UEFA Europa League 2019-20 groups confirmed

Thanks for joining us, and enjoy the competition! 

And here we are, the complete Europa League group stage draw for the 2019-20 tournament! 

Here's Eden Hazard saying cheers for the player of the year award. 

Bratislava complete Group K, and Alkmaar Group L, which will be a relief for United as it's a bit closer to home. 

Wolfsberg, who are in the Austrian league, rather unfortunately avoid Wolfsburg. Is that in the regulations somewhere? They go into Group J, which were calling the good luck prnouncing that lot group. 

Vitoria complete Group F with Arsenal, Frankfurt and Standard Liége. 

Ferencvaros go into Group H with Espanyol. 

Cluj complete Group E... 

FC Olexandriya go into Group I with Wolfsburg, Ghent and St Etienne. 

LASK complete group D... 

Rangers go into Group G, which looks like a pretty entertaining one with Porto and Feyenoord also in there. 

Trabzonspor go into Group C. 

Lugano go into Group B... 

Pot 4 coming up now, Dudelange complete Group A. Nice draw for Sevilla. 

And United also have Partizan Belgrade in their group... 

Wolves into Group K for thier European adventure, with Braga and Besiktas....

St Etienne pull Wolfsburg and Ghent... 

Arsenal, Frankfurt and Standard Liége... 

Rennes, Celtic and Lazio is looking like a nice group... 

Rosenburg go into Group D... 

Espanyol have a couple of long trips to Moscow and Bulgaria. 

Feyenoord go into Group G, which is starting to look a bit rough and ready... 

Malmö go into Group B, with a short hop to Copenhagen for them. 

Getafe go into Group C with Basel and Krasnodar. 

And it's a trip to Azerbaijan for Sevilla as they land Qarabag. We seem to recall they gave Atlético all kinds of problems in the Champions League a while back. 

Manchester United will travel to Kazakhstan to play Astana, while Braga join Besiktas in Group K. 

Ghent are drawn with Arsenal in Group I... 

And here come Mönchengladbach, and they go into Group J with Roma. 

Young Boys wind up in Group G with Wolfsburg

Frankfurt and Porto paired up in Group F. 

Celtic join Lazio in Group E... 

PSV are drawn with Sporting... Group D shaping up nicely. 

FC Copenhagen go into Group B

Krasnodar join Basel in Group C. 

Sevilla have drawn APOEL

And finally Roma, Group J... 

Arsenal, Group I... 

Manchester United, Group L... 

Besiktas, Group K... 

CSKA, Group H... 

Wolfsburg, Group G... 

Porto, Group F... 

Lazio, Group E... 

Sporting Lisbon, Group D... 

Basel, Group C... 

Dinamo Kiev, Group B... 

Sevilla are first out of the hat! They go into Group A. 

Ashley Cole to get the ball rolling.... 

A quick explanation of how the thing works... we'd try, but you need a masters in making things as complicated as possible to even keep up. We'll ask Boris Johnson... 

48 teams... crikey, they could do with streamlining this thing couldn't they? 

OK, here we go, the draw is about to start! 

Ashley Cole has been wheeled out as part of the standard pomp and circumstance. He was a winner of the competition with Chelsea back in 2012–13. 

Mind you, Giroud bagged 11 goals in the tournament to finish as top scorer, with Jovic knocking in 10. The Frenchman also managed five assists, so he can probably be forgiven a little grunt of disapproval that his former teammate walked away with the silverware. 

And indeed it is! Two goals in the final probably enough to ensure he pipped Olivier Giroud and Luka Jovic to the gong. 

We're about to find out who will be named player of the tournament for last year... we suspect it will be Eden Hazard. 

Just a few minutes to go until the preamble gets underway... 

We're going to say Sevilla.... 

The Parakeets, of course, were runners-up in 2006–07, losing in the final to perennial winners Sevilla, who have five of the things under their belts altogether (2005–06, 2006–07, 2013–14, 2014–15, 2015–16). 

Spanish interest in today's draw starts with Sevilla, the highest-ranked team in the draw according to UEFA coefficient, and then we have Getafe and Espanyol. The last time the Azulones were in the competition they got knocked out in the group stage but in the old UEFA Cup (which we rather miss to be honest) in 2007-08, they took Bayern Munich to the wire in the quarter-finals. 

The dates for the group stage games are already set, so as soon as the balls are out (so to speak) away fans can start planning their calendars. Ghent is lovely by the way. 

Matchday one: 19 September
Matchday two: 3 October
Matchday three: 24 October
Matchday four: 7 November
Matchday five: 28 November
Matchday six: 12 December

In case you missed it yesterday, here's a reminder of how the Champions League draw unfolded. 

Another explainer from UEFA about the peculiarities of today's draw: 

In the case of associations with two or more representatives, clubs have been paired so that they play with different kick-off times (18.55 CET and 21:00 CET) for the benefit of TV audiences. The pairings are:

Sevilla & Espanyol
Arsenal & Manchester United
Porto & Sporting CP
Roma & Lazio
Dynamo Kyiv & Olexandriya
Beşiktaş & Trabzonspor
Basel & Young Boys
CSKA Moskva & Krasnodar
PSV & Feyenoord
Celtic & Rangers
Braga & Vitória SC
Gent & Standard
Mönchengladbach & Eintracht
St-Étienne & Rennes
LASK & Wolfsberg

Eden Hazard, Olivier Giroud and Luka Jovic are the nominees for the player of the 2018-19 tournament, and we'll find out who picks up the ging in due course. 

And here are the pots from which they will be drawn. Plenty of exotic destinations for away fans to start getting excited about in that lot. 

Here's an, ahem, quick guide to the 48 teams involved in today's draw, and the nations they represent. 

ESP: Espanyol, Getafe, Sevilla
ENG: Arsenal, Manchester United, Wolves
ITA: Lazio, Roma
GER: Borussia Mönchengladbach, Eintracht Frankfurt, Wolfsburg
FRA: Rennes, St-Étienne
RUS: CSKA Moskva, Krasnodar
POR: Porto, Sporting CP, Braga, Vitória SC 
UKR: Dynamo Kyiv, Olexandriya
BEL: Gent, Standard Liège
TUR: Beşiktaş, İstanbul Başakşehir, Trabzonspor 
NED: AZ Alkmaar, Feyenoord, PSV Eindhoven
AUT: Wolfsberg, LASK
DEN: København
SUI: Basel, Lugano, Young Boys
CYP: APOEL
SRB: Partizan 
SCO: Celtic, Rangers
SWE: Malmö 
NOR: Rosenborg
KAZ: Astana
AZE: Qarabağ
BUL: Ludogorets
ROU: CFR Cluj
SVK: Slovan Bratislava
HUN: Ferencváros
LUX: Dudelange

Hello and welcome to AS English's live coverage of the Europa League group stage draw for the 2019-20 tournament. The balls are due to start rolling at 13:00.