{"id":501978,"date":"2026-02-27T01:05:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T01:05:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/501978\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T01:05:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T01:05:16","slug":"every-potential-match-in-the-2025-26-europa-league-round-of-16","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/501978\/","title":{"rendered":"Every Potential Match in the 2025\u201326 Europa League Round of 16"},"content":{"rendered":"

What is shaping up to be a heard-turning bracket for the Europa League round of 16 is coming into focus after the conclusion of the knockout phase playoffs. <\/p>\n

While the top eight of the league phase, including tournament favorites Lyon and Aston Villa<\/a>, have had their feet kicked up over the last two weeks, 16 teams have gone to war in pursuit of a spot in the last 16. <\/p>\n

Some ties were rather straightforward\u2014Stuttgart breezed past Celtic and Celta Vigo barely broke a sweat against PAOK. Yet others delivered all the drama, like Panathinaikos\u2019 penalty shootout triumph over Viktoria Plze\u0148 and Genk\u2019s extra time daggers against Dinamo Zagreb. <\/p>\n

Now that the final 16 teams in the Europa League<\/a> are solidified, the potential round of 16<\/a> matchups are taking shape. <\/p>\n

Every Potential Europa League Round of 16 Matchup\"Lyon,<\/p>\n

Lyon and Lille know each other well. | Olivier Chassignole\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Team<\/p>\n

Possible Round of 16 Opponents<\/p>\n

(1) Lyon <\/p>\n

Lille or Celta Vigo<\/p>\n

(2) Aston Villa<\/p>\n

Lille or Celta Vigo<\/p>\n

(3) Midtjylland<\/p>\n

Panathinaikos or Nottingham Forest<\/p>\n

(4) Real Betis<\/p>\n

Panathinaikos or Nottingham Forest<\/p>\n

(5) FC Porto<\/p>\n

Stuttgart or Ferencv\u00e1ros<\/p>\n

(6) Braga<\/p>\n

Stuttgart or Ferencv\u00e1ros<\/p>\n

(7) Freiburg<\/p>\n

Bologna or Genk<\/p>\n

(8) Roma<\/p>\n

Bologna or Genk<\/p>\n

Headlining the potential Europa League round of 16 matches is a potential clash between Lyon and Lille. The two sides sit in third and fifth place respectively in Ligue 1 and have already faced off three times this season\u2014twice in the domestic league and once in the Coupe de France. <\/p>\n

Lyon came out on top in all three matches, but each game was decided by a single goal. Normally Lille would be eager to avoid their fellow French club given the recent string of defeats, but not when Aston Villa are the alternative option. <\/p>\n

Unai Emery\u2019s men will feel confident going against either Lille or Celta Vigo in the round of 16. Even though they have been rather inconsistent as of late, Aston Villa outclasses either opponent at virtually every position on the pitch. <\/p>\n

\"Aston<\/p>\n

Aston Villa are one of the favorites to win the Europa League this season. | Visionhaus\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

England\u2019s other representatives Nottingham Forest<\/a> will match up with either Midtjylland or Real Betis. The former might have finished above the Spanish outfit in the league phase, but the Danish club poses less of a threat than Manuel Pellegrini\u2019s men, who have only suffered five La Liga<\/a> defeats this season\u2014and three came against Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atl\u00e9tico Madrid. <\/p>\n

Keeping the Premier League<\/a> trend going, former Spurs standout Robbie Keane led Ferencv\u00e1ros to the round of 16, where his side will face Porto or Braga. Either way, Hungary\u2019s most successful club will be headed to Portugal. <\/p>\n

Stuttgart will face the other of the two Portuguese outfits, narrowly avoiding fellow Bundesliga side Freiburg in the next round. Instead, the latter could be in for a league phase rematch with Bologna; the two clubs shared the spoils in a 1\u20131 draw back in October. <\/p>\n

Perhaps the more exciting match would be if the Serie A side gets drawn against Roma, pitting two of Italy\u2019s top teams against one another with a trip to the quarterfinals on the line. <\/p>\n

When Is the Europa League Round of 16 Draw?\"Europa<\/p>\n

The Europa League round of 16 draw will determine next round\u2019s matchups. | Jonathan Moscrop\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The Europa League draw is set to unfold less than 24 hours after the conclusion of the knockout phase playoffs. The festivities will commence on Friday, Feb. 27, at 12 p.m. GMT (7 a.m. ET, 4 a.m. PT). <\/p>\n

The top eight teams from the league phase are pre-seeded for the draw and divided into pairs based on where they finished in the table. Unlike the knockout phase playoff winners, the pre-seeded teams do not know which side of the bracket they are on. <\/p>\n

During Friday\u2019s draw, each pair will be split and placed on either the silver side or the orange side of the bracket, where they will match up with the respective knockout phase winner waiting for them in the round of 16. By the time the draw ends, each team will have a clear view of their path to the Europa League final. <\/p>\n

Fans can tune in to the round of 16 draw on UEFA\u2019s official website for free. <\/p>\n

READ THE LATEST SOCCER NEWS, TRANSFER RUMORS AND MATCH REACTION<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What is shaping up to be a heard-turning bracket for the Europa League round of 16 is coming…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":501979,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-501978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=501978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501978\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/501979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=501978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=501978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=501978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}