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Europa League draw pits together Wolfsburg and Napoli in last eight

Wolfsburg and Napoli are to meet in the quarterfinals of the Europa League following Friday's draw for the last eight.

The pair are two of the strongest teams remaining in the competition, with Wolfsburg sitting second in the Bundesliga and Napoli fourth in Serie A.

Ties to be played Apil 16 and 23:


"I don't know if we are favorites,'' Wolfsburg sport director Klaus Allofs said. "The challenge is getting tougher for us, because Napoli should be rated stronger than Inter. Napoli has a great striker in Gonzalo Higuain and an experienced coach in Rafael Benitez."

Benitez will be hoping to land the trophy for the third time in his managerial career this season, following the UEFA Cup triumph with Valencia in 2004 and Europa League success with Chelsea in 2013.

Elsewhere, Europa League holders Sevilla continue their defence of the trophy with a clash against Zenit St Petersburg.

The Spanish side beat Benfica on penalties in last season's final to win the trophy for the third time in eight years, but will next have to negotiate a tie with Andres Villas-Boas' Zenit, who sit top of the Russian Premier League.

"The defending champions are probably the hardest draw we could get," said Villas-Boas.

"Sevilla have quality, experience and recent successes in this tournament. All this makes our task even more difficult. However, we will play the second leg at home. We have an aim and a dream, and will give our best to continue the fight for the trophy.''

Fiorentina's reward for knocking out Roma in the last round of the competition is a tie against Dynamo Kiev.

The Viola beat their Serie A rivals 3-0 on Thursday to win 4-1 on aggregate and will now come up against a side who eliminated Everton at the round-of-16 stage.

The remaining clash, meanwhile, sees Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk take on Club Brugge after the duo managed to overcome Ajax and Besiktas respectively in the previous round.

UEFA ensured that Russian and Ukrainian teams were kept apart in the draw -- with three sides still remaining in the competition from those nations -- due to the ongoing conflict in the region.