Arsenal, Manchester United Carry England's Europa League Hopes
18th September 2019
Scottish rivals Celtic and Rangers face testing paths to the knockout rounds as bitter foes Roma and Lazio bid to end Italy's two-decade wait for the title
- Manchester United and last year's finalists Arsenal headline an English trio that also features Europa League newcomers Wolves while record five-time champions Sevilla figure to be among the primary contenders
- Porto, PSV Eindhoven and Feyenoord are the other former European Cup winners in a competition that will welcome the eight third-place finishers from the Champions League groups for the knockout phase
- United, Europa League winners in 2017, will host Astana in Group L as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's side face opponents from Kazakhstan for the first time in club history
PARIS, France- Manchester
United and last year's finalists Arsenal headline an English trio that also
features Europa League newcomers Wolves while record five-time champions
Sevilla figure to be among the primary contenders as the group stage begins
Thursday.
Scottish rivals Celtic and Rangers face testing paths to the
knockout rounds as bitter foes Roma and Lazio bid to end Italy's two-decade
wait for the title.
Porto, PSV Eindhoven and Feyenoord are the other former
European Cup winners in a competition that will welcome the eight third-place
finishers from the Champions League groups for the knockout phase.
United, Europa League winners in 2017, will host Astana in
Group L as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's side face opponents from Kazakhstan for the
first time in club history.
They will expected to progress with relative ease from a
group that also includes Partizan Belgrade and former finalists AZ Alkmaar of
the Netherlands.
Unai Emery's Arsenal return to the competition after last
season's 4-1 defeat by Chelsea in the final in Baku saw the Blues pip them to
Champions League qualification.
MUST
READ: F1 Championship Leader Lewis Hamilton Eyes Hat-Trick In Hazy Singapore GP
The Gunners visit Eintracht Frankfurt to kick off their
campaign, with 10-time Belgian champions Standard Liege and Portugal's Vitoria
Guimaraes also in Group F.
Wolves, in their first European campaign since 1980, will
meet Portuguese club Braga in their opening game at Molineux.
Nuno Espirito Santo's team came through three ties just to
reach the group stage. They beat Torino 5-3 on aggregate in the play-offs.
"I think any team in the Europa League are a good team
who we will respect going up against them. We will give everything, try to play
and try to beat any team," said Wolves winger Adama Traore.
"Any player wants to play in Europe, but the Europa
League is exciting, it is a new thing for us and it's a good thing."
- Six newcomers -
Scottish champions Celtic travel to French Cup holders
Rennes in Group E, with Italian Cup holders Lazio and CFR Cluj, the Romanian
side to whom they lost in Champions League qualifying, completing a tricky
section.
Steven Gerrard's Rangers are at home to Jaap Stam's
Feyenoord on Thursday and will do well to navigate a group with Porto and Swiss
champions Young Boys.
Roma will take on Istanbul Basaksehir in their first game
while Moenchengladbach host Austria's Wolfsberg -- not to be confused with
German outfit Wolfsburg.
Austria boast two representatives with LASK Linz among the
six debutants -- alongside Espanyol, Wolves, Wolfsberg, Olexandriya and
Ferencvaros -- in the tournament.
READ
ALSO: Barkley Misses Penalty As Toothless Chelsea Stunned By Valencia
UEFA will distribute 560 million euros to clubs competing in
this season's Europa League, just over a quarter of the 1.95 billion euros
allocated to those participating in the Champions League.
Each of the 48 clubs in the group stage will receive a base
of 2.92 million euros, with lifting the trophy worth just under 18 million
euros in basic prize money.
Teams will net 570,000 euros per win and 190,000 for a draw
with additional revenue coming through television markets and money depending
on each team's UEFA ranking.
By comparison, the Champions League winners stand to take
home around 75 million euros before considerable sums are tacked based on the
market pool and coefficient ranking.
The final will be held in the Polish city of Gdansk on May
27, 2020.