Rennes hit the jackpot on Monday with AC Milan for the play-offs for the round of 16 of the Europa League, while Marseille will have their work cut out against Shakhtar Donetsk and Toulouse with Benfica Lisbon.
Reverted to C3 after finishing third in its Champions League group, RC Lens was rather spared by the draw made in Nyon in Switzerland: it will face Fribourg, currently sixth in the Bundesliga.
With AC Milan, third in Group F of the Champions League, known as “death”, from which Paris SG painfully extricated itself last Wednesday, Stade Rennais inherits the most feared opponent of these play-offs, where French internationals Olivier Giroud, Mike Maignan and Théo Hernandez play.
A draw all the more cruel as the Rennais thought they had won first place in their group during the previous phase, but their equalizer at the end of a crazy match on Thursday against Villarreal was invalidated, under a rarely used rule. (3-2 defeat).
Finishing first in the group “would have allowed us to avoid this kind of confrontation, now it’s here, it’s up to us to prepare it well and do everything necessary to try to create an exploit”, reacted Florian Maurice , sports director of Rennes, on RMC.
First place in the group gave the right to play directly in the round of 16 of this competition in the shadow of the Champions League.
“We know, obviously, the size of this club, its entire journey in the European Cup for a number of years,” added Florian Maurice.
On Thursday, Marseille could also have avoided this additional round, a sort of round of 16, if it had not conceded a defeat to Brighton (1-0). The double confrontation against Shakhtar Donetsk, who notably beat FC Barcelona in the group stage of the Champions League, is clearly not a gift.
One of the Little Thumbs of the competition, Toulouse, which obtained a solid 2nd place in the group stage, notably taking the scalp of Liverpool (3-2), will face a big part of this competition, Benfica Lisbon of the former Parisian Angel Di Maria.
The other play-offs will pit Feyenoord Rotterdam against AS Roma, Young Boys Bern against Sporting Portugal, Braga against Qarabag and Galatasaray against Sparta Prague.
The matches will be played on February 15 and 22, before the draw for the round of 16 on February 23.
Liverpool, currently second in the Premier League and more used to winning in C1, is directly qualified for the round of 16, as are West Ham, Brighton, Bayer Leverkusen, Glasgow Rangers, Atalanta Bergamo , Villarreal and Slavia Prague.
The Europa League final will take place at the Dublin Arena on May 22, 2024.
The complete draw for the Europa League play-offsAC Milan – RennesBenfica – ToulouseOM – Shakhtar DonetskLens-Fribourg-Young Boys-SportingGalatasaray-Sparta PragueBraga-QarabagFeyenoord-AS Rome