The Europa League Round of 32 Qualifiers - Ranked

Thursday concluded the lowest level of professional football there is - the group stage of the Europa League. On Monday, we will find out the fixtures for the highest level of professional football there is - the knockout stage of the Europa League.

Alexa, play the Europa League theme.

One of the drawbacks of the knockouts, however, is that there a million games to go through before you get to the final, and it can sometimes be daunting to see all those teams in the draw and figure out if you even stand a chance of winning the bloody thing.

Well, no worries, 90min have you covered. Here's your comprehensive guide to the Europa League knockout stage and every team's chances of hoisting the trophy in Gdansk come May - ranked and in tiers.

TIER 5 - THANKS FOR COMING

32. Maccabi Tel Aviv

Team strengths: Aren't on FIFA so most people won't bother scouting them
Team weaknesses: They'd probably be rated two stars if they were
Key players: Yonatan Cohen, Dan Glazer, Enric Saborit

Why poor little Maccabi Tel Aviv you ask? Well, having spoken to a fan of the club, he assures me that they are definitely the worst team remaining in the competition. And who am I to doubt him?

31. Molde

Team strengths: No longer being held back by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer
Team weaknesses: No longer being spearheaded by Erling Haaland
Key players: Magnus Wolff Eikrem, Leke James, Fredrik Aursnes

Molde lose points because they managed to finish below the reserves of the worst Arsenal team of all time in the group stage.

30. Wolfsberger

Team strengths: Might fool teams into thinking they're Wolfsburg
Team weaknesses: Are, in fact, not Wolfsburg
Key players: Michael Liendl, Dejan Joveljic, Mario Leitgeb

Austrian side Wolfsberger managed to knock out Feyenoord and CSKA Moscow, so they clearly are capable of playing association football at least.

29. Crvena zvezda

Team strengths: Intimidating atmosphere at Rajko Mitić Stadium
Team weaknesses: Their home games will likely be played behind closed doors
Key players: Mirko Ivanic, Aleksandar Katai, Ben

Always picked out as 'a tricky place to go', but maybe this time around it'll be 'a pretty nice place to go tbh Belgrade is a lovely city'.

TIER 4 - MIGHT SCORE A GOAL

28. Royal Antwerp

Team strengths: If you translate their name into Spanish, they become 'Real Antwerp'
Team weaknesses: Are unfortunately Belgian
Key players: Lior Refaelov, Dieumerci Mbokani, Faris Haroun

How do I know Royal Antwerp can score a goal? Because I watched them beat my beloved Tottenham 1-0 in the group stage. It wasn't fun.

27. Dinamo Zagreb

Team strengths: Their main supporters group is called the 'Bad Blues Boys'
Team weaknesses: Tell me with a straight face that they aren't going out immediately
Key players: Dominik Livakovic, Arijan Ademi, Bruno Petkovic

Good evening, sir. Would you please leave without a fuss, right now?

26. Krasnodar

Team strengths: Have a really, really cool stadium
Team weaknesses: Literally conceded a goal to Jorginho
Key players: Remy Cabella, Marcus Berg, Wanderson

Krasnodar finished above a pretty decent Rennes team in order to drop into the Europa League, but they also conceded two late goals to 10-man Sevilla, so it's impossible to say if they're good or not.

25. Young Boys

Team strengths: Ended Basel's reign of Swiss terror
Team weaknesses: God, imagine trying to explain their team name
Key players: Jean-Pierre Nsame, Miralem Sulejmani, Christian Fassnacht

Not bad for a team of young boys!

Is this mic on?

24. Slavia Prague

Team strengths: Come from a beautiful city
Team weaknesses: Architecture doesn't win football matches
Key players: Ondrej Kolar, Nicolae Stanciu, Peter Olayinka

The spirit of Tomas Soucek will hopefully guide Slavia through the knockout stage again. But probably won't.

TIER 3 - GOOD FEEDER CLUBS ON FOOTBALL MANAGER

23. Dynamo Kyiv

Team strengths: Adapted to the cold and will fear no opponent
Team weaknesses: Everything else
Key players: Viktor Tsyhankov, Vladyslav Supriaha, Carlos de Pena

Poor Dynamo have been through the ringer so far in Europe this season, already taking a couple of thrashings from Barcelona and Juventus. And they aren't even that good anymore.

22. Braga

Team strengths: Have strong Europa League heritage
Team weaknesses: Europa League heritage is another way of saying they're losers
Key players: Ricardo Horta, Paulinho, Galeno

Braga's entire transfer budget gets spent on ballboys to traverse the quarry their stadium is built on, but still managed to sign Man Utd rumour mill legend Nico Gaitan. Impressive.

21. Club Brugge

Team strengths: Belgian champions
Team weaknesses: They were awarded the title by default before any playoffs could take place
Key players: Simon Mignolet, Hans Vanaken, Emmanuel Dennis

If Simon Mignolet is among your best players you're just not going to win the Europa League, alright?

20. Olympiacos

Team strengths: Have won the Greek league 107 times and it's only been going 106 years (according to Paul Merson)
Team weaknesses: This might need fact-checking
Key players: Mathieu Valbuena, Ruben Semedo, Youssef El Arabi

Last season's round of 32 tie with Arsenal was great fun. We're delighted to be welcoming Olympiacos back.

19. PSV

Team strengths: They have World Cup winner Mario Gotze!
Team weaknesses: He's reportedly investing in a marijuana business with Andre Schurrle so he might be a bit busy
Key players: Donyell Malen, Noni Madueke, Mario Gotze (maybe)

Remember hipster manager Roger Schmidt? He's back from China and leading PSV straight to a round of 16 exit.

18. Salzburg

Team strengths: Somehow all of their players are wonderkids
Team weaknesses: Will probably be without Dominik Szoboszlai come February
Key players: Sekou Koita, Patson Daka, not Dominik Szoboszlai

UEFA make Salzburg drop the Red Bull name in European competitions, making them a little less tin can and a little more tinpot all at once.

17. Granada

Team strengths: Spanish teams tend to do well in the Europa League
Team weaknesses: Roberto Soldado in 2020? Really?
Key players: Darwin Machis, Rui Silva, Jesus Vallejo

Thinking about that time someone tried to book a flight to Granada and ended up at Grenada instead.

16. Hoffenheim

Team strengths: Have some pretty tidy players
Team weaknesses: Point out 'Hoffenheim' on a map of Germany, I dare you
Key players: Andrej Kramaric, Florian Grillitsch, Sebastian Rudy

Julian Nagelsmann may be gone, but it's still nice to see Hoffenheim flourishing with a young-ish core that'll inevitably be ripped apart.

TIER 2 - THE DARK HORSES

15. Lille

Team strengths: No longer being held back by Nicolas Pepe
Team weaknesses: I've already made this joke so that's a shame
Key players: Renato Sanches, Yusuf Yazici, Mike Maignan

Ooh, a contender, nice. Shame there's 14 teams ahead of you in the queue.

14. Benfica

Team strengths: Have by far the nicest kits in the competition
Team weaknesses: They're literally cursed
Key players: Darwin Nunez, Pizzi, Jan Vertonghen

It's nice to see Bela Guttman's curse still going strong after all these years. Here's to another season of Benfica misery in Europe.

13. Rangers

Team strengths: Beat Real Madrid home and away
Team weaknesses: Still somehow were eliminated from the Champions League
Key players: Tete, Marlos, Taison

A place in the knockout stages of the Champions League was there for the taking and Shakhtar decided to park the bus. Respect.

11. Roma

Team strengths: Great Twitter content
Team weaknesses: Football team aren't as great
Key players: Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Edin Dzeko, Pedro

Roma's average squad age of about 47 might hinder them come the back-end of the season.

10. Ajax

Team strengths: Loveable team
Team weaknesses: Might have that Benfica curse
Key players: Dusan Tadic, Daley Blind, Quincy Promes

I know Ajax get asset-stripped every summer and they're fine with that, but how have they ended up in the Europa League again?

9. Arsenal

Team strengths: Surely can't be this bad forever
Team weaknesses: Threat of relegation might see them tank the Europa League
Key players: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Gabriel, Thomas Partey

At the time of writing, Arsenal are 15th in the Premier League, so they're lucky to even be this high on the list.

8. Bayer Leverkusen

Team strengths: Have bounced back from selling Kai Havertz
Team weaknesses: 'Neverkusen'
Key players: Moussa Diaby, Lucas Alario, Leon Bailey

A team named after a pharmaceutical company might have a good chance of winning a major tournament after this hellish year.

TIER 1 - THE REAL CONTENDERS

7. Leicester City

Team strengths: Jamie Vardy needs European glory to complete his story arc
Team weaknesses: Even with just 2,000 fans back you'll still hear those clappers
Key players: Jamie Vardy, James Maddison, Ricardo Pereira

Big Brendan Rodgers is on the hunt for European glory, and he might just get it if he keeps his Brent-isms to himself.

6. Real Sociedad

Team strengths: Zlatan Ibrahimovic is reborn
Team weaknesses: There must be a catch
Key players: Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Hakan Calhanoglu, Gianluigi Donnarumma

Milan being good is good for football. So you better appreciate them while they're good before they're not good again.

3. Villarreal

Team strengths: Unai Emery, Europa League extraordinaire
Team weaknesses: Unai Emery, meme extraordinaire
Key players: Dani Parejo, Pau Torres, Paco Alcacer

Please, please, PLEASE can Villarreal meet Arsenal at some point.

2. Manchester United

Team strengths: I'm not using the Ole Gunnar Solskjaer joke again
Team weaknesses: Yes I am. Being held back by Ole Gunn-
Key players: Bruno Fernandes, Edinson Cavani, Marcus Rashford

On paper, United are easily one of the strongest teams. But football is played on a pitch, where they're consistently inconsistent.

1. Tottenham Hotspur

Team strengths: As the old song goes, 'Tottenham are the greatest team the world has ever seen'
Team weaknesses: Lads, it's Tottenham
Key players: Harry Kane, Son Heung-min, Hugo Lloris

I anticipate that Spurs will fall out of serious Premier League title race contention by the time the knockout stages kick off, and so Jose Mourinho will try-hard his way to another Europa League title.