Manchester United, Liverpool and Tottenham’s prospects of making an impression on the Europa League appear to have been enhanced by Monday’s draw in Nyon.

United, who were eliminated from the Champions League at the group stage following their defeat against Wolfsburg, face the Danish champions Midtjylland while Liverpool’s reward for coming through their group is a meeting with Augsburg.

Tottenham seem to have the trickiest draw, although Mauricio Pochettino will have revenge in mind when Spurs face a repeat of last season’s meeting at this stage with Fiorentina.

Here is what the English clubs can expect from their last-32 matches.

Midtjylland

Known for their reliance on analytics and having the Brentford owner, Matthew Benham, as the majority shareholder, the club based on the Jutland peninsula shocked Danish football by winning their first domestic championship last season and are in a decent position to retain their title at the halfway stage. Eliminated from the Champions League by Apoel Nicosia in the third qualifying round, Jess Thorup’s side battled past Southampton to reach the group stages of the Europa League before finishing as runners-up behind Napoli courtesy of a 3-1 away win over last season’s quarter-finalists Club Brugge.

Pione Sisto has been courted by several of Europe’s big clubs but has struggled for form at times, having only scored twice in the league. But after gaining the point they needed to qualify against Brugge last week in their final match before the winter break, the meeting with Louis van Gaal’s side on 17 February is their next fixture. You can bet they will be ready for it.

League position: 3rd

Star player: Pione Sisto

Augsburg

If last season was a fairytale for Augsburg then this season was fast turning into a nightmare for the little club from southern Bavaria. Having achieved the club’s best-ever Bundesliga finish last term by ending up fifth, coach Markus Weinzierl managed to hang on to the majority of his players in the summer after selling the Ghana defender Baba Rahman to Chelsea for a fee that could reach up to £20m.

They recruited wisely in the form of the Germany international Piotr Trochowski and the South Korean forward Ja-Cheol Koo but a disastrous start to the season saw them pick up just five points from the opening 11 Bundesliga fixtures to languish in the relegation zone. But just as normal service appeared to have been resumed, so Augsburg began to find their mojo again. Three wins and a draw against Wolfsburg in their last four matches have lifted the club out of the bottom three and took them through as runners-up behind Athletic Bilbao, although having only lost one of eight meetings with them during his time at Borussia Dortmund, Jürgen Klopp will not be losing any sleep.

League position: 13th

Star player: Ja-Cheol Koo

Fiorentina

Tottenham’s defeat to the Italians at this stage of the competition last year was largely down to two moments: Roberto Soldado’s inexplicable decision to pass instead of shoot when he was through on goal and Mohamed Salah’s brilliant one-two with Mario Gómez that sealed a 2-0 win. Given neither Soldado, who scored Villarreal’s winner against Real Madrid on Sunday, or Salah, who snubbed Fiorentina to join Roma in the summer, will be present for the rematch, Mauricio Pochettino will no doubt fancy his chances.

But even with a more potent-looking strike force at his disposal these days, the Spurs manager will be wary of taking anything for granted. Fiorentina remain second in Serie A despite losing to Juventus on Sunday and are Italy’s top scorers with 31 goals from their 16 matches. Under Paulo Sousa, they play an attacking formation designed to get the best out of the former Blackburn striker Nikola Kalinic (nine goals from 15 games) and the Senegal international Khouma Babacar. Once again, this could come down to the finest of margins.

League position: 2nd

Star player: Nikola Kalinic