The group stage of the UEFA Europa League, the number two organization of European football at the club level, has been completed. In the group stage, West Ham, Brighton Hove Albion, Rangers, Atalanta, Liverpool, Villarreal, Slavia Prague and Bayer Leverkusen finished their groups as leaders and advanced directly to the round of 16.
The teams that finished second in the organization will face the teams that finished their groups in third place in the UEFA Champions League qualifying round competitions.
The UEFA Europa League qualifying round play-off draw will be held on Monday, December 18, at the UEFA Headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.
Galatasaray, which finished third in Group A in the Champions League and made its way to the Europa League, will also take part in the draw.
In the draw, the eight teams that finished second in the Europa League group stage will be seeded, while the eight teams that finished third in the Champions League group stage will not be seeded.
The teams that will take part in the UEFA Europa League qualifying round play-off draw are as follows:
Seeded teams:
Freiburg (Germany)
Marseille (France)
Rennes (France)
Rome (Italy)
Karabakh (Azerbaijan)
Sparta Prague (Czechia)
Sporting CP (Portugal)
Toulouse (France)
Unseeded teams:
Benfica (Portugal)
Braga (Portugal)
Feyenoord (Netherlands)
Galatasaray (Türkiye)
Lens (France)
Milan (Italy)
Shakhtar Donetsk (Ukraine)
Young Boys (Switzerland)
Teams from the same country will not be able to match each other in the draw. In the matches that will be played over two legs, the seeded teams will be at their home fields in the second legs. The first matches will be played on February 15, and the rematches will be played on February 22.
The teams that outperform their opponents in the matches will advance to the next round. The draw for the last 16 rounds of the UEFA Europa League will be held on February 23.