Europa League 2012-What Should We Expect?
The final will be in Bucharest.
We're in the Round of 32, the draw for that and the Last 16 is on 16th December.
The Last 32 legs are the 16th and 23rd of February(not including permutations such as Aris/PAOK clash last season).
The Last 16 legs are the 8th and 15th of March, should we progress.
The 12 group winners + the 4 best placed 3rd placed teams in the Champions League are seeded, the runners-up and other 4 CL teams are not.
So we are seeded for the draw, the final round of group games are next week but here's how it's looking.
Seeded:
Manchester City
Manchester United
Olympiacos
Valencia
Standard Liege
PSV Eindhoven
Sporting CP
Athletic Bilbao
Schalke 04
Metalist Kharkiv
FC Twente
Unseeded:
FC Porto
AFC Ajax
Trabzonspor
Viktoria Plzen
Hannover 96
Legia Warsaw.
PAOK, Stoke, Braga, Atletico Madrid, RSC Anderlecht and Lokomotiv Moskva have all qualified but their final position isn't determined.
In Group A it's likely Rubin Kazan will qualify ahead of Spurs, Group D is between Vaslui and Lazio, Group E between Besiktas and our nemesis Dynamo Kyiv, Group F is between Salzburg and PSG(would be interesting), Group G is between AZ Alkmaar and Austria Wien, Group G is between Club Brugge and Birmingham, Group I between Udinese and Celtic, Group J is tight between Maccabi Haifa, Steaua Bucharest & AEK Larnaca and Group K is between Fulham and Wisla Krakow.
I should also add that country protection rules apply for the Round of 32 only, so if Birmingham, Fulham, Stoke and/or Spurs qualify 2nd and are unseeded we can't draw them for the Last 32.
