Monday, December 13, 2021 at 07:52• Chris Meijer

The draw will be held on Monday afternoon for the first rounds of the knockout stages of the Champions League, Europa League and Conference League. Ajax will first be told who will be the opponent in the eighth final of the Champions League from 12.00 noon. Two hours later, Vitesse and PSV go into the tube for the draw of the intermediate round of the Conference League. The draws will be followed live via Voetbalzone.

Ajax finished as the winner of Group C and therefore goes into the tube with a seeded status. It means that from 12 noon in Nyon, Switzerland, Atlético Madrid, Benfica, Chelsea, Internazionale, Paris Saint-Germain, Red Bull Salzburg and Villarreal can come out as opponents. Ajax cannot be linked to Sporting Portugal, as the reigning champion of Portugal was already the opponent in the group stage.

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Furthermore, clubs from the same country cannot compete against each other, which means that the options for Chelsea, for example, are fairly limited. The first legs of the eighth finals of the Champions League will be played on 15, 16, 22 and 23 February. The returns will then follow on March 8, 9, 15 and 16.

An hour after the Champions League, the draw for the intermediate round of the Europa League follows. In it, the numbers three from the Champions League compete against the numbers two from the Europa League for a place in the eighth final. Because PSV lost 3-0 last Thursday on a visit to Real Sociedad, this draw has no Dutch club. However, the Rangers of Giovanni van Bronckhorst, Barcelona, ​​Borussia Dortmund and Atalanta are discussed here.

At 2 p.m. PSV and Vitesse go into the tube. AZ and Feyenoord became group winners in the Conference League, have therefore already qualified for the eighth finals and will only hear their next European opponent in February. For PSV, Bodø/Glimt, Maccabi Tel Aviv, PAOK Saloniki, Partizan Belgrade, Qarabag, Randers FC and Slavia Prague are the possible opponents.

It currently seems that UEFA will have a ball with the names of Tottenham Hotspur and Vitesse in the draw. The match between Tottenham and Stade Rennes cannot be made up after it was previously canceled due to a corona outbreak on the English side, forcing the European Football Association’s disciplinary committee to make a decision. UEFA rules state that the team that cannot play is awarded a regulation defeat.

If Vitesse and Tottenham go into the tube together, it is expected that they will not be able to hit both PSV and Leicester City. Then Celtic, Fenerbahçe, Olympique Marseille, FC Midtjylland, Rapid Wien and Sparta Prague remain as possible opponents. All clubs that enter the tube during this Conference League draw are also possible opponents of AZ and Feyenoord in the eighth final. The intermediate rounds in the Europa and Conference League will be played on February 17 and 24, 2022.