenal wins, two draws

Sporting Lisbon began their Champions League campaign with two victories over Eintracht Frankfurt and Tottenham, but a slump in form saw the Portuguese outfit lose three of their next four games in the competition, crashing down to the Europa League playoffs. 

Veteran defender, Sebastian Coates, scored a very late goal to earn his side a draw at their home ground, Estadio Jose Alvalade, but Sporting Lisbon went to Viking land and destroyed Midtjylland in front of their home fans, with the red hot Pedro Goncalves scoring two goals in the 4-0 victory. Those were his 15th and 16th strikes of the season, with the young Portuguese attacker having the form of his life in this campaign.

If Arsenal gets drawn with Sporting, the shackles will be needed to quell the threat Goncalves poses.

Sevilla

Current League Position: 12th in La Liga

Head to Head with Arsenal: Two games played – One Arsenal win, one Sevilla win

The perennial Europa League juggernauts are back again after failing to qualify from a Champions League group that had Manchester City, Borussia Dortmund and FC Copenhagen. The club returned to familiar Europa League surroundings and got paired with PSV Eindhoven, the only club that gave Arsenal their only defeat in the Europa League this season. The first leg at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan was a good one for Sevilla, dispatching their Dutch opponents with three unreplied goals. The Spanish side visited the Philips Stadion last night and were on the end of a huge onslaught from the home side, but PSV scored only two goals and lost the game on aggregate.

Sevilla’s league form has been very poor with the team incurring nine losses, seeing them languish in 12th place. The bad run of early season form cost Julen Lopetegui his job, and Jorge Sampaoli was signed to steady the ship. Goals has been hard to come by from a consistent source in the league, but Youssef En-Nesyri has banged a lot of goals in cup competitions, taking his tally to 10. 

Sevilla have some pedigree in the Europa League, and are the current record holders with six, so Arsenal will have to be careful of their experience and the threat they’d pose if they are drawn. 

Shakhtar Donetsk

Current League Position: Second in Ukrainian Premier League

Head to Head with Arsenal: Four games played – Two Arsenal wins, two Shakhtar wins

When I think about Shakhtar Donetsk, I can’t look any further than how they f’ed Arsenal over in the club’s pursuit of Mykhailo Mudryk. Funnily enough, Mudryk is still Shakhtar’s top scorer this season with nine goals, despite the fact that he currently with the London Cowboy moneybags. Shakhtar was in the same group with Real Madrid, RB Leipzig and Celtic, but but one win from six games, as messed up as that was, earned them a spot in the playoffs against Rennes.

With both teams winning both ties 2-1, it was down to penalties to decide the winner of the contest. After seven rounds of spot kicks, Shakhtar missed two, but Rennes missed three, which allowed the Ukrainians qualify for the next round.

The Europa League draw takes place by 12.00pm today, and we can only hope the Gunners get a favorable draw that would see them progress further in the competition.

Sayonara.

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