The Uefa Champions League draw was concluded on Thursday and it was the turn of the Uefa Europa League at the same venue in Monaco.
All 48 qualified teams were placed in one of four pots to form 12 groups, with One team from either of four pot drawn in each group. No two sides from the same country were drawn together.
The winners of this year’s Europa League will enter the qualifying stages of next season’s Champions League.
The two English teams in the competition this year, Everton and Tottenham, got a difficult draw more-or-less- the former in terms of tougher opponents while the latter face a grueling traveling schedule, with the trips to Besiktas, Partizan Belgrade and Asteras Tripolis totaling over 10,000 miles of travel.
However, Maurico Pochettino’s men will take solace in the fact that their previous visit to Besiktas’ Ataturk Stadium in the group phase of the UEFA Cup in 2006, produced a 2-0 outcome in their favour courtesy of goals from Hossam Ghaly and Dimitar Berbatov.
Everton, placed in pot three, have a tough draw in Group H, where they play a Lille outfit, which has Nigeria international Vincent Enyeama in goal, and Bundesliga club Wolfsburg as well as a tricky journey to Russia’s Krasnodar.
Everton’s best performance in the Europa Cup was reaching the last 16 in 2008, when they lost to Fiorentina on penalties.
Another Nigerian Efe Ambrose and Celtic avoided meeting Legia Warsaw, the side who they controversially beat in Champions League qualifying due to a technicality. The Scottish champions take the second seed in Group D alongside Red Bull Salzburg, Dinamo Zagreb and Astra Giurgiu.
The Hoops last faced Dinamo Zagreb in the Champions League second qualifying round in 1998, losing 3-1 on aggregate after scoring the only goal at Parkhead but losing 3-0 on the road.
And on meeting Salzburg, Celtic have only won two of eight games against Austrian opponents.
Full Europa Draw
Group A
Villarreal
Borussia Monchengladbach
FC Zurich
Apollon Limassol
Group B
FC Copenhagen
Club Brugge
Torino
HJK Helsinki
Group C
Tottenham
Besiktas
Partizan Belgrade
Asteras Tripolis
Group D
Red Bull Salzburg
Celtic
Dinamo Zagreb
Astra Giurgiu
Group E
PSV Eindhoven
Panathinaikos
Estoril Praia
Dinamo Moscow
Group F
Inter Milan
Dnipro
Dnipropetrovsk
Saint-Etienne
Qarabag
Group G
Sevilla
Standard Liege
Feyenoord
Rijeka
Group H
Lille
Wolfsburg
Everton
Krasnodar
Group I
Napoli
Sparta Prague
Young Boys
Slovan Bratislava
Group J
Dynamo Kiev
Steaua Bucharest
Rio Ave
Aalborg
Group K
Fiorentina
PAOK Salonika
Guingamp
Dinamo Minsk
Group L
Metalist Kharkiv
Trabzonspor
Legia Warsaw
KSC Lokeren
by Greenstarnetwork admin..
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