Europa League last-16 draw LIVE: Liverpool avoid AC Milan and get a trip to Prague to play Sparta and Brighton get Roma… but why are West Ham playing one of THREE group stage re-matches?

We said it was a favourable draw for Liverpool, but they don’t have much to go off.

The Reds have only faced off against Slavia Prague once in Europe, but it ended up going well for them.

They will hope for a similar story again this time.

Well, let’s recap the ties in full shall we.

• Sparta Praha v Liverpool
• Marseille v Villarreal
• Roma v Brighton
• Benfica v Rangers
• Freiburg v West Ham
• Sporting Lisbon v Atalanta
• AC Milan v Slavia Prague
• Qarabag v Bayer Leverkusen

There are plenty of tasty ties in there, as we expected. The one that catches my eye the most is Roma v Brighton.

I don’t see why the Seagulls couldn’t go to Rome and conquer it.

And the last tie is sorted.

Qarabag will be delighted to be in this position in the first place, and now they get to face the Bundesliga leaders.

However, Xabi Alonso’s side will not like the look of travelling all the way to Azerbaijan.

Milan will be happy with this one.

Certainly, a tie they will feel they can win, and if they do, they will be one of the favourites for the competition.

The English teams will all be glad they managed to avoid the Italian giants.

I don’t think we have had a bad tie yet!

This will be a very close tie. The strength of these ties shows how strong the competition is this year.

All the British teams are out of that hat.

This is a tie that could go either way, but out of all the possibilities, it’s a good one for the Hammers.

A trip to Germany for you Irons!

Not an easy one for Rangers either…

That is a huge tie for the Seagulls, surely the fans have to be happy with this one.

It won’t be easy, but what an experience for the Premier League side.

The 2021 winners Villarreal will face off against Marseille, this could be one of the best match ups of the draw, I feel.

A favourable draw for the Premier League leaders.

Happy with that Liverpool fans?

I will post the draws one by one as they come through.

Former Manchester United defender, John O’Shea, speaking at the UEFA Europa League round of 16 draw, in Nyon :

Excitement is building about it, it will be the second time Dublin has hosted a major European final. Anticipation is building.

An English team will possibly make it to the final, who? I’m not going to commit to that.

I love a European draw, the anticipation before some of the biggest heavyweights in European football battle it out.

This season’s competition is set to be one of the best in recent seasons.

Liverpool are the favourites, but there are a lot of big sides that will be challenging them in the knockout phases.

I hope they don’t take too long to build up to the good stuff.

I’m itching to see the draw!

We have less than five minutes until the draw starts.

There is the possibility of some mouth-watering ties in this draw, but which ones do you want to become a reality?

Liverpool to reunite with an old foe in AC Milan? Brighton to come up against Roma? West Ham against Benfica?

Personally, I think Brighton facing up against AC Milan would be electric, that is what I want to see.

We have spoken about the difference between the seeded and unseeded teams, so let’s have a look at who the British teams could get in the draw.

Liverpool, Brighton, West Ham, and Rangers are all in the seeded pot, so these are the eight possibilities they have for the round of 16:

• AC Milan
• Benfica
• Freiburg
• Marseille
• Qarabag
• Roma
• Sparta Prague
• Sporting Lisbon

The Europa League is stacked this year, there are some tough teams there.

I’ll just run you through last night’s action, which saw the play-off rounds conclude.

Aggregate scores in brackets.

• Qarabag 2-3 Braga (6-5)
• Rennes 3-2 AC Milan (3-5)
• Freiburg 3-2 Lens (3-2)
• Toulouse 0-0 Benfica (1-2)
• Marseille 3-1 Shakhtar (5-3)
• Roma 1-1 Feyenoord (2-2 – 4-2 pens)
• Prague 4-1 Galatasaray (6-4)
• Sporting 1-1 Young Boys (4-2)

Everything is in place at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, ahead of the draw.

I’m keen to see what random ex-pros will be taking part. I’m not sure anyone will be able to top Joe Cole’s efforts from earlier this season.

Feels like we’re doing a little Q&A here, but it’s important to get the info down!

There are eight seeded teams and eight unseeded teams. The seeded are the group winners – England’s trio included – and they’ll face the winners from the play-off rounds.

Seeded teams: Atalanta, Brighton, Leverkusen, Liverpool, Rangers, Slavia Prague, Villarreal, West Ham.

Unseeded teams: AC Milan, Benfica, Freiburg, Marseille, Qarabag, Roma, Sparta Prague, Sporting.

Teams from the same country cannot face each other yet.

Son we have the three English sides left, all quite fancied for success, but who else is in there?

The biggest name is Bayer Leverkusen and Xabi Alonso, who have had a storming season and top the Bundesliga by five points, still undefeated.

AC Milan have dropped down from the Champions League too and progressed after beating Rennes, with the likes of Sporting, Atalanta, Benfica, Roma and Marseille all also still about.

Villarreal, Rangers, Freiburg, Qarabag, Sparta Prague and Slavia Prague make up the remaining 16.

Good morning one and all and welcome to Mail Sport’s live blog for this morning’s Europa League round of 16 draw.

English interest returns with Liverpool, West Ham and Brighton returning to the competition after skipping the round of 32, and we will find out who they will be facing today.

We’ll get underway at around 11, so stay tuned!