Upbeat Barca get Galatasaray in Europa League

LONDON • Barcelona will face Turkish side Galatasaray in the last 16 of the Europa League, while six-time champions Sevilla will play West Ham after the draw yesterday.

The Catalan giants, who hammered Napoli 4-2 on Thursday for a 5-3 aggregate win in the knockout stage play-offs, will face a struggling Galatasaray team who are 13th in their domestic league.

Barca are playing in European football's second-tier competition for the first time since 2004, following their Champions League group-stage exit earlier this season.

While not ideal, winning the Europa League grants passage to next season's Champions League and that, along with the trophy, is what coach Xavi Hernandez is targeting.

The Barca great was pleased with the dynamism shown in Naples, where his side punished the Italian outfit via strikes from Jordi Alba, Frenkie de Jong, Gerard Pique and latest signing Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

"We dominated for 90 minutes and that's the first time we've done that since I became coach," Xavi said.

"It's a win over a team which I repeat is a Champions League-level team, one which does not concede many goals and is fighting for the league title."

Napoli are third in Serie A, just two points off leaders AC Milan (56). Matteo Politano, scorer of one of Napoli's two consolation goals, tipped Barca to win the tournament for the first time.

The five-time European Cup winners have reached the semi-finals of the Uefa Cup, the Europa League's predecessor, four times but failed to progress further.

"We made life difficult for ourselves with that awful start... You need to press Barcelona together as a team, otherwise you will be in trouble as they will just pass it around you," Politano said.

West Ham, another team seeking their maiden title in Europe, have a tough task at hand against Sevilla, who are second in La Liga and famously dubbed the Europa League specialists.

In the other fixtures, Scottish champions Rangers, who stunned Borussia Dortmund 6-4 on aggregate in the play-offs, will play Red Star Belgrade while Braga are up against Monaco.

Fellow Portuguese club Porto will meet Lyon, Atalanta will take on Bayer Leverkusen and Real Betis will face Eintracht Frankfurt.

RB Leipzig will face Russian side Spartak Moscow, who will play their home tie at a neutral venue, according to an announcement by Uefa.

The first legs of the last-16 ties will be played on March 10 and the second legs a week later.

In the Europa Conference League, Uefa's third-tier competition, Leicester City were drawn against Rennes, who finished above Tottenham in the group stage, in the round of 16.

The Foxes beat Danish side Randers 3-1 away on Thursday to complete a 7-2 aggregate win.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE