Explained | UEFA Europa League knockout stage and draw details

Thursday night's 3-2 win over TSG Hoffenheim in Sinsheim, Germany, saw us book a place in at least the knockout play-off round of this year's UEFA Europa League.

With still one game to play - Thursday's visit of Elfsborg - in the new-look league phase of the competition, we are now certain of advancing in the competition having secured enough points to avoid a place in the bottom eight.

Yet, while two possible avenues remain in terms of what our progression means, what route we take remains in our hands.

If we can secure victory against Elfsborg this week, we would book a place in the competition's top eight and that would automatically qualify us for March's round of 16.

However, anything but victory against the Swedish side would leave the prospect of us finishing outside the top eight and as low as 15th, which would see us take one of the 16 spots in February's knockout play-offs.

Highlights | Hoffenheim 2-3 Spurs 

Here's a look at how each draw and round will work. Buckle up...

Europa League knockout play-offs

If we finish between 8th and 24th in the league phase, we will secure a place in the Europa League knockout play-offs.

On the day after our match with Elfsborg - Friday 31 January - a draw will take place to decide who we will take on in the play-offs.

The Europa League this year will operate via a bracket system like in major international tournaments. This will see every teams' route to the final mapped out from the round of 16 draw.

Clubs who finished between 8th and 16th in the league phase will be termed the seeded teams in the draw while those between 16th and 24th will be unseeded.

Clubs will then be paired based on their league rankings ie. the teams who finish in 9th and 10th spots will be paired, as will 11th and 13th, 14th and 15th and so on until the final pair of 23rd and 24th.

There will then be eight bowls at the draw, each bowl containing a pair of teams.

The paired unseeded teams (23rd and 24th etc) will be drawn first with the first team of the pair allocated to a spot on side A of the bracket and the remaining team in the pair drawn to side B.

The seeded sides will then be drawn with the highest ranking teams (9th and 10th) drawn to face the lowest ranking teams (23rd and 24th). The teams who finished 11th and 12th will then be drawn to face the teams ranked at 21st and 22nd and so on until all teams have been drawn and the play-off round draw is complete.

The matches will be two-legged clashes, with the first leg taking place on the 13 February and the second leg on the 20 February. The seeded team (the teams who finished 9th to 16th in the league phase) will be the home side for the second leg.

The victors of each tie will earn a place in March's round of 16.

Round of 16

If we finish in the top eight places in the league phase, we will not be involved in the play-off round draw on Friday and will instead advance directly to March's round of 16.

If we finish in those top eight places, we will learn our opponents for the round of 16, and for the rest of the competition, in a draw on Friday 21 February.

In the draw in February, we would be paired alongside another of the top ranking teams. The team that finishes 1st in the league phase will be paired with the team that finishes 2nd while the team that finishes 3rd will be paired with the team that finishes 4th, and so on...

In this draw, there will be four bowls with each holding a pair of the top-ranked sides with each pair split when drawn, the first team drawn taking a slot on side A and the second drawn taking a spot on side B of the bracket.

Again, the ranking will be seeded with the teams ranked 1st and 2nd in the league phase drawn against the winners of the knockout play-off ties between the sides which finished in 15th, 16th, 17th and 18th.

The teams ranked 3rd and 4th in the league phase will then be drawn against the winners of the knockout play-off ties between the sides which finished in 13th, 14th, 19th and 20th.

The teams ranked 5th and 6th in the league phase will then be drawn against the winners of the knockout play-off ties between the sides which finished in 11th, 12th, 21st and 22nd.

The teams ranked 7th and 8th in the league phase will then be drawn against the winners of the knockout play-off ties between the sides which finished in 9th, 10th, 23rd and 24th.

It means, if we finish in the top eight, on Thursday night (30 January) we will not know our exact opponents for the round of 16 but can assured that it will be one of four teams.

The quarter-final matches will also be two-legged clashes, with the first leg taking place on the Thursday 6 March and the second leg on the Thursday 13 March. The seeded team (1st to 8th) will be the home side for the second leg.

The victors of the ties will earn a place in April's quarter-finals.