Roberto De Zerbi was asked whether he was looking forward to Monday’s Europa League draw after his side beat Marseille.

He may well be – but his team won’t be involved.

Monday’s draw in Nyon is for a play-off round in which the Seagulls will not play.

Pairings for the last 16 will be drawn on February 23.

The teams through to the last 16 as group winners are Premier League trio Albion, Liverpool and West Ham as well as Atalanta, Leverkusen, Rangers, Slavia Praha and Villarreal.

Group runners-up Freiburg, Marseille, Qarabag, Rennes, Roma, Sparta Prague, Sporting and Toulouse are into the play-off round.

The other side of the draw comprises Champions League third-placed sides Benfica, Braga, Feyenoord, Galatasaray, Lens, Milan, Shakhtar and Young Boys.

Teams from the same country cannot meet in the play-offs, which take place in late February.

Albion will return to Euro action on March 7 and 14.

Those dates are followed by home games against Nottingham Forest and Manchester City respectively.

Avoiding the play-off round gives them clear weeks of preparation before playing Sheffield United away and Everton at the Amex.

In terms of prize money, UEFA state that clubs who qualify for the round of 16 can each expect to receive about £8.2 million.

Each win in the group stage, and Albion had four of them, is worth £2.4 million, with a third of that awarded for a draw.

But calculations are complicated by the fact that the ‘spare’ third point after a draw is then pooled and distributed to the teams dependant on how many games they won.