Barcelona’s Possible Last Round of 32 Opponents As Catalan Giants Slip to Europa League

• Barcelona who dropped to the Europa League could face Italian side Lazio in the round of 32 playoffs
• Teams that finish third in the Champions League will play runners up in the Europa League groups
• Group winners automatically earn a slot in the last 16 and will await the draw on February 25
• The draw takes place on Monday, December 13 at the House of European Football in Nyon, Switzerland

Barcelona have learnt of their possible opponents in the Europa League knock out stages.

The Catalan giants find themselves in unfamiliar territory after a 3-0 defeat to Bayern Munich, who had nothing to play for in the Champions League relegated them to the second-tier European competition.

It will be a huge adjustment for Xavi and his wards, as the last time Barcelona were not in the knockout of the Champions League was in the 2003-04 campaign, which was also their last season in the Uefa Cup/Europa League.

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And the last time they failed to get past the group stage altogether was in the year 2000 when Leeds United finished above them in their group.

Their current reality is the Europa League, and Xavi will have to do his best to salvage a season that looks like it is in tatters.

Barca’s possible opponents

After Thursday’s Europa League group games were concluded, Barcelona finally learnt the possible opponents for the knockouts.

Real Sociedad and Real Betis, both of whom proceeded to the next stage, cannot be drawn against Barca since they all play in the La Liga.

That leaves only six possible opponents for the Catalan giants: Rangers FC (Scotland), Napoli (Italy), Olympiacos (Greece), Lazio (Italy), Braga (Portugal) and Dinamo Zagreb (Croatia).

Why those opponents? How it works

The Europa League knockouts is quite interesting as it usually involves ‘guest teams’ from the Champions League.

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Teams that finished third in their respective groups in the Champions League will face any of the sides that finished second in their Europa League groups.

Meanwhile, the eight teams who won their groups in the Europa League will automatically advance to the last 16 and await their opponents.

Those eight Europa League group winners are: Lyon, Monaco, Spartak Moscow, Eintracht Frankfurt, Galatasaray, Red Star Belgrade, Bayer Leverkusen.

Other teams that slipped to the Europa League from the Champions League thanks to a third-place finish in the groups include RB Leipzig, Porto, Borussia Dortmund, Sheriff Tiraspol, Atalanta and Zenit.

If Barcelona manage to edge their playoff opponents, they will endure another draw on February 25 to learn who they will face in the last 16.

Xavi to offload three players

Meanwhile, Legit.ng earlier reported that following their exit from the UEFA Champions League on Wednesday night, Barcelona manager Xavi is reportedly set to offload three players including goalkeeper ter Stegen.

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Journalist Gerard Romero claims that offers will be entertained for ter Stegen, who was widely seen as one of the best goalkeepers on the planet just a few years ago.

Xavi is also open to seeing De Jong leave the club, with right-back Dest also potentially facing an uncertain future at Camp Nou just 18 months after joining the club.