The victory of Inter Milan and the defeat of the Catalans against Bayern Munich (0-3) ended Barcelona’s chances of qualifying for the Champions League, which will play the Europa League for the second year in a row, by failing to get past the group stage of the tournament. The culés assume the fiasco and they only have to turn the page to focus on the second European competition, which is not presumed easy either.
From now on, Barcelona will always play their matches on Thursdays in one of the two time slots: 6:45 p.m. or 9:00 p.m. They will be knockout rounds. The azulgranas still do not know their next rival, who will come out of the draw for the knockout round of the Europa League play-offs, which will be held next Monday, November 7 at 1:00 p.m.
The eight runners-up in the Europa League group stage will be seeded and the eight third-placed teams in the Champions League group stage are unseeded. In other words, Barcelona would face one of the group’s second-placed teams in a first round.
However, the teams that the Catalans would face are not yet known, because there are still two days to play. If the draw were to take place today, the Catalans could meet PSV, Manchester United, Rennes, Ludogorets, Midtjylland, Trabzonspor, Braga and Qarabag.
Clubs from the same federation cannot play against each other. Therefore, in this round, no Spanish team (Sevilla, Real Sociedad or Betis) could touch him.
The winners of the Europa League play-off tie advance to the round of 16. If Barcelona passes that new round, they would go to the quarterfinals. Then came the semi-finals and the grand final, which will be played at the Puskás Aréna in Budapest on May 31, 2023.
