You cannot look back at the UEFA Europa League’s Round of 32 matches without talking about drama, just as you cannot look forward to the Round of 16 ties without feeling the excitement. Today, following the Europa League’s Last 16 draw, Live Soccer TV takes you through an analysis of the competition’s previous stage and its upcoming round.
We look at some of the Round of 32’s best results in terms of big margin-victories and thrilling comebacks. In addition, we also analyze the Round of 16 draw from a general point of view: who the favourites are in terms of clubs and countries among a few other points.
The UEFA Europa League: The Round Of 16’s Best Comebacks
Manchester City, Zenit, Rangers and Villarreal all rank among this range. Both Man City and Villarreal were in a delicate situation as they had failed to grab at least one vital away goal in their respective Europa League knock-out match. But it turned out to be that their dream came to life through what makes the greatest difference in a game: goals.
In mid-February, in Greece, Manchester City’s lack of creativity saw them stumble to a goalless draw against Aris. However, Edin Dzeko had other ideas in the return leg in England. The ex-Wolfsburg player rose up to his challenge as he clinched a brace to power his team to a 3-0 victory in the end. Manchester City now deservedly remain in the UEFA Europa League with a tie against Ukraine’s Dynamo Kyiv coming up next on their European fixtures list.
Like the Sky Blues, the Yellow Submarines also found a boost in confidence with a vital 2-1 win over Napoli at the Estadio Madrigal on February 24. Villarreal had to thank Nilmar and Diego Maradona admirer Giuseppe Rossi for cancelling out Marek Hamsik’s 18th minute opener. 
In another dramatic result in Portugal, Scottish side Rangers ousted Sporting Lisbon from the Europa League through the away goals rule. A very late Matias Fernandez goal had offered the advantage to Sporting ahead of the second leg of this tie. It was then down to Rangers to overcome their battle and Maurice Edu proved to be the hero with a 92nd minute goal which cancelled Sporting’s thrilling comeback after El Hadji Diouf had opened the scoring sheet on 19 minutes.
Zenit, meanwhile, seemed to be on their way to suffer an upset after going 2-1 down in Switzerland to Young Boys. But their vital away goal and home advantage played the trick in the second leg which they won 3-1 after being 3-1 down on aggregate at a point.
The UEFA Europa League: Other Great Results From Dynamo Kyiv And Co.
It proved to be as easy as pie for Dynamo Kyiv. There were in fact the Round of 32’s biggest winners as they hammered Turkey’s Besiktas 8-1 over the two legs! Dynamo Kyiv’s feat was almost matched by Ajax who defeated Anderlecht 3-0 in Belgium before completing a double thanks to a 2-0 victory in Amsterdam.
But one team that ranked in between Dynamo Kyiv and Ajax in terms of the margin of the victory was Bayer Leverkusen. The German side had no mercy on Metalist as they handed them a 6-0 defeat on aggregate.
As for Benfica, they did what fellow Portuguese club Sporting Lisbon couldn’t do: to comfortably cruise into the Last 16 of the UEFA Europa League. The Eagles’ 4-1 aggregate triumph over Stuttgart was simply another way to underline the German side’s problems this season. Speaking of great results, English team Liverpool left it late against Sparta Praha to reach the next round.
Meanwhile, the team that exited the competition with bitter disappointment was Sevilla. Even a 1-0 victory at the Estadio do Dragão where Porto lose so rarely couldn’t put them into the Round of 16.
Below is the full list of results in the UEFA Europa League’s Round of 32:
Porto 0-1 Sevilla (Aggregate 2-2; Porto qualified on away goals)
CSKA Moskwa 1-1 PAOK Saloniki (Aggregate 2-1)
Zenit St Petersburg 3-1 Young Boys (Aggregate 4-3)
Liverpool 1-0 Sparta Praha (Aggregate 1-0)
Sporting Lisbon 2-2 Rangers (Aggregate 3-3; Rangers qualified on away goals)
Spartak Moskwa 1-1 Basel (Aggregate 4-3)
PSV Eindhoven 3-1 Lille (Aggregate 5-3)
Villarreal 2-1 Napoli (Aggregate 2-1)
Leverkusen 2-0 Metalist (Aggregate 6-0)
Ajax Amsterdam 2-0 Anderlecht (Aggregate 5-0)
Dynamo Kiev 4-0 Besiktas (Aggregate 8-1)
Braga 2-0 Lech (Aggregate 2-1)
Manchester City 3-0 Aris Saloniki (Aggregate 3-0)
Stuttgart 0-2 Benfica (Aggregate 1-4)
Twente 2-2 Rubin Kazan (Aggregate 4-2)
PSG 0-0 BATE Borisov (Aggregate 2-2)
A Few Interesting Facts:
1) 14 teams out of the 16 that ended the Round of 32 with a second leg match on home soil made it through the Europa League’s Round of 16.
2) No Greek team reached the Last 16.
3) An all-Russian team Round of 16 match was denied as FC Twente defeated Rubin Kazan.
4) The only teams to triumph on aggregate as visitors were Rangers from Scotland and Benfica from Portugal.
The UEFA Europa League: What The Last 16 Fixtures Say
So the fixtures for the UEFA Europa League’s Last 16 are set. Live Soccer TV gives you a view of them:
SL Benfica (PORTUGAL) vs Paris Saint-Germain FC (FRANCE)
FC Dynamo Kyiv (UKRAINE) vs Manchester City FC (ENGLAND)
FC Twente (NETHERLANDS) vs FC Zenit St Petersburg (RUSSIA)
PFC CSKA Moskva (RUSSIA) vs FC Porto (PORTUGAL)
PSV Eindhoven (NETHERLANDS) vs Rangers FC (SCOTLAND)
Bayer 04 Leverkusen (GERMANY) vs Villarreal CF (SPAIN)
AFC Ajax (NETHERLANDS) vs FC Spartak Moskva (RUSSIA)
Liverpool FC (ENGLAND) vs SC Braga (PORTUGAL)
The Round of 16 of the UEFA Europa League has put Portugal, the Netherlands and Russia on top of other European teams. These countries each have 3 teams representing them as the tournament continues.
Interestingly, Sporting Braga have been paired with Liverpool. This Portuguese team defied all the odds to reach the group stages of the UEFA Champions League where they finally had a turbulent end to their dream. But Sporting Braga rose up with the desire to make the most of their fate; and their resilience apparently paid off. Their reward for making it all the way to this stage of the Europa League is a clash against English giants Liverpool. This tie is arguably the best of all as the inspiration of Merseyside Reds legend Kenny Dalglish will be put to the test once again.
However, the Dynamo Kyiv vs Manchester City tie may also rival the Liverpool vs SC Braga fixture. The Sky Blues’ big spending and array of stars has attracted the attention of the public just as much as it has raised the club’s title ambitions. Roberto Mancini and his troop are eying the UEFA Europa League title, but after notching 18 goals since their opening group stage match, Dynamo Kyiv are perhaps not finished yet.
Live Soccer TV has picked Benfica, Dynamo Kyiv, Zenit, FC Porto, PSV, Bayer Leverkusen, Ajax and Liverpool as the favourites to progress into the quarter-finals of the UEFA Europa League. The dates for the ties to be played are March 10 and March 17.
