AC Milan booked their place in the Europa League quarter-final draw last night by beating Slavia Praha 3-1 away from home to secure a 7-3 aggregate win overall.
It was deja vu from the first leg as a sending off for Slavia inside the opening half an hour heavily conditioned the outcome, with Holes given his marching orders after a VAR review following a stamp on Davide Calabria’s ankle.
Just like back in Italy, Milan then scored three goals before half-time. The first came from Christian Pulisic after Rafael Leao’s set-up, then Ruben Loftus-Cheek tapped home a Theo Hernandez cross and finally Leao got his own goal which was the pick of the bunch.
Jurasék did get one back for the home side late on, but the Rossoneri made it quite a routine evening in the end which is all that they really could have hoped for. It means, of course, that Stefano Pioli’s side are in the hat for the next round.
Below is everything you need to know ahead of the draw today.
Date and time
The Europa League quarter-final, semi-final and final draws take place at UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, on Friday 15 March.
The draw ceremony begins at 13:00 CET and it will be streamed on the UEFA website, with the first ball likely to be picked out around ten-past or quarter-past due to the lengthy introductions.
The possible opponents
Below are the eight teams that progressed through the Europa League round of 16:
Atalanta (ITA)
Roma (ITA)
Leverkusen (GER)
Liverpool (ENG)
Benfica (POR)
Milan (ITA)
Marseille (FRA)
West Ham (ENG)
At this stage, anyone can draw anyone because there is no seeding system as there was for the play-offs and quarter-finals, and there is no country protection so clubs can face opposition from the same league.
How the draws work
The first bit is rather straightforward. The eight balls containing the names of the quarter-finalists are placed in a large bowl then drawn out one by one.
The first team drawn plays its first match at home, against the second team drawn. The procedure is repeated with the remaining balls in the bowl until everyone has an opponent.
For the semi-final draw, four balls containing slips of paper marked ‘Winners of quarter-final 1’ to ‘Winners of quarter-final 4’ are placed in a large bowl and shuffled then drawn out.
Essentially, Milan will then know their full path to the final in Dublin. Speaking of which, a third draw is then held to determine the ‘home’ side in the final.
When are the quarter-final and semi-final games played?
Quarter-final first legs: 11 April
Quarter-final second legs: 18 April
Semi-final first legs: 2 May
Semi-final second legs: 9 May
Final: 22 May
