Leicester Mercury

Who could City face in knockout stage?

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LEICESTER City wrapped up the Europa League group stage on Thursday with a victory over AEK Athens, securing top spot in Group G.

Now, all eyes will turn to the knockout stage draw for the round of 32 on Monday at noon, live from Uefa’s headquarte­rs in Nyon, Switzerlan­d.

The last 32 is made up of the 12 group winners and 12 group runners-up from the Europa League pools, plus the eight third-placed clubs from the Champions League groups.

The Europa League group winners and the best four sides transferri­ng from the Champions League, sorted by points total, are seeded, with the other 16 unseeded.

City’s 2-0 victory over AEK Athens on Thursday guaranteed they topped

Group G, which means they are seeded for the draw and will face one of the unseeded teams in a two-legged game.

Seeded teams: AC Milan, Ajax, Arsenal, Bayer Leverkusen, Club Brugge, Dinamo Zagreb, Hoffenheim, Leicester City, Manchester United,

Napoli, PSV Eindhoven, Shakhtar Donetsk, Rangers, Roma, Tottenham, Villarreal

Unseeded teams: Benfica, Sporting Braga, Dynamo Kiev, Granada, Krasnodar, Lille, Maccabi Tel-Aviv, Molde, Olympiacos, RB Salzburg, Real Sociedad, Red Star Belgrade, Royal Antwerp, Slavia Prague, Wolfsberge­r, Young Boys

Teams cannot draw sides from their own group or their own nation, so City cannot face Braga in the last 32.

They can meet the Portuguese team, plus Arsenal, Manchester United and Tottenham in the last 16 though.

As a seeded team, City will play the second leg at home. The first legs take place on Thursday, February 18, with the second legs a week later on Thursday, February 25.

As has been the case with the group games, some ties will kick off at 5.55pm, and some at 8pm.

The draw for the last 16 will then take place on Friday, February 26.

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 ??  ?? POSSIBLE OPPONENTS: Real Sociedad (dark shirts) playing Napoli
POSSIBLE OPPONENTS: Real Sociedad (dark shirts) playing Napoli

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