Manchester United and Tottenham can now cast their minds forward to the Europa League last-16 after breezing through to the knockout rounds on Thursday evening.
Each team’s prospective path to the final chopped and changed on a night when all 36 sides in the competition played at the same time. Crucially, both Spurs and the Red Devils finished well inside the top eight of the league phase and will avoid a taxing two-legged play-off tie in February.
United finished third in the standings and were the only unbeaten team, despite their inconsistent form on the whole this season. They rounded things off with a 2-0 win at FCSB in Bucharest courtesy of second-half goals from Diogo Dalot and Kobbie Mainoo.
Spurs, meanwhile, secured fourth place with a record of five wins, two draws and a defeat. Ange Postecoglou‘s side finished the league phase with a 3-0 win at home to Swedish side Elfsborg. Dane Scarlett, Mikey Moore and debutant Oyindamola Ajayi scored the goals.
As the third and fourth-place teams, United and Spurs now know they will face either Real Sociedad, Galatasaray, AZ Alkmaar or FC Midtjylland in the last-16.
The play-off draw will take place on Friday, but neither the Red Devils nor Tottenham will learn the exact identity of their last-16 opponents until the play-offs are completed on February 21.
Sociedad were middle of the road during the league phase, and they have been exactly that in La Liga this season, with eight wins leaving them ninth in the table. Their games have generally been low-scoring affairs, both domestically and in Europe.
Galatasaray are a more frightening proposition. With the likes of Victor Osimhen up front, Dries Mertens lurking behind him and Davinson Sanchez at the back, their squad is packed full of recognisable players, and they are top of the Turkish Super Lig with an unbeaten record after 20 games.
Even Jose Mourinho, manager of their bitter rivals Fenerbahce, is unable to keep up.
On paper, AZ would be a favourable outcome for both Premier League sides. They only won three of their eight league phase games, which was enough to finish 19th, and they are sixth in the Dutch Eredivisie.
And finally, Danish side Midtjylland would go into clashes with Spurs or United as massive underdogs. They only scored nine goals in eight league phase games, finishing 20th. And they are currently second in the Danish Superliga behind FC Copenhagen.
