UEFA confirm Europa League format to finish tournament

On Wednesday afternoon UEFA confirmed the new schedule to complete this season's competition, after the Covid-19 pandemic caused the temporary stop of the 2019-20 campaign.

With Roma's first leg match against Sevilla one of the last games to be postponed before a continent-wide lockdown began to be put in place, the two sides will now meet at a venue in Germany to be confirmed on either August 5 or 6, to decide who will move on to the last-eight of the competition.

From that point on all ties will then be one-off contests, with venues in Germany playing host to all the behind-closed-doors games.

The city of Cologne will now host the final, on August 21.

Here is the full schedule:

5–6 August: Round of 16 (venues to be confirmed)
10–11 August: Quarter-finals (Cologne, Duisburg, Düsseldorf, Gelsenkirchen)
16–17 August: Semi-finals (venues to be confirmed)
21 August: Final (Cologne)

Roma's last-16 tie is one of two where neither leg was played prior to the lockdown (the other being Inter Milan's meeting with Getafe).

For the second legs of the other ties, a decision is still to be made about whether the games will be played at the home club's stadium or at a neutral venue in Germany.

Here is how the Last-16 currently looks:

Sevilla vs Roma
Inter Milan vs Getafe
Manchester United vs LASK (5-0)
Basel vs Frankfurt (3-0)
Copenhagen vs İstanbul Başakşehir (0-1)
Shakhtar Donetsk vs Wolfsburg (2-1)
Leverkusen vs Rangers (3-1)
Wolves vs Olympiacos (1-1)

Roma beat Gent in the last-32 to reach this stage of the competition, having progressed from a group that also featured Istanbul Basaksehir, Borussia Monchengladbach and Wolfsberger AC.

UEFA also confirmed that five substitutions will be allowed for all remaining matches, while clubs will be able to "register three new players on their List A for the remainder of the 2019-20 season, provided such players were already registered and eligible for the club since the last registration deadline [in February]."

For Roma, this means the possibility could be there to add the likes of Nicolo Zaniolo and Davide Zappacosta to the squad list, after both were previously left out due to injuries that would have ruled them out for the remainder of a normal campaign.

List A will still only be able to contain a maximum of 25 players, however, meaning other players will have to be excluded.

Roma get their Serie A season back underway next Wednesday (June 24) - and are scheduled to finish it on August 2 (although that match time and date is still to be confirmed).