UEFA 2022-23 Europa League and Conference League group stage draws: as it happened
Europa League and Conference League group stage draw: as it happened
That's about it from us today, thanks for joining and enjoy the continental season!
Conference League groups confirmed
Here is confirmation of the UEFA Conference League group stage. Villarreal will probably he happy enough with their lot in Group C but West Ham and Fiorentina might have been hoping for an easier ride. Ghent will be favourites to progress from Group F but Nice have been handed a tricky route to the knock-out stages.
Here's a reminder of the pots for today's draw. Plenty of debutants in European competition in the mix today: Ballkani, Djurgårdens IF, Dnipro-1, Pyunik, RFS, Silkeborg, Slovácko, Vaduz and Žalgiris will make their first appearance in a UEFA competition group stage while Ballkani, Vaduz and Žalgiris are the first teams from Kosovo, Liechtenstein and Lithuania to play in a UEFA competition group stage.
We're about reeady for the Conference League draw now...
Conference League draw up next
In around half an hour the draw for the Conference League will take place. We'll bring you news of the groups as they come out.
Europa League 2022-23 groups confirmed
And here we have final confirmation of the 2022-23 Europa League group stage line-up. Arsenal have a reasonably tough assignment and Mourinho would probably have preferred to avoid Betis while Ludogorets have been known to bloody the occasional lip, but most of the big guns will be expected to end the preliminary round in the top two to progress. United have some potentially tricky away days there and Lazio's group looks fairly evenly matched.
Pot 4 confirmed
The groups are being finalised now and A is completed by FC Zürich, AEK Larnaca complete Group B, Omonoia finish up Manchester United's Group E, HJK Helsinki are in Group C, Union Saint-Gilloise complete Group D, Sturm Graz are in Group F, FC Nantes make up Group G and Trabzonspor complete the line-up in Group H.
Pot 3 allocated
Bodø/Glimt go into Group A, Fenerbahçe are in Group B, Betis are in Group C with Roma, Sheriff go into Group E, Midtjylland go into Group F, Union Berlin are drawn into Group D, Freiburg are drawn in Group G and Ferencváros go into Group H.
Pot 2 out
PSV join Arsenal in Group A, Rennes are in Group B, Ludogorets go into Group C, Malmö go into Group D, Real Sociedad are drawn in Group E with Manchester United, Feyenoord are placed in Group F, Qarabag go into Group G, which leaves Monaco to go into Group H.
Top seeds assigned
Arsenal are first out of the tombola and go into Group A. Dynamo Kiev go into Group B. Roma are drawn in Group C. Manchester United head Group E. Braga are next up and go into Group D. Lazio go into Group F. Greek champions Olympiacos go into Group G, which leaves Red Star to go into Group H.
A quick explanation now of how the draw will work. As ever, no sides from the same national league can be drawn together in the group stage. Kick-off times will also be staggered based on a team's home country and the computer will assign the fixture list taking into account potential clashes and teams playing in the same city on the same day.
Zoltán Gera, a Fulham legend and former Hungary international, this season's final ambassador, is next out. The final this season will be held at the Puskas Arena in Budapest on 31 May, 2023.
Karl-Heinz Körbel enters stage left and places the Europa League trophy on its plinth. The current director of Frankfurt's academy holds the record for the most Bundesliga appearances in history with 602, all of them for The Eagles.
A quick montage of last season's competition currently being played. Eintracht won the Europa League - a first European title since 1980 - by beating Rangers in the final. Neither side are in today's draw as they have both reached the Champions League group stage.
It looks like we're about to get underway in Istanbul...
The Europa League may be the ugly sister to the Champions League but it can't be denied some of the best goalscorers in history have plied their trade in the competition. The top score overall in the group stage is 18, jointly held by Aritz Aduriz and Munas Dabbur, while the single-season record is held by Radamel Falcao, who plundered 17 for Porto in 2010-11, beating Jürgen Klinsmann's previous mark of 15.
Among other players to have top scored in the UEFA Cup / Europa League are Alan Shearer, Walter Pandiani, Henrik Larsson, Rudi Völler, Luca Toni, Jupp Heynckes, and Olivier Giroud.
The draw for the Champions League took place yesterday and you can check who got whom with our round-up of events. There are some tasty looking groups, with Barcelona and Sevilla on the wrong end of the draw and Atlético and Real Madrid coming out of it rather nicely.
Conference League pots
Moving down a tier to the Conference League (are we alone in wishing they'd resurrected the Cup Winners' Cup instead?) and there are a few sides that stand out as potential champions. Villarreal reached the semi-finals of the Champions League last season and won the Europa League the season before that, placing the Yellow Submarine firmly with the tag of favourites. West Ham will be in contention and the likes of Fiorentina, Anderlecht and Nice could reach the latter stages despite being in the lower-seeded pots.
No defending champion or finalist from last season
One of the curiosities of the Europa League is that sometimes there is neither a defending champion nor a runner-up in the competition as the whole point of the tournament is to try and avoid having to play it the following season by qualifying for the Champions League.
Last year's victors, Eintracht Frankfurt, qualified as a result while the team they beat, Rangers, did so through league position and the playoffs. That situation could of course change after the Champions League group stage if one or both finish third in their group and are parachuted back into the Europa League.
Another team to watch will be Roma, who won the inaugural Conference League last season under the guidance of José Mourinho. The Portuguese schemer will be well aware that the Europa League is a more likely route to the Champions League than Serie A and will bring his immense experience to bear in the competition.
Among Mourinho's European records are winning all three major European trophies (Champions League, Europa League and Conference League), a feat only previoujsly achieved by Giovanni Trapattoni and Udo Lattek. He is also the only manager to have won European titles with four different clubs.
United among the favourites
The Europa League has become depressingly familiar for Manchester United fans in recent seasons, with the club now no longer among those in the continental elite for whom Champions League qualification is a given. United won the competition in 2016-17, reached the semis in 2019-20 and the final again two seasons ago, losing to Villarreal. They might prefer to be in the Champions League, but for the Red Devils this may provide the most accessible route back to the big time this season.
As has been the case in recent years, some big clubs grace the Europa League this season with the likes of Arsenal, Man United, Roma, PSV, Feyenoord, Lazio, Red Star Belgrade, Real Sociedad and Real Betis all involved. The pots were finalised on Thursday with the completion of the qualifying rounds.
Europa and Conference League group stage draw: welcome
Hello and welcome to AS English's live coverage of the group stage draws for the 2022-23 Europa League and Conference League. Prodeedings are due to get underway in Istanbul at 13:00 CEST with the Europa League draw, which will be followed at around 14:30 by the Conference League draw.