SAN FRANCISCO, February 23, (THEWILL) – Arsenal have been handed a potentially difficult task in the last-16 of the Europa League after being drawn to face seven-times European champions AC Milan.
Arsène Wenger’s side were relieved to edge past Swedish side Östersund on Thursday after losing 2-1 in the second leg and their reward will be a meeting with the team they last met at the same stage of the Champions League in 2012.
Arsenal and Milan last met in 2012, when the Italians advanced to the Champions League quarter-final with a 4-3 aggregate win. Milan won the first leg 4-0 at San Siro before Arsenal won the return 3-0 to fall agonisingly short of a miraculous comeback.
Milan, who spent more than £150m on new players last summer in an attempt to qualify for the Champions League for the first time since the 2013-14 season, have struggled this season in Serie A and are currently seventh – eight points behind Lazio in fourth place.
Gennaro Gattuso has steadied the ship since, overseeing a run of four straight matches including two 1-0 victories over Bulgarians Ludogorets in the previous round.
The first leg of this year’s Europa League last-16 tie will be played on Thursday March 8 at San Siro, with the return a week later on March 15 at the Emirates. Kick-off times for the two matches will be confirmed on Friday afternoon.
Arsenal and Milan have played six times, winning two apiece with two draws.
Milan have not won in six visits to England (D3 L3), since a 1-0 victory at Manchester United in the 2004/04 UEFA Champions League first knockout round. That is their sole success in 16 away games with Premier League clubs.
AC Milan v Arsenal is perhaps the stand-out tie after the draw was made for the next stage of the UEFA Europa League.
Other round of 16 draw pairings are:
Lazio (ITA) v Dynamo Kyiv (UKR)
Leipzig (GER) v Zenit (RUS)
Atlético Madrid (ESP) v Lokomotiv Moskva (RUS)
CSKA Moskva (RUS) v Lyon (FRA)
Marseille (FRA) v Athletic Club (ESP)
Sporting CP (POR) v Plzeň (CZE)
Dortmund (GER) v Salzburg (AUT)
