Europa League playoff draw: Manchester United face Barcelona – live reaction
Barcelona #Barcelona
It wouldn’t be a Champions League draw live blog without The Permutations™, would it? So who can each of the English teams, our brave boys, be drawn against?
Chelsea finished top of Group E, recovering from a shock defeat against Dinamo Zagreb and a draw against Atlético Caffeine – sorry, Red Bull Salzburg – to win their last four European fixtures on the bounce. As such, they will be drawn against one of Borussia Dortmund, Club Brugge, Eintracht Frankfurt, Internazionale, PSG or RB Leipzig. They can’t be drawn against Liverpool or Milan, the former on account of their mutual Englishness and the latter on account of having already spanked them twice in the group.
Moving on to Liverpool, who finished second to an extremely spicy Napoli side in Group A. They will be drawn against one of Bayern Munich, Benfica, Porto or Real Madrid, meaning we could see a rematch of last year’s final.
Manchester City, who topped Group G undefeated, can be drawn against the same sides as Chelsea, minus Dortmund and plus Milan. Last but not least, Tottenham, who squeaked into top spot in Group D, can be drawn against any of the runners-up other than Liverpool and Frankfurt.
