MANCHESTER UNITED will face a former manager and Arsenal landed a horror tie in our simulated Europa League quarter-final draw.
SunSport put the eight pairs of teams facing off in last-16 action tonight into a virtual hat before the real deal in Nyon tomorrow.
And the randomised selections threw up a bumper set of fixtures.
The first pair of teams to come out were Manchester United or Real Betis – and they were pitted against Roma or Real Sociedad.
With the Red Devils winning 4-1 in the first leg at Old Trafford, they will be confident of progressing to the quarters.
And there they would face another Spanish side… or Jose Mourinho’s Roma in a repeat of the 2021 Europa League semi-final United prevailed from 8-5 on aggregate.
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The Italians won the first leg against Sociedad 2-0 and the thrilling draw would see a return for the Special One to Old Trafford in the quarters.
Mourinho has ten wins, nine draws and five defeats in his 24 matches as a manager against United with Porto, Chelsea, Inter Milan, Real Madrid and Tottenham.
His most recent victory was Spurs’ 6-1 thumping at Old Trafford in October 2020 but the Red Devils won 3-1 in North London later in the season.
Mourinho famously won the Europa League with United in 2017 and completed his Uefa treble as Roma lifted the Conference League last year.
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Incredibly, the next tie drawn was Juventus or Freiburg against Arsenal or Sporting.
Juve hold a slender 1-0 advantage from the first leg while Arsenal drew 2-2 in Lisbon a week ago.
The two European heavyweights have only met six times with Arsenal claiming three wins.
Their latest competitive clash was way back in the 2006 Champions League quarter-finals, with the Gunners winning 2-0 en route to the final.
Juventus have reached two Champions League finals of their own since then, in 2015 and 2017, but dropped down to the Europa League after finishing third in their group behind PSG and Benfica this term.
The third quarter-final saw Sevilla or Fenerbahce take on Bayer Leverkusen or Ferencvaros.
Sevilla and Bayer both lead 2-0 from the first leg.
And the final tie produced Shakhtar Donetsk or Feyenoord against Union Berlin or Union Saint-Gilloise, with the pairs locked at 1-1 and 3-3 respectively.
The good news for United and Arsenal fans, if they get through their quarter-finals in our simulated draw, is that they would avoid each other in the semis and therefore could only meet in May’s Budapest final.
Unlike in the last-16 draw, there are no seedings in the quarter-finals and clubs from the same country can be drawn against each other, meaning there are no restrictions at all.
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Europa League quarter-final teams: Arsenal or Sporting, Man Utd or Real Betis, Shakhtar Donetsk or Feyenoord, Roma or Real Sociedad, Bayer Leverkusen or Ferencvaros, Juventus or Freiburg, Sevilla or Fenerbahce, Union Berlin or Union Saint-Gilloise.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
