LAST UPDATE | 18 Mar 2022
BARCELONA WERE DRAWN to play Eintracht Frankfurt in the quarter-finals of this season’s Europa League on Friday, while West Ham United will take on Lyon.
Appearing in Europe’s second-tier club competition for the first time since 2004 following their exit from the Champions League in the group stage, Barcelona qualified for the quarter-finals by beating Galatasaray of Turkey 2-1 on aggregate.
Xavi Hernandez’s side are unbeaten in their last 11 games and are third in La Liga going into Sunday’s Clasico away to Real Madrid.
Eintracht beat Real Betis in extra time on Thursday to go through and will be at home in the first leg on 7 April, with the return at the Camp Nou on 14 April.
Frankfurt won the UEFA Cup, the Europa League’s predecessor, in 1980. They reached the semi-finals in 2019 before losing to eventual winners Chelsea.
West Ham beat record six-time winners Sevilla, hosts of this season’s final, in the last 16 and will be at home to experienced European campaigners Lyon before going to France for the return.
What a draw! 🤩
— UEFA Europa League (@EuropaLeague) March 18, 2022
Which game are you looking forward to most? 🍿#UELdraw pic.twitter.com/fVdgbRvHOH
Sixth in the Premier League, West Ham are through to their first European quarter-final since 1981.
If they win it, they will face either Barcelona or Eintracht in the semi-finals, the first legs of which are set for 28 April.
West Ham beat the German side in the semi-finals of the now-defunct Cup Winners’ Cup in 1976 before losing the final to Anderlecht.
Meanwhile, Rangers’ reward for beating Red Star Belgrade in the last 16 is a tie against Portuguese club Braga, on paper the best tie they could have hoped for.
The Scottish giants beat the same opponents in the last 32 two years ago. The first leg will be played in northern Portugal.
The winner of that tie will progress to a semi-final against either Atalanta or RB Leipzig, who received a bye in the last 16 after would-be rivals Spartak Moscow were banned from Europe following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The final will be played at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan stadium in Seville on 18 May.
Leicester City will take on former European champions PSV Eindhoven in the quarter-finals of the Europa Conference League after being paired together in Friday’s draw, with a possible semi-final against Jose Mourinho’s Roma in store for the winners.
The Premier League side made it through to the second European quarter-final of their history by defeating French club Rennes 3-2 on aggregate on Thursday.
Brendan Rodgers’s team will be at home in the first leg on 7 April before going to the Netherlands for the return a week later.
PSV, who won the European Cup in 1988 and the UEFA Cup in 1978, crushed FC Copenhagen 8-4 on aggregate in the last 16 and currently sit second in the Dutch league, two points behind leaders Ajax.
The winners of that tie will face either Roma or Bodo/Glimt in the semi-finals, with the Italians meeting the Norwegians again after the sides also clashed in the group stage.
The Norwegian champions trounced Roma 6-1 at home and then drew 2-2 in Rome. They have since eliminated Celtic and AZ Alkmaar in the knockout stages.
The quarter-final draw also saw former Champions League winners Marseille paired with PAOK of Greece, while Feyenoord — another past European Cup winner — will play Slavia Prague.
The final of the new third-tier continental competition will be played in the Albanian capital, Tirana, on 25 May.
