Who Liverpool could face in Europa League as Xabi Alonso return becomes possible

Liverpool will move a step closer to finding out their next Europa League opponents on Thursday night.

The Reds are not in European action this week, having finished top of Group E in the group-stages. That ensured they automatically qualified for the round-of-16, which doesn’t take place until March.

However, the Europa League resumes without Liverpool on Thursday as the knockout round play-offs get underway. The eight Europa League group runners-up are in action against the eight teams that dropped out of the Champions League, having finished third in their groups, with the winners then progressing to the round-of-16.

The second leg of the knockout round play-offs take place on Thursday 22 February, with the round-of-16 draw then taking place at 11:00am GMT on Friday 23 February. This is when Liverpool will find out their next opponents in the competition, with such ties scheduled to take place on March 7 and March 14.

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With all Europa League group-winners seeded for such a draw, the Reds will be at home for the second leg of their round-of-16 tie. Teams from the same association cannot be drawn against each other, but you can end up facing the side that finished as runners-up in your Europa League group - should they successfully navigate their own knockout round play-off.

There are no English sides competing in this season’s play-offs, after Brighton & Hove Albion and West Ham United both progressed as group-winners, and Manchester United and Newcastle United were eliminated from Europe altogether after finishing bottom of their