In the Europa League, SC Freiburg will face the record-breaking Italian soccer champions Juventus Turin, while 1. FC Union will meet group opponents Royal Union Saint-Gilloise in the round of 16 premiere.
Bayer Leverkusen meets Hungarian club Ferencvaros Budapest, as revealed by the European Football Union UEFA draw in Nyon, Switzerland. The round of 16 first legs will take place on March 9th, with the second legs following a week later.
Freiburg was the only one of the three German clubs to have reached the round of 16 of the Europa League as group winners and therefore has home rights in the second leg. For this, Christian Streich’s team was drawn to the most well-known opponent. After losing in the group stage of the premier class, Juve prevailed against FC Nantes in the Europa League playoffs. In Serie A, the traditional club has been disappointing so far this season and is only seventh because of the deduction of 15 points for accounting fraud.
Again to Belgium
Union Berlin, third in the Bundesliga, will now face Saint-Gilloise again, as they did in the group stage, after beating Ajax Amsterdam in the second round. In the preliminary round of the Europa League, Union lost 1-0 at home to the Belgians and then won the second leg 1-0. The Berliners had progressed as runners-up in the group.
Like Union, Leverkusen also starts the round of 16 with a home game. The opponent is then Ferencvaros, who won their preliminary round group ahead of AS Monaco. In Monaco, Bayer advanced to the round of 16 on Thursday with a 5-3 penalty shoot-out after a 3-2 defeat in the first leg. Leverkusen had previously finished third in their Champions League group behind FC Porto and FC Brugge.
