The Europa League draw is almost upon us and several European clubs will be eyeing their way back into the Champions League by doing well in this competition.
48 teams will be divided into four pots. These pots are ranked in order of UEFA team coefficient, which is based on a club’s performance in European competitions over the past five years.
Pot 1 consists of the 12 highest ranked teams and some of the notable names include Manchester United, Schalke, Zenit St. Petersburg, Athletic Bilbao, Inter Milan and Fiorentina.
Europa League champions Sevilla are not a part of the competition this season and the likes of Manchester United will be considered amongst the favourites to lift the trophy in May.
Confirmed: Our @EuropaLeague Group A opponents… #UELdraw pic.twitter.com/MZigfjiqzI
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) August 26, 2016
Jose Mourinho will look to win a major honor in his first season and what better way to do that than to win Manchester United’s first Europa League trophy.
The Red Devils missed out on Champions League qualification and are expected to take this competition seriously.
Date of draw: 26th of August 2016
Time: 12:00 pm BST
Venue: Monaco
Live Streaming: UEFA.com
The group stage of this season’s Europa League kicks off in September and will end in December. It will be spread out across six matchdays – 15 September, 29 September, 20 October, 3 November, 24 November and 8 December 2016.
Rules of the draw
- The 48 entrants based on their club coefficients include 22 playoff winners, the ten losing teams from the UEFA Champions League play-offs and the 16 sides entering at this stage.
- No team can play a club from their own association.
Here are the pots for today’s draw
Pot 1
Schalke (GER)
Zenit (RUS)
Man. United (ENG)
Shakhtar Donetsk (UKR)
Athletic Club (ESP)
Olympiacos (GRE)
Villarreal (ESP)
Ajax (NED)
Internazionale Milano (ITA)
Fiorentina (ITA)
Anderlecht (BEL)
Viktoria Plzeň (CZE)
Pot 2
AZ Alkmaar (NED)
Braga (POR)
Salzburg (AUT)
Roma (ITA)
Fenerbahçe (TUR)
Sparta Praha (CZE)
PAOK (GRE)
Steaua Bucureşti (ROU)
Genk (BEL)
APOEL (CYP)
Standard Liège (BEL)
St-Étienne (FRA)
Pot 3
Gent (BEL)
Young Boys (SUI)
Krasnodar (RUS)
Rapid Wien (AUT)
Slovan Liberec (CZE)
Celta Vigo (ESP)
Maccabi Tel-Aviv (ISR)
Feyenoord (NED)
Austria Wien (AUT)
Mainz (GER)
Zürich (SUI)
Southampton (ENG)
Pot 4
Panathinaikos (GRE)
Sassuolo (ITA)
Qarabağ (AZE)
Astana (KAZ)
Nice (FRA)
Zorya Luhansk (UKR)
Astra Giurgiu (ROU)
Konyaspor (TUR)
Osmanlıspor (TUR)
Qäbälä (AZE)
Hapoel Beer-Sheva (ISR)
Dundalk (IRL)
Here are the groups for this season’s UEFA Europa League
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