Five clashes to look out for in the Europa League with Dortmund, Napoli, Celtic and Atletico Madrid all in action

The Europa League round of 32 gets underway this evening with Arsenal the lone English side remaining in the competition.

It’s a new challenge for Arsenal having taken part in the Champions League for 16 straight seasons before this campaign.

Arsene Wenger’s men eased through their group and travel to Ostersund for their first-leg against the Swedish side.

The Gunners come into this clash as huge favourites but they will have to brave the freezing Scandinavian conditions with temperatures dropping to -3° tonight.

However, there are a number of other interesting Europa League ties to keep an eye on this evening. Here, we take a closer look:

Celtic vs Zenit St Petersburg

Celtic open their Europa League campaign with a tricky-looking draw against Russian side Zenit St Petersburg.

The two will meet for the first time in their history although Zenit do have previous with Celtic’s Old Firm rivals, Rangers, having defeated them in the 2008 Europa League final in Manchester.

Zenit currently sit second in the Russian Football Championship while Celtic have a comfortable gap at the top of the Scottish Premier League - but both sides will have to be wary of the threat the other one poses.

Emiliano Rigoni and Aleksandr Kokorin have 11 Europa League goals between them already so Celtic’s defence will have their work cut out to keep the Europa League’s top scorers at bay.

But the Bhoys maintain a strong threat of their own with Leigh Griffiths and Scott Sinclair teaming up to net 29 times in all competitions so far this season.

Borussia Dortmund vs Atalanta

Dortmund are the overwhelming favourites for this tie, having finished third in the Champions League ‘group of death’ behind both Tottenham Hotspur and Real Madrid.

But BVB been struggling for form most of season and despite steady improvements under new boss Peter Stoger, they have only won two of their last 11 home games.

Meanwhile, Atalanta performed brilliantly in the Europa League group stages, butchering Everton home and away, and defeating Lyon on matchday six to finish top of Group E, maintaining their unbeaten record in the competition.

The Italians’ biggest threats stem from Bryan Cristante, Josip Ilicic and Alejandro Gomez who have seven goals between them in the Europa League this year.

For Dortmund, the most likely match-winner is a recognisable one in the form of Michy Batshuayi who will be full of confidence having netted three times in his opening two games for BVB.

Napoli vs RB Leipzig

Neither of these sides will have been happy with the draw having both taken part in the Champions’ League group stages.

RB Leipzig are taking part in their first ever European campaign while Napoli are previous winners of the competition, having defeated VfB Stuttgart in the 1988-89 season with a certain Diego Maradona netting in the two-legged final.

European prestige will count for nothing in this tie though, and RB Leipzig will be hoping to surprise their Italian counterparts.

The highly-rated Timo Werner has scored a goal every other game for the Germans this season, and netted three times in his debut campaign in the Champions League.

But the young striker will be forced to deal with a raucous atmosphere once again, having requested to be substituted during their clash away at Besiktas due to the noise.

And Napoli fans have good reason to sing considering they sit top of Serie A and are playing some of Europe’s finest football under Maurizio Sarri.

Lyon vs Villarreal

Another tasty looking clash sees French side Lyon square up to La Liga’s Villareal.

Les Gones eased their way through to the round of 32 but still had to settle for second place behind Atalanta.

Meanwhile, Villarreal narrowly secured top spot in Group A, finishing one point clear of second place FC Astana.

And the Yellow Submarine are going well in La Liga so far this season, too, battling Real Madrid for a place in the top four.

The Ligue 1 side are also having a decent campaign, comfortably sitting in the upper echelons of the league and claiming an impressive scalp in the form of PSG a couple of weeks ago.

If they can get Nabil Fekir and Memphis Depay to produce moments of quality like this, they could go far in the competition.

FC Copenhagen vs Atletico Madrid

This clash sees two polar opposites in terms of status in European football.

Copenhagen qualified for the Champions’ League group stages for the first time in their history in the 2006-07 season, and became the first Danish side to ever compete in the last-16 in 2010-11 – where Chelsea defeated them.

Atletico, on the other hand, have a wealth of European history and are the only side to have lost three Champions league finals without winning one.

They have had better success in the Europa League, though, winning the competition twice in three years between 2010-2012.

And Atleti will be aiming to become the fourth Spanish winner of the competition in five years following Sevilla’s three-year trophy stranglehold from 2013 to 2016 before Manchester United’s success last season.

These two sides have met previously, Atletico taking all three points courtesy of goals from Simao and Sergio Aguero.