** Incentive Plan In the second leg of the Europa League knockout play-offs, AC Milan lost 2-3 away to Rennes, and advanced to the round of 16 with an aggregate score of 5-3 over the two legs. In this game, Rennes scored a hat-trick from Brijo, and Milan were twice equalized by Jovic and León, but finally scored a second penalty by Briro in the 68th minute to fix the score at 3-2.
Another Serie A team, Roma, drew 1-1 with Feyenoord at home, with an aggregate score of 2-2, and finally the two sides entered a penalty shootout, Roma 4 hits only Lukaku missed, Feyenoord 4 played 2 consecutive shots, Zalewski scored the decisive goal, and finally Roma had the last laugh 4-2.
Europa League knockout play-off qualifiers:AC Milan, Roma, Freiburg, Sporting Lisbon, Benfica, Marseille, Kara**, Sparta Prague.
Top team in the Europa League group stage:West Ham United, Brighton, Glasgow Rangers, Atalanta, Liverpool, Villarreal, Slavia Prague, Bayer Leverkusen.
The draw for the round of 16 will take place later on 23 February, with matches scheduled for 7 and 14 March.
European performance in the top 5 leagues this season.
Blue for the Champions League, orange for the Europa League, green for the UEFA Cup, and dark gray for eliminated.
Serie A teams have had the best European performance so far this season, picking up the most European points and with all seven participating teams alive, the only association without a team out of the competition. At present, in the five-year European standings, Serie A has climbed one place, temporarily surpassing the Bundesliga to rise to third. While the top five places in the overall table are all four Champions League places (fourth place in the fifth league will be required to play in the play-offs), next season's Champions League will be expanded to 36 teams, and two of the four extra places will be allocated to the two associations with the best European performances this season.
Last season, three teams in Serie A reached the Champions League, Europa League and Europa League finals respectively, but in the end they were all short of a breath and only won Sanya. According to UEFA's latest statute, from next season, the association can theoretically have up to six teams participating in the Champions League. In extreme cases, for example, if Roma or Lazio fail to qualify for the Champions League through the league, but win the Europa League or Champions League, and Serie A is the top two league in European competition this season, then there is a possibility that six Italian teams will be in the first place in the history of the Champions League.