West Ham United are safely through directly to the UEFA Europa League round of 16, having topped Group A with five wins from our six ties.
The Irons clinched top spot with a 2-0 home win over SC Freiburg of Germany at London Stadium on Thursday evening, becoming the sixth English club to top a European group in three consecutive seasons in the process, following Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City and Manchester United.
And Liverpool will be one of seven other clubs who can sit back and watch the knockout round play-off after they themselves topped Group E to take their place in the round of 16, which will be played on Thursday 7 March and Thursday 14 March 2024.
The six other group winners who West Ham will definitely not face in that round of 16 are Brighton & Hove Albion, Bayer Leverkusen of Germany – the only team to win six ties out of six – Villarreal of Spain, Slavia Prague of the Czech Republic, Rangers of Scotland and Atalanta of Italy.
The knockout round play-off will put the eight Europa League group-stage runners-up against the eight clubs who finished third in their UEFA Champions League groups, with the Europa League clubs being seeded and therefore playing at home in the second leg. Those ties will be played on Thursday 15 and Thursday 22 February 2024.
The eight Europa League runners-up are Freiburg, Sparta Prague of the Czech Republic, Sporting Lisbon of Portugal, French clubs Olympique Marseille, Toulouse and Rennes, Roma of Italy and Qarabağ FK of Azerbaijan.
On Monday 18 December, they will be drawn to face one of the following eight Champions League drop-downs: Galatasaray of Turkey, Lens of France, Benfica and Braga of Portugal, Feyenoord of the Netherlands, AC Milan of Italy, Young Boys of Switzerland and Shakhtar Donetsk of Ukraine.
The draw for the round of 16 will take place on Friday 23 February next year. West Ham will be seeded in that draw after winning their Europa League group, meaning the second-leg tie will be played at London Stadium.
The 2024 UEFA Europa League final will be played in Dublin on Wednesday 22 May.
