Europa League playoffs draw: Date, teams qualified, seeds, rules for Round of 16 qualifiers

The Europa League may be Europe's secondary club competition after the lucrative UEFA Champions League, but the entertainment value should improve and the drama should increase with the changes made to the 2021-22 tournament that make it more exclusive and all-around competitive.

The group stage was reduced from 48 teams to 32, and the eight Champions League third-place teams that typically just walked into the Europa League's knockouts as a sort of consolation prize will now have to prove they belong through playoff matches. Gone is the inflated Round of 32 that allotted slots for those Champions League underachievers to drop in — the Europa League knockouts will start with the Round of 16 and they're only open to those that qualify via playoff.

That playoff draw is coming up on Monday, Dec. 13. Here's how it works and which teams are involved.

In the past, the Champions League third-place teams dropped into the Europa League knockouts because they were deemed to be deserving based on the quality and credentials that allowed them to qualify for Europe's premier competition in the first place. Now they'll have to earn their spot in the Europa League knockout rounds.

Those eight Champions League teams will be drawn against the eight Europa League group runners-up in playoff series that will be played over two legs on Feb. 17 and Feb. 24. The team with the most goals in each series will officially clinch a berth into the Round of 16.

Only eight names from the 16 above will advance from the playoffs to the Round of 16, where they will meet the Europa League group winners. Here are those eight clubs that will be kicking back and watching the playoffs unfold in anticipation of their opponents:

When is the Europa League playoff draw?

The Europa League knockout playoff draw will be held on Dec. 13 at 6 a.m. ET from the UEFA headquarters in Switzerland. It will be streamed by UEFA.com and available to U.S. fans to stream on Paramount+.

The eight Europa League group runners-up (Pot 1 above) will be seeded for purposes of the draw. They will make up one pot, while the other pot will contain the third-place group finishers from the UEFA Champions League.

The two key details to remember for this playoff draw:
• Teams from the same country cannot be drawn against one another (see table below);
• The Europa League group runners-up (i.e. seeded teams) will host the second leg of each playoff series. This is perceived to be an advantage because, if an extra-time session or penalty-kick shootout is needed after Leg 2, it would happen on home soil.

Between the eight Europa League group runners-up and the eight Champions League third-place teams, there will be a total of 16 teams involved in the knockout round playoffs.

Nine of those 16 spots are already accounted for. Here's the breakdown by country:

The two legs of the Europa League knockout round playoffs will be played over two legs on Feb. 17 and Feb. 24.

The eight teams left standing after the playoffs will participate in the Europa League Round of 16 draw on Feb. 25. It will be the quarterfinal draw on March 18 that will determine the rest of the bracket through to the final in Sevilla on May 18.

We'll learn the Round of 16 matchups on Feb. 25, the day after the conclusion of the knockout playoffs. And after a three-month wait, the eight Europa League group winners will finally be back in action, taking on the eight knockout round playoff survivors.

Who will win the UEFA Europa League 2021-22?

As the tournament progresses, the oddsmakers will be constantly adjusting the future prices for each team when it comes to winning the Europa League.

Here are the latest odds courtesy of U.S.-based DraftKings (asterisk denotes teams that have already qualified for the Round of 16). Odds for the Champions League third-place teams are not yet available:

The 2021-2022 edition of the UEFA Europa League features a tweaked knockout-round format.

As usual, the tournament started out with a group stage (eight groups of four teams each), and only the top two finishers in each group advance: Group winners advance directly to the Round of 16 and runners-up head to knockout-round playoffs against Champions League third-place teams for the right to play in the Round of 16. Gone is the Round of 32 of past years.

Two-leg, aggregate-goal knockout rounds are played the entire way through to the single game final that will be held in Sevilla, Spain, on May 18, 2022.

No away goals tiebreaker in Europa League

Here's that twist: For the first time since 1965, there will be no away goals tiebreaker used in any of the knockout rounds of UEFA competitions, including the Europa League, after it was abolished in June 2021.

Series that are tied on aggregate goals after the conclusion of the second leg will go straight to extra time and, if necessary, a penalty-kick shootout.

How to watch the UEFA Europa League

The 2021-22 UEFA Europa League is carried in the United States by CBS (English) and Univision (Spanish) across a number of TV and streaming platforms.

CBS Sports has live pregame, halftime and postgame studio shows, which air on CBS Sports Network and stream on Paramount+. Also back this year is the RedZone-like whip-around show called "The Golazo Show," also on CBS Sports Network and Paramount+, with all the goals and best chances from the concurrent group stage matches.

Univision mirrors that coverage with its own pregame and postgame shows. Its whip-around show is called "Zona Fútbol."

Nearly every Europa League match is available to be streamed on fuboTV, which offers a free seven-day trial to new subscribers. The streaming platform carries all the Univision family of channels: Univision, TUDN, UniMas, Galavision and TUDNxtra.

Univision will stream select matches on its ad-supported platform PrendeTV, which is available for free across mobile and connected TV devices, Amazon Fire TV, Apple (iOS and tvOS), Google (Android phones and TV devices), Roku, and via the web on Prende.tv.