UEFA Europa League: Lyon Face Villarreal, Arsenal Up Against Östersund

Lyon has been drawn to face Villarreal in the First leg of the UEFA Europa League round of 32. The pair meets for the first time in the competition history.

The draw took place on Monday at UEFA’s headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.

Arsenal will travel to Sweden to play Östersund FK who qualified from a group featuring Athletic Bilbao and Hertha Berlin, finishing level on 11 points with Bilbao.

“Fantastic draw! I wanted to get a really big team. I think it’s really cool to be going home to England and meeting one of the best teams in the Premier League. Now we are really underdogs.” Östersund coach, Graham Peter said on meeting Arsenal.

Gatuso’s AC Milan will be hoping to overturn a poor season start as they travel to Bulgaria to play PFC Ludogorets Razgrad.

Celtic, who finished third in their Champions League group, will host the Russian club in the first leg.

Meanwhile, 2010 winners Atletico Madrid will play FC Copenhagen, Napoli face RB Leipzig and German club Borussia Dortmund play Italian side Atalanta, who defeated Everton twice in the group stage.

The first leg will be played on 15th of February, while the return legs will be played on 22 February 2018.

The Full Draw:

Dortmund VS Atalanta

Nice VS Lokomotiv Moskva

København VS Atlético

Spartak Moskva VS Athletic

AEK VS Dynamo Kyiv

Celtic VS Zenith

Napoli VS Leipzig

Crvena zvezda VS CSKA Moskva

Lyon VS Villarreal

Real Sociedad VS Salzburg

Partizan VS Plzeň

FCSB VS Lazio

Ludogorets VS AC Milan

Astana VS Sporting CP

Östersund FK VS Arsenal

Marseille VS Braga

Stade de Lyon, a venue for UEFA EURO 2016 and the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup, will stage the 2018 UEFA Europa League final.