This is how the Europa League remains: Barça inside, Sevilla and Betis outside

If the Premier clubs, along with Bayern, are the great rivals to avoid in the Champions League for the Spanish teams, in the Europa League Barcelona is the great coconut of the draw for the quarterfinals. Xavi’s team has been left with the label of great favorite to lift the title, whose final will be held on May 18 at the Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán.

Among the other seven qualified teams, Atalanta and Leipzig are the two most dangerous teams. Both the Bergamo team and the Red Bull team have qualified for the Champions League for three consecutive seasons and have emerged as two of the most important teams in Serie A and the Bundesliga, respectively, in recent years. Of course, the two teams have lowered the level compared to previous courses and have lost some of their stars, such as Papu Gómez in the case of Atalanta, now in Seville, and Upamecano and Sabitzer in Leipzig, both in the Bayern, like Julian Nagelsmann, his former coach. West Ham, who eliminated Sevilla and aspires to finish in the top four of the Premier League, will also be a tough rival.

The other classified teams are Lyon, Rangers, Braga and Eintracht, who eliminated Betis yesterday. Among these four teams, the weakest, predictably, is Rangers, whose successes in the Scottish league do not seem to be enough to compete at the level demanded by the major European competitions at this point. Lyon, who unexpectedly eliminated Porto, aspires to surprise, but the reality is that the French team is a very irregular team and is tenth in Ligue 1. For its part, Braga is fourth in the Portuguese league and Eintracht, ninth in the Bundesliga.

The draw

The draw, completely pure, will be held this Friday at the House of Football, in Nyon, at 1:30 p.m., and in addition to deciding which will be the quarterfinal matches, the rest of the draw will also be drawn until reaching the end of May 18, as well as which teams will play the second leg at home. The first legs of the quarterfinals will be played on Thursday, April 7, and the returns a week later, on the 14th. The semifinals will be played on April 28 (first legs) and May 5 (returns).