Manchester United will head into Friday’s Europa League draw as the only English team remaining in the competition.
United booked their place in the last eight with a 5-1 aggregate win over Real Betis, after Marcus Rashford’s winner secured the Red Devils a 1-0 win in the second leg in Spain on Thursday night.
Premier League leaders Arsenal failed to join them after they were beaten 5-3 on penalties by Sporting Lisbon, after their round of 16 tie had ended 3-3 after extra-time.
The draw for Europa League quarter-finals will take place on Friday from around 12pm at UEFA’s headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.
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It will be followed by a draw for the two semi-finals, and another to determine which side of the draw will produce the ‘home team’ for the final, which will take place in Budapest.
From the quarter-final stage onwards, teams from the same country can be drawn against each other, as can two sides that played one another in the group stage.
With all that in mind, we decided to run the quarter-final draw through a simulator – and it produced some mouth-watering ties.
Manchester United vs Roma
In our simulator, United managed to avoid Juventus but were handed a tricky tie against another Italian club, Roma.
The Serie A club booked their place in the last eight with a 2-0 aggregate win over Real Sociedad, who beat United in the group stage of this year’s competition.
Roma are currently managed by former United manager Jose Mourinho and there is plenty of history between the two teams, with the Italian club famously losing 7-1 at Old Trafford in the Champions League in 2007.
Sevilla vs Bayer Leverkusen
Seville have won the Europa League more than any other club, with the Spanish club triumphing on six occasions.
They reached the quarter-finals of this year’s competition with a hard-fought 2-1 aggregate win over Turkish side Fenerbahce.
In our simulator, they have been drawn against Bayer Leverkusen, who are managed by former Liverpool and Real Madrid midfielder Xabi Alonso.
The Bundesliga club made it through to the last eight with a routine 4-0 aggregate win over Ferencvaros.
Juventus vs Feyenoord
Juventus are one of the favourites to win this year’s competition, with only Manchester United deemed more likely by the bookmakers.
The Italian giants made it through the last eight with a comfortable 3-0 aggregate win over German side Freiburg.
In our simulated draw, they face a much tougher test in the next round against Dutch club Feyenoord, who thrashed Shakhtar Donetsk 8-2 on aggregate in the last 16.
Sporting vs Royale Union Saint-Gilloise
In our draw, Sporting have been rewarded for their win over Arsenal with a tie against Royale Union Saint-Gilloise.
The unfancied Belgian side are now the tournament outsiders, with bookmakers offering as much as 35/1 for them to go on and win the whole tournament.
But they should not be underestimated – having beaten high-flying Bundesliga club Union Berlin 6-3 on aggregate, with the Belgian side winning 3-0 in the second leg at home on Thursday night.
