Europa League draw live: Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest to learn last 16 opponents plus Conference League ties confirmed – UK Times

Pedro Pinto is on presenting duties for this draw, as always, and explains how it will work.

It’s exactly the same as the Champions League draw with the eight teams from the play-offs already placed on either side of the bracket.

The remaining seeded teams have been paired up and will be drawn into predetermined spots.

Okay then. After the drama of the Champions League draw it’s time for the Europa League to shine.

Two English clubs are involved in this one with Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest about to find out their routes to the final.

Could the English clubs make a clean sweep of the Uefa tournaments this year?

The Europa League draw begins in 10 minutes so here’s a last reminder on the possible permutations for the last-16:

Lyon and Aston Villa will be drawn against:

FC Midtjylland and Real Betis will be drawn against:

• Panathinaikos or Nottingham Forest

Porto and Braga will be drawn against:

Freiburg and AS Roma will be drawn against:

Aston Villa are one of the favourites to win the Europa League title this season.

Not only did they finish second in the league phase and secure an automatic spot in the last-16 but they have a prolific manager in Unai Emery who excels in this competition.

With Villa’s challenge for the Premier League title looking unlikely, it feels right for Emery to prioritise the Europa League in the hopes of bringing silverware to Villa Park this year.

Trying to stop them will be Nottingham Forest. The midlands club are setting aside their terrible league form to perform strongly in Europe having managed to come through a play-off tie to reach the knockout rounds proper.

But, who will they play next?

“Cruelty and miracles, it’s the Champions League,” read the headline in Gazzetta dello Sport. “But we’re among Europe’s greats.” Just. And if the definition of great is a loose one, Italy had grounds to be grateful for play-off drama in Bergamo. Not for the last time, they will hope, given that the Azzurri face Northern Ireland there next month, seeking to preserve their World Cup hopes.

The 25-year-old is on a season-long loan at Villa Park from Manchester United, where his contract finishes at the end of the season.

Sancho is set to become a free agent in the summer and Emery says he would be interested in keeping him at the club if he continues to improve after a slow start.

After beating Fenerbahce in the league phase, Villa booked their spot in the last-16.

Emery said: “The most important thing was to compete like we did, to feel good playing in our style.

“Everything they were demanding us to be compact and we did it and then of course to win the match, score goals. We had chances to score the second goal.

“Europa League is important for us and we have got in the top eight and this is the most important now of course.

“Building the team with some circumstances not helping us but next week we can finish the transfer window and hopefully we can get everything we need to complete the squad for the next months and the competitions we have.”

The draw for the Champions League knockout rounds is taking place in Nyon right now.

You can follow that draw with our live blog below before the Europa League and Conference League draws follow this afternoon.

Nottingham Forest’s last game was against Vitor Pereira’s last club. His first match in charge is against another of his former clubs. Maybe that is simply the logical consequence of the managerial turnover under Evangelos Marinakis and the choice of a peripatetic figure like Pereira.

Pereira made four changes at half-time during Forest’s second leg against Fenerbahce as he looked to gain more control in the game.

“It’s difficult for a manager to do four subs,” he explained. “It’s not about one player. I was not disappointed with one player, I was feeling that I need to do something to face the second half.

“It’s difficult to look in the eyes of the players and do four subs, but it is my life, it is my job and I did it.

“It’s like intuition. If you start to feel that we are not controlling the game, and we are in risk to not control the game in our way, you must do it. It is not about personal players.”