Europa League Draw

[ukfootballfan101]

The draw is tomorrow lunch time. The teams are:-

Pot One

Atlético Madrid
Liverpool
Sevilla
Porto
Villareal
CSKA Moscow
PSV Eindhoven
Zenit St. Petersburg
Juventus
Sporting CP
Stuttgart
AZ


Pot Two

Steaua Bucureşti
Lille
Dynamo Kyiv
Anderlecht
Bayer Leverkusen
Paris Saint-Germain
Club Brugge
Palermo
Getafe
Beşiktaş
Manchester City
Sampdoria


Pot Three

Sparta Prague
AEK Athens
Metalist Kharkiv
Levski Sofia
Rosenborg
Red Bull Salzburg CL
CSKA Sofia
Odense
Napoli
Borussia Dortmund
Dinamo Zagreb
BATE


Pot Four

Aris
Rapid Wien
PAOK
Lech Poznań
Karpaty Lviv
Young Boys
Utrecht
Gent
Lausanne-Sport
Sheriff Tiraspol
Debrecen
Hajduk Split


Same rules as the champions league apply so we can't draw City.

Personally I'd take any three teams from that list but ideally we want french, dutch and Belgian teams to keep the travel down.

I think the ideal draw would be:-

Pot 2 any from; Lille, Anderlect, Paris SG or Club Brugge

Pot 3 Borussia Dortmund or Odense (Denmark)

Pot 4 Utrecht or Gent

[DannyMan2006]

It's a trophy we should be favourites to win tbh.

There are obviously tougher draws, especially travel wise, but it's a group we should sail through regardless of who we get as long as we put out reasonable teams for the games.

[Craig_H]

Same rules as the champions league apply so we can't draw City.

Personally I'd take any three teams from that list but ideally we want french, dutch and Belgian teams to keep the travel down.

I think the ideal draw would be:-

Pot 2 any from; Lille, Anderlect, Paris SG or Club Brugge

Pot 3 Borussia Dortmund or Odense (Denmark)

Pot 4 Utrecht or Gent

Why would you want Dortmund of Utrecht? I agree about easy trips, but still, we dont really want the stronger sides from Spain, Holland, Germany or Italy. Or even France. Definitely dont want Russia or Turkey etc.

Pot 2 doesnt give much choice really, so as you say, someone like Lille, Anderlecht or Brugge would have to do. Definitely dont want Dynamo Kiev, Bucharest or Besiktas. And we're better steering clear of the Italians, Germans and Spanish sides, so no Sampdoria/Palermo or Atletico/Getafe or Leverkusen. Doesnt leave much

Pot 3, Odense would be ideal. Rosenborg or Salzburg would be good too, short trips and weak opposition.

Pot 4, either Rapid Vienna or Young Boys would be cool. Lusanne would be perfect.

Isnt the Europa Cup group stage different to the CL though? You dont play each team twice in the group, it's just once isnt it?

So if we got a turkish/russian/eastern european side, and we drew to play them at home, that'd be fine.

[lickedlollipop]

i hope somewhere near slovenia (zagreb)

[Suarez]

[QUOTE=DannyMan2006;1692805]It's a trophy we should be favourites to win tbh.
QUOTE]

Not sure I can share your optimism there.

[ukfootballfan101]

Isnt the Europa Cup group stage different to the CL though? You dont play each team twice in the group, it's just once isnt it?

It used to be like that but they changed the format when they renamed it the europa league.

[Shaggy]

How does the format work? Is it a straight home and away v everyone? I'm sure recently it had some ludicrous format when you played some teams away, and not at home, and others at home...and not away.

[DannyMan2006]

Play home and away in the group stages, changed to this last season.

[Shaggy]

Makes it just slightly less Mickey Mouse.

[Rudo]

We're going to win the Europa, now you're going to believe us.

Now you're going to believe us

[DannyMan2006]

Makes it just slightly less Mickey Mouse.

Only slightly though

tbh teams like Sevilla, Porto and Juventus make it look a little better and it suggests to me there could be some good ties later on in the tournament if we can hang on in there.

It will be a big test of our squad though as I fully expect the big players to be rested for the majority of these games.

[Craig_H]

Is it top 2 in the group going through?

[DannyMan2006]

Is it top 2 in the group going through?

Top 2 from each group = 24

3rd place from each CL group = 8

All go into the draw for the round of 32.

[DannyMan2006]

Should add, it's two extra games to win this tournament in that if Spurs won the CL and we won this, we'd have played two more games as the top 2 in the CL go into a round of 16.

[Craig_H]

Cheers Danny.

Oh - and it's Gokhan Inler. No 'm' in his name