Leverkusen and Liverpool really deserve to be called favorite teams, because of their consistent and balanced performance between the domestic league and the European League. In my opinion, AC Milan is still below these two teams, because they often experience surprising defeats. But AC Milan deserves to be considered as a third party that has the potential to stop Leverkusen or Liverpool, because the Serie A representatives have good depth to trouble their potential opponents.
Most of the other contestants deserve to be considered dark horses in the round of 16, who also have the opportunity and potential to make a surprise. Lens, Braga, Feyenoord, Young Boys and Shakhtar failed to get past the play off round even though they came from the Champions League, and it could be said that the Europa League brought more surprises than we previously thought.
Even though many people think that AC milan looks weak this season, I think they can increase their confidence to change their appearance for the better. In the European league, of course, liverpool and leverkusen are often said by many parties to be champions this season, but apart from that, they have many challenges to overcome at every stage. I checked the draw table where the opponents faced by AC Milan were very weak or not really favored so this was a good thing for AC milan. Apart from that, Roma gets a balanced opponent where roma will face Brighton in the round of 16.
Leverkusen is also highly favored to win the match in the round of 16 because the opponent they will face is Qarabag. For this reason, I think that some strong teams have easier opponents, But in a match there are always surprises and it is possible that the team that is not the favorite will advance to the next round. The matches in the round of 16 will start on March 7, where all teams still have a long time to improve their performance in the domestic league.