West Ham, Rangers, Barcelona: Analysts predict the clubs most likely to win Europa League

The draws for the round of 16 of the Europa League were made on Friday morning, and there are some juicy ties for football fans to get their teeth sunk into.

West Ham, who had already qualified for the knock-out stages, will take on six-time champions Sevilla in what might be the biggest tie of the round.

Meanwhile, FC Porto have also been drawn against Olympique Lyon in another huge bout, while Bayer Leverkusen, who currently occupy third place in the Bundesliga, will also have the tall task of defeating Atalanta if they are to progress to the quarter-finals.

All arrows point towards an epic finale to the tournament, with some big clubs set to have their European campaigns cut short in the next few weeks.

One club that have also qualified for the last 16 of the tournament is Barcelona.

The Catalan club dramatically failed to reach the Champions League knock-out stages for the first time since 2004, but they defeated Italian side Napoli, with a convincing 4-2 win last Thursday, progressing into the knock-out stages of the tournament.

They are perhaps now the strongest side in the cup competition but there are plenty of teams still in the running to challenge them for the Europa League title.

Barcelona will now take on Galatasaray in the last-16 of the Europa League, and while they are large favourites to win, data analysts FiveThirtyEight have pitted them against the other teams in the tournament, making an assessment of each club’s chances of reaching and ultimately winning the final.

Using statistics to make their predictions, FiveThirtyEight have developed what they call an ‘SPI Rating’ that orders teams on their best overall attacking and defensive strengths.

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