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Europa League last-32 preview: Manchester United, Arsenal, Tottenham, Leicester and Rangers all bidding to reach the next round

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The Europa League resumes on Thursday as the round of 32 stage begins, with a whole host of Champions League teams joining the competition after finishing third in their respective groups.

Manchester United join the tournament, after being knocked out by PSG and RB Leipzig in the Champions League group stages, and have been drawn against Spanish side Real Sociedad.

Sociedad, who finished second in their Europa League group behind Napoli, are currently fifth in LaLiga, so could provide United with a difficult challenge.

Leicester City are joint-second with United in the Premier League and will also compete in the last 32 on Thursday when they take on Czech club Slavia Prague.

The Foxes eased through Group G, only losing one game, and will be hoping to push towards European glory alongside their fantastic domestic form.

Both north London clubs are still in the tournament after topping their respective groups.

Arsenal face the difficult task of taking on Benfica – with the Portuguese side three-time finalists of the competition three times but are yet to win it.

Elsewhere, Tottenham have the simpler fixture when they take on Austrian side Wolfsberger AC looking to build on their solid group stage showing.

They advanced from Group J with Antwerp, who Steven Gerrard’s Rangers side will face in their match.

The Scottish club are unbeaten in both the league and in Europe and will be expecting to make it to the last 16 in comfortable fashion.

Outside favourites to win the tournament are AC Milan, who take on Red Star Belgrade.

They dominated Group H alongside Lille, with both clubs losing only one game.

The French club were handed a tougher game being drawn against Ajax, who narrowly finished behind Liverpool and Atalanta in the Champions League.

Hoffenheim, who finished top of Group L without losing a single game and only conceding twice, have been rewarded with a visit to Norwegian club Molde FK who finished runners-up in Arsenal’s group.

Fellow German side Bayer Leverkusen also won their group, only losing once game.

They have been drawn against Young Boys, a Swiss team who finished second in Group A behind Roma.

Roma have been given a tough trip to SC Braga, who ended up second in Group G on goal difference behind Leicester.

Shakthar only just missed out on a spot in the Champions League knockout stages, even beating Real Madrid twice.

After dropping into the Europa League, the Ukrainian club have been drawn against Israeli outfit Maccabi Tel Aviv.

Austrian champions Red Bull Salzburg also narrowly missed out on a Champions League spot in the final round of fixtures, losing out in the final round of fixtures to Atletico Madrid.

They will now welcome another Spanish side in Villarreal who finished top of Group I without losing a single match.

Similarly, Olympiacos come into the competition after finishing behind Manchester City and Porto and have been handed a tricky match against PSV Eindhoven.

The last 32 is finished off by Napoli taking on Granada, Club Brugge visiting Dynamo Kyiv and Krasnodar welcoming Dinamo Zagreb.

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