Europa League: Chelsea to meet Malmö and Celtic get Valencia in last 32 – as it happened

Arsenal and Chelsea will fancy their chances of progressing in the Europa League after being drawn against Bate Borisov and Malmö respectively in the last-32 of the competition, while Celtic face a tricky tie with Valencia.

Unai Emery’s side must make the trip to Belarus to face Bate – who finished as runners-up in Chelsea’s group and boast former Arsenal midfielder Alex Hleb in their ranks – for the first leg on 14 February before the return at the Emirates Stadium a week later.

Maurizio Sarri’s side face a shorter journey to Sweden for a tie against Malmö, who are managed by the former Manchester city striker Uwe Rösler and finished ahead of Besiktas in their group but should not represent too difficult a task for Chelsea, who won this competition in 2013.

Celtic’s reward for reaching the last 32 ahead of the German side RB Leipzig will be another tough encounter with Valencia, who were one of the eight sides to drop into the Europa League after finishing third in their Champions League group behind Juventus and Manchester United. Marcelino García Toral’s side are struggling in 14th place in La Liga but Celtic will be wary of underestimating their opponents having been knocked out of the completion at this stage last season by Zenit St Petersburg.

Elsewhere, Lazio face Sevilla in what looks the outstanding tie of the round, with Galatasaray up against Benfica. Napoli, who finished behind Liverpool in their Champions League group, face FC Zürich.

And with that, I’m done. It’s been exceptional from first to last. Bye!

Arsenal played Borisov just last season, when they handed them a royal thrashing at the Emirates:

So Alex Hleb returns to Arsenal with BATE Borisov, while Chelsea head to Malmo, where they can try to work out what’s going on here:

And that concludes today’s Nyon-based ball-fondling spectacular.

The last tie to be drawn pits Galatasaray against Benfica!

Draw in full:
Viktoria Plzen v Dinamo Zagreb
Club Brugge v Red Bull Salzburg
Rapid Vienna v Internazionale
Slavia Prague v Genk
Graznodar v Bayer Leverkusen
Zurich v Napoli
Malmo v Chelsea
Shakhtar Donetsk v Eintracht Frankfurt
Celtic v Valencia
Stade Rennais v Real Betis
Olympiakos v Dynamo Kyiv
Lazio v Sevilla
Fenerbahce v Zenit
Sporting v Villarreal
BATE Borisov v Arsenal
Galatasaray v Benfica

BATE Borisov are next out of the fruit bowl, and they play Arsenal!

Running draw:
Viktoria Plzen v Dinamo Zagreb
Club Brugge v Red Bull Salzburg
Rapid Vienna v Internazionale
Slavia Prague v Genk
Graznodar v Bayer Leverkusen
Zurich v Napoli
Malmo v Chelsea
Shakhtar Donetsk v Eintracht Frankfurt
Celtic v Valencia
Stade Rennais v Real Betis
Olympiakos v Dynamo Kyiv
Lazio v Sevilla
Fenerbahce v Zenit
Sporting v Villarreal
BATE Borisov v Arsenal

Sporting come out next, and they can’t play two of the three remaining undrawn seeded teams, so are stuck with Villarreal.

Running draw:
Viktoria Plzen v Dinamo Zagreb
Club Brugge v Red Bull Salzburg
Rapid Vienna v Internazionale
Slavia Prague v Genk
Graznodar v Bayer Leverkusen
Zurich v Napoli
Malmo v Chelsea
Shakhtar Donetsk v Eintracht Frankfurt
Celtic v Valencia
Stade Rennais v Real Betis
Olympiakos v Dynamo Kyiv
Lazio v Sevilla
Fenerbahce v Zenit
Sporting v Villarreal

Fenerbahce emerge next, and they will play Zenit of St Petersburg.

Running draw:
Viktoria Plzen v Dinamo Zagreb
Club Brugge v Red Bull Salzburg
Rapid Vienna v Internazionale
Slavia Prague v Genk
Graznodar v Bayer Leverkusen
Zurich v Napoli
Malmo v Chelsea
Shakhtar Donetsk v Eintracht Frankfurt
Celtic v Valencia
Stade Rennais v Real Betis
Olympiakos v Dynamo Kyiv
Lazio v Sevilla
Fenerbahce v Zenit

Lazio will be up against Sevilla, fifth in Serie A against second in La Liga.

Running draw:
Viktoria Plzen v Dinamo Zagreb
Club Brugge v Red Bull Salzburg
Rapid Vienna v Internazionale
Slavia Prague v Genk
Graznodar v Bayer Leverkusen
Zurich v Napoli
Malmo v Chelsea
Shakhtar Donetsk v Eintracht Frankfurt
Celtic v Valencia
Stade Rennais v Real Betis
Olympiakos v Dynamo Kyiv
Lazio v Sevilla

Olympiakos will play Dynamo Kyiv!

Running draw:
Viktoria Plzen v Dinamo Zagreb
Club Brugge v Red Bull Salzburg
Rapid Vienna v Internazionale
Slavia Prague v Genk
Graznodar v Bayer Leverkusen
Zurich v Napoli
Malmo v Chelsea
Shakhtar Donetsk v Eintracht Frankfurt
Celtic v Valencia
Stade Rennais v Real Betis
Olympiakos v Dynamo Kyiv

Next up is a France v Spain spectacular:

Running draw:
Viktoria Plzen v Dinamo Zagreb
Club Brugge v Red Bull Salzburg
Rapid Vienna v Internazionale
Slavia Prague v Genk
Graznodar v Bayer Leverkusen
Zurich v Napoli
Malmo v Chelsea
Shakhtar Donetsk v Eintracht Frankfurt
Celtic v Valencia
Stade Rennais v Real Betis

Now it’s Celtic’s turn! And they’re going to play Valencia, which is a pretty tough gig even if they are just 14th in La Liga at present.

Running draw:
Viktoria Plzen v Dinamo Zagreb
Club Brugge v Red Bull Salzburg
Rapid Vienna v Internazionale
Slavia Prague v Genk
Graznodar v Bayer Leverkusen
Zurich v Napoli
Malmo v Chelsea
Shakhtar Donetsk v Eintracht Frankfurt
Celtic v Valencia

The draw is speeding up, but it’s taking its time over it. It is getting faster slowly. Shakhtar Donetsk are going to play Eintracht Frankfurt.

Running draw:
Viktoria Plzen v Dinamo Zagreb
Club Brugge v Red Bull Salzburg
Rapid Vienna v Internazionale
Slavia Prague v Genk
Graznodar v Bayer Leverkusen
Zurich v Napoli
Malmo v Chelsea
Shakhtar Donetsk v Eintracht Frankfurt

Now out comes Malmo. The final vowel sound in Malmo is one of the great sounds in human speech. That’s a Champions League vowel right there. And happily we’ll be hearing a lot more of it, as they’ll be playing Chelsea!

Running draw:
Viktoria Plzen v Dinamo Zagreb
Club Brugge v Red Bull Salzburg
Rapid Vienna v Internazionale
Slavia Prague v Genk
Graznodar v Bayer Leverkusen
Zurich v Napoli
Malmo v Chelsea

It’s gradually speeding up as the balls slowly drop. Zurich are drawn to play Napoli.

Running draw:
Viktoria Plzen v Dinamo Zagreb
Club Brugge v Red Bull Salzburg
Rapid Vienna v Internazionale
Slavia Prague v Genk
Graznodar v Bayer Leverkusen
Zurich v Napoli

Graznodar are next out of the bowl, and they are paired with Bayer Leverkusen.

Running draw:
Viktoria Plzen v Dinamo Zagreb
Club Brugge v Red Bull Salzburg
Rapid Vienna v Internazionale
Slavia Prague v Genk
Graznodar v Bayer Leverkusen

This draw is very much slower, because of the sheer number of balls involved. Slavia Prague is next, and Carvalho picks out Genk as their opponents.

Running draw:
Viktoria Plzen v Dinamo Zagreb
Club Brugge v Red Bull Salzburg
Rapid Vienna v Internazionale
Slavia Prague v Genk

Sasic grabs Rapid Vienna’s ball, and they are drawn to face Internazionale.

Running draw:
Viktoria Plzen v Dinamo Zagreb
Club Brugge v Red Bull Salzburg
Rapid Vienna v Internazionale

Next out comes Club Brugge, who will play Salzburg.

Running draw:
Viktoria Plzen v Dinamo Zagreb
Club Brugge v Red Bull Salzburg

Viktoria Plzen is first out of the hat, and they get a lot of balls in their bowl. The one picked out contains the name of Dinamo Zagreb.

Running draw:
Viktoria Plzen v Dinamo Zagreb

The draw is on!

Before we start, Uefa have decided which Champions League games will be played when. More detail here:

I do like the awkward Uefa boffin who comes on to explain the regulations. He reminds me a bit of Heinz Wolff, only without the bow tie or the charisma.

And Carvalho is asked about the 2003 final, which he won with Porto. “It was unbelievable, the final in Sevilla,” he says. “Also for Porto it was important. For me it was special, it was my first big trophy.”

Sasic is asked how she thinks the German clubs can do. “I’m really excited to see how far they can come but I think they can come quite far,” she says.

And the second is Ricardo Carvalho, of Porto, Chelsea and Real Madrid fame.

The first celebrity ball-plucker is Celia Sasic, the retired German striker.

Before the fun starts, here’s a news story on the Champions League draw:

The Europa League draw has started! Or at least, the dramatically-soundtracked group-stage highlights package is being played.

The draw can be watched live (presumably location-depending) here:

Or (wherever you are, I expect) here.

Some more reaction to the Champions League draw. Some of you may require some translation here: Totti says that given the other possible opponents you could say that Roma got a lucky draw, but Porto won’t be underestimated, they’re a strong team who had an exceptional group stage.

Awkward photo opportunity ahoy! It’s just as well it says “party” on a big screen behind these chaps, because there’s no way you’d have known that’s what was happening otherwise.

Hello world!

The Champions League draw has happened, and now it’s time to turn our attention to Europe’s other cup. There’s no time for messing about here, with the draw but 20 minutes or so away, so here’s the key information:

Seeded teams: Arsenal, Benfica*, Betis, Chelsea, Dinamo Zagreb, Dynamo Kyiv, Frankfurt, Genk, Internazionale*, Leverkusen, Napoli*, Salzburg, Sevilla, Valencia*, Villarreal, Zenit St Petersburg

Unseeded teams: Bate Borisov, Celtic, Club Brugge*, Fenerbahçe, Galatasaray*, Krasnodar, Lazio, Malmö, Olympiacos, Rapid Wien, Rennes, Slavia Praha, Sporting CP, Shakhtar Donetsk*, Viktoria Plzeň*, Zürich

*transferred from UEFA Champions League

Here’s the relevant bit of the competition regulations:

17.01 In the round of 32, the 24 clubs that qualify from the group stage are joined by the 8 clubs that finish the Uefa Champions League group stage in third place (see Paragraph 3.06).

17.02 The round of 32 pairings are determined by means of a draw in accordance with the following principles:

a. Clubs from the same association cannot be drawn against each other.

b. The 12 Uefa Europa League group-winners and the 4 best third-placed teams from the Uefa Champions League group stage are drawn against the 12 Uefa Europa League group runners-up and the remaining third-placed teams from the Uefa Champions League group stage.

c. The winners and runners-up of the same group cannot be drawn against each other.

d. The Uefa Europa League group-winners and the four best third-placed teams from the Uefa Champions League group stage play the return leg at home.

17.03 The 16 winners of the round of 32 contest the round of 16, for which the pairings are determined by means of a draw.

So, in brief:

• No team can play a club from their group or their own association; any other restrictions will be announced ahead of the draw.
• Seeded teams (all the group winners and the top four third-place Champions League teams) will be away in the round of 32 first legs on 14 February and at home in the return matches a week later (any changes to be confirmed after the draw).

Right, brace yourself for some more top-notch ball-pluckin’ fun!