The New England Revolution have finally begun the process of solving their issues at forward this week with the acquisition of Colombian target man Jose "Pepe" Moreno. The 30-year old striker joins the Revs on loan after a short stop with Once Caldas, where he scored 7 goals and 4 assists in twenty matches during the second half of 2011.

EUROPA LEAGUE LAST 32 DRAW

Porto v Manchester City

Ajax v Manchester United

Lokomotiv Moscow v Athletic Bilbao

Salzburg v Metalist Kharkiv

Stoke City v Valencia

Rubin Kazan v Olympiacos

AZ Alkmaar v Anderlecht

Lazio v Atletico Madrid

Steaua Bucharest v Twente

Viktoria Plzen v Schalke

Wisla Krakow v Standard Liege

Braga v Besiktas

Udinese v PAOK

Trabzonspor v PSV Eindhoven

Hannover v Brugge

Legia Warsaw v Sporting

* First legs to be played February 16, second legs February 23

EUROPA LEAGUE LAST 16 DRAW

FC Salzburg/Metalist v Rubin Kazan/Olympiacos

Legia/Sporting v Porto/Manchester City

Steaua/Twente v Viktoria Plzen/Schalke

Wisla/Standard Liege v Hannover/Brugge

Stoke/Valencia v Trabzonspor/PSV Eindhoven

Alkmaar/Anderlecht v Udinese/PAOK

Lazio/Atletico Madrid v Braga/Besiktas

Ajax/Manchester United v Lokomotiv Moscow/Athletic Bilbao

* First legs to be played March 8, second legs March 15.

By Alan Duffy

It may well be the preserve of Thursday nights and Channel Five, but the Europa League, now ready for the knock-out stages is still peppered with some of Europe's big guns. Probably the biggest in the competition, Manchester United, will face another all-time European great, Ajax, in the last 32, a tie which has more than a hint of glamour.

1e47? If you've ever seen an impressive pre-match tifo on the continent and thought to yourself that it cannot be easy to coordinate such a large scale public art display, then Steaua Bucharest are here to prove you right. The Romanian side suffered a nasty back-to-front digit (oo-er) in their ranks ahead of recent match.

Two nearly naked footballers in one day? Our beakers runneth over! Thanks Stefan Nikolic of Steaua Bucharest. Image: REUTERS/Bogdan Cristel.

We realise we made a huge deal about not covering the Europa League last season. But obviously, recent events from in the Champions League have forced our hand and we thought we should show willing before the big boys come.

By Chris Wright

Here you go, Pies' pick of the ten best still exposures from the past two day's worth of Europa League action...

FC Vaslui supporters are silhouetted by burning flares during their game against Lazio in Piatra Neamt, Romania

FC Vaslui's Mike Temwanjera and Lazio's Modibo Diakite hit an isolated hotspot of weak gravity

Fulham's Bryan Ruiz waves to the Twente fans after receiving a hero's welcome on his return to the Dutch club

AEK Athens vs Anderlecht quickly descends into an all-out gurn-fest as a corner is swung into the Greek side's penalty area

Schalke 04′s Kyriakos Papadopoulos throws up the big twos after scoring against Steaua Bucharest in Gelsenkirchen

Ibrahim Toroman is not exactly enamoured with the view as Besiktas celebrate scoring against Maccabi Tel Aviv

Billy Conolly and Rod Stewart turn up at Parkhead to watch Celtic take on Atletico Madrid, and are seen here presumably discussing exactly why Beram Kayal felt to need to duck and let Arda Turan's shot fly in over his head

Hapoel Tel-Aviv's Abbas Mahmmoud watches on while Rapid Bucharest's Iulian Apostol endulges in a spot of light turf rotivation

Hannover 96 fans do their thing ahead of the German side's game against Standard Liege in Belgium

A lone Tottenham fan taunts the travelling PAOK Salonika supporters by holding a tenner aloft to mock Greece's debt crisis.

Liverpool are keen on rookie Romanian goalkeeper Valentin Cojocaru according to talkSPORT.
The 16-year-old stopper is widely regarded as one of the brightest young talents to come out of eastern Europe, and is currently on the books at Steaua Bucharest.
Cojocaru has been offered the chance to train with Liverpool at the club's Melwood academy - where Reds boss Kenny Dalglish will ask his team of coaches to determine whether or not the teenager could have a future at Anfield.

Name: Ilie Dumitrescu In his 1990s prime for: Tottenham Hotspur, West Ham United Lowdown: Signed for Spurs from Steaua Bucharest in 1994, where he had become a club hero. Internationally, he had recently helped Romania to the quarter-final of the World Cup, including scoring two goals in a 3-2 win against Argentina.

By Chris Wright

Pies' pick of the stills from last night's Europa League action...

â—„ Back Next â–º Picture 1 of 10

Fulham 4-1 Wisla Krakow: Andy Johnson nips in to score the Cottager's third goal

Last night's Europa League results in full.

Well, more 'fan attacks', really. Steaua Bucharest defender George Galamaz, busy doing the outrageous thing of living. And then came the fan and chaos soon ensued. A flare not the guy committing assault on another human being permanently ended the match later on.

And don't forget the bonus of Gigi Becali yelling in a language you probably don't understand.

Steaua Bucharest's game against Petrolul Ploiesti was abandoned after Steaua defender George Galamaz was punched in the head by a fan, who consequently got a well deserved kicking by Galamaz's team-mates in the centre circle, two of which were sent off for their actions. The game restarted with Steaua leading 2-0 before their keeper was hit with a flare prompting a 20 minute delay before the referee saw common sense and abandoned the tie.

Watch pitch invader punch defender in the head, Lavezzi pass to a sub and KPB's Peter Andre impression

Presenting quality football videos from the interweb, daily at 3pm. Here's today's collection: 1) And we start in the Romanian top flight today (where else?) with a match between Steaua Bucharest and Petrolul Ploiesti that might charitably be called 'rambunctious'.

By Chris Wright

Sounds like Steaua Bucharest's game against Petrolul Ploiesti in the Romanian top flight on Saturday evening was a bit of a feisty affair to say the least, with the game eventually being suspended by the referee after a chain reaction of mindless violence.

One of the more dispiriting cycles in which an element of English football support finds itself trapped reared its ugly head again last night. The unfailing of a flag with the word "Istanbul" spray-painted across the middle of it was yet another example of the culture of perpetual abuse and contempt that some seem to actively enjoy these days, and those of us that sit on the outside peering in can only watch in wonder at the mentality of anybody that would seek to revel in the death of anybody in the name of what passes for "banter" these days.

The draw for the 2011-12 UEFA Europa League group stage was made in Monaco today. 2009 winners Atlético de Madrid are arguably the biggest club involved in this season's competition and they will have been relatively pleased with a draw which placed them in Group I alongside Italian Champions League drop-outs Udinese Calcio, French side Stade Rennais and Swiss side FC Sion.

FC Steaua BucureÅŸti (or FC Steaua Bucharest) is a Romanian professional football club from Ghencea, south-west Bucharest. It is the most successful Romanian football team in European competitions and in the Romanian Liga I (23 championship wins). Steaua finished last season's league campaign in 5th place.

FC Steaua BucureÅŸti (or FC Steaua Bucharest) is a Romanian professional football club from Ghencea, south-west Bucharest. It is the most successful Romanian football team in European competitions and in the Romanian Liga I (23 championship wins). Steaua finished last season's league campaign in 5th place.

The annual Super Cup match has opened the new season in Romania with last season's league champions Oțelul Galați getting the better of cup winners Steaua Bucharest with a single goal victory. Laurențiu Buș grabbed the only goal of the game after just a quarter of an hour and the champions never relinquished the lead in what was an exciting opener to the 2011-12 campaign.

One of the things that sets soccer apart from the standard sports in America is the crowd atmosphere, often created by the supporter groups of the clubs. Want to experiment this summer? Go to an MLS match one night and an MLB game another night and compare how the fans at an MLS match create the atmosphere while the scoreboard at an MLB game tells fans when to clap and cheer.

Liverpool is the latest club to join the race for Romanian defender Florin Gardos.
The Steaua Bucharest centre back, who can also play in a defensive midfield role, has been tracked by a number of clubs across Europe, with Arsenal, Juventus, Inter Milan and Bayern Munich all thought to be monitoring the 22-year-old.

Danny Wilson confidently declared ahead of Liverpool's return clash against Sparta Prague: "I relish playing on the big stage!"
The teenager could be given the nod again by Kenny Dalglish tomorrow night for the tie against the Czechs.
The defender gave a solid display last week in the Generali Arena when the Reds played out a 0-0 draw in the Europa Cup.

While some of the Premier League clubs went crazy in the January transfer window, for the most part most clubs across Europe did very little business in January. Whether it was because of the current economic conditions across Europe, or because of the new UEFA Fair Play rules, most European clubs went for small purchases in Janaury.

Bow before our magnificence.

With December's traffic numbers for The Offside coming out just a few days ago, it turns out The Liverpool Offside* managed to snag top spot for the third month in a row. Being December, the overall numbers were down a touch given various holidays and the unexpected winter break that saw the club going two weeks without a match, but apparently our five Australian readers were still willing to stop by occasionally, for which you have our thanks.