Big Hammers day on Friday

Friday is a big day for the Irons as the draw for the round of 16 is held at the House of European Football in Nyon, Switzerland.

With the play-off round first legs having taken place on Thursday 17 February the Irons and seven other Europa League group-stage group winners now have a clearer idea of who they could face  but ahead of the eight play-off round second-leg ties are played on Thursday..

The eight UEFA Europa League group winners – ourselves, Lyon, Monaco, Spartak Moscow, Eintracht Frankfurt, Galatasaray, FK Crvena zvezda and Bayer Leverkusen – are awaiting the eight winners from the play-off round.

None of the eight ties have yet been settled and the official site has published a reminder of the results which were as follows:

Sevilla (ESP) 3-1 GNK Dinamo Zagreb (CRO)
Atalanta (ITA) 2-1 Olympiacos (GRE)
RB Leipzig (GER) 2-2 Real Sociedad (ESP)
Barcelona (ESP) 1-1 Napoli (ITA)
Zenit (RUS) 2-3 Real Betis (ESP)
Borussia Dortmund (GER) 2-4 Rangers (SCO)
Sheriff (MDA) 2-0 Braga (POR)
Porto (POR) 2-1 Lazio (ITA)

There are no away goals involved in the outcome  so all things are possible as the trailing teams go into the second games.

As things stand we would fancy Sevilla, Olympiacos, RC Keipzig, Napoli, Rangers, Braga, Real Betis and Lazio to become the winners of those matches and although Tomas Soucek fancies a next round game against Rangers we’d be much happier playing the likes of Braga or Pellegrini’s Real Beti.

Barcelona coming from a goal down to draw 1-1 with Italian side Napoli at the Camp Nou. Former Manchester City forward Ferran Torres scored from the penalty spot on the hour-mark after Poland midfielder Piotr Zieliński had fired the Neapolitan.

Despite the current slump in Hammers form this competition offers a different type of game to what we are accustomed to in the Premier League and we still fancy the Hammers chances.

However, to achieve that Champions League dream it looks very much as though we need to win this competition to do so.

 

About Hugh5outhon1895

Hugh Southon is a lifelong Iron and the founding editor of ClaretandHugh. He is a national newspaper journalist of many years experience and was Bobby Moore's 'ghost' writer during the great man's lifetime. He describes ClaretandHugh as "the Hammers daily newspaper!" Follow on Twitter @hughsouthon