The draw for the round of 16 takes place on Friday at 11:00 GMT at the House of European Football in Nyon, Switzerland, where we will learn our opponents for the next hurdle on the road to Budapest.

The eight group-stage winners are seeded – including Real Sociedad from our pool – while the winners of the play-offs will be unseeded.

No two sides from the same territory can be drawn against each other in this round, so an all-Premier League clash with Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal is not immediately on the cards.

The other caveat of being an unseeded team is that we will play the first leg of the last-16 at home and the second leg away.

Prior to the play-offs, eight sides had already confirmed their place in the hat for the next round, in the form of Union Saint-Gilloise, Arsenal, Freiburg, Ferencvaros, Feyenoord, Real Betis, Real Sociedad and Fenerbahce.

These teams – other than Arsenal – represent our potential last-16 opponents as the seeded teams, including Real Sociedad as things stand, even though we were their last opponents in the competition during the group stage.

Joining us as play-off winners in the unseeded category are Juventus, Sporting, Rennes, Union Berlin, Bayer Leverkusen, Sevilla and Roma.

From the quarter-finals, all of the teams remaining in the competition may be drawn against one another in a free draw.

The Europa League round-of-16 first legs will be played on Thursday 9 March, while the second legs will be played a week later on 16 March.