Europa League: Fresh taunt for Liverpool with Ba draw

Besiktas' Demba Ba scored the goal that destroyed Liverpool's Premier League title dream in April

Liverpool will welcome a familiar but haunting face back to Anfield in the Europa League in February...

It feels like Liverpool couldn't be further away from last season's pomp, having left the Champions League at the first exit, collected 12 points fewer from their first 16 Premier League games and U-turned from winning 3-0 at Old Trafford in 2013/14 to losing 0-3 there this time.

How cruel of UEFA then to pair them up with Besiktas on their unwelcome Europa League return, forcing them into a reunion with the man who deflated their enthralling title challenge back in April (with a heavy assist from Steven Gerrard) - Demba Ba.

The former Chelsea forward has demonstrated a retained flair for distressing the Premier League's elite since moving to Turkey, with his side keeping out Arsenal for over two hours in their Champions League qualifying double header then leading Tottenham home in Europa League Group C.

The punter consensus is that there were worse round-of-32 possibilities out there for Liverpool though, as they have actually been backed in marginally from 14.0 to 13.012/1 in the tournament winner market.

That makes them the shortest-priced of all four British participants after an interesting draw. Everton are next up at 14.5n/a - shooting in from 17.5 - having been dealt Young Boys, with the Toffees benefitting from being the only seeded club of the domestic quartet.

Tottenham are out slightly from 15.5 to 17.5n/a due to being handed the tricky task of outperforming Fiorentina, who like Spurs went out at the round-of-16 last term. The second leg is in Tuscany.

Celtic meanwhile will hope that Roberto Mancini remains as cursed in Europe as he was at Man City because they will be tackling his Inter team, an assignment which has caused them to drift from 85.0 to 100.099/1.

Roma remain the overall frontrunners, in from 13.0 to 11.5n/a, despite the fact that an Italian side haven't reached a UEFA Cup/Europa League final this century. They will meet Feyenoord. Other intriguing ties include Torino v Athletic Bilbao, Sevilla v Borussia Monchengladbach and Wolfsburg v Sporting Lisbon.

Full round-of-32 draw:
Young Boys v Everton
Torino v Athletic Bilbao
Sevilla v Borussia Monchengladbach
Wolfsburg v Sporting Lisbon
Ajax v Legia Warsaw
AaB v Club Brugge
Anderlecht v Dinamo Moscow
Dnipro v Olympiakos
Trabzonspor v Napoli
Guingamp v Dynamo Kiev
Villarreal v Salzburg
Roma v Feyenoord
PSV v Zenit
Liverpool v Besiktas
Tottenham v Fiorentina
Celtic v Inter