Friday, March 29, 2024

Arsenal’s Europa League group stage opponents revealed

The draw for this season’s Europa League has been made, and Arsenal will face Sporting Lisbon, Azerbaijan champions Qarabag and Ukrainians Vorskla Poltava in the group stages.

The Gunners were semi-finalists last season, eventually going out to winners Atletico Madrid, and new boss Unai Emery – having won the competition three times with Sevilla – will be hoping to do better this season.

With the winners gaining access to the following season’s Champions League, it could well be a solid route back to Europe’s top table with competition for a top four spot in the Premier League still very strong, and with the Spaniard still trying to mould the team in his image.

The games kick off on September 20th, with kick off times of 5.55pm or 8pm (UK).

Previous Fixtures

Arsenal v Sporting Lisbon
We last played the Portuguese side on our way to our 1970 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup success; the club’s first of two European trophies. We drew 0-0 away before winning the 2nd round tie 3-0 at Highbury.

Arsenal v Qarabag
We’ve never faced Qarabag. They did get spanked by Chelsea in the Champions League group stage last season, but also achieved notable draws home and away with Atletico Madrid.

Arsenal v Vorskla Poltava
Yeah, you guessed it…we’ve never played them.

The fixtures will be out in the next couple of hours, we’ll have an update on that later.

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gooner

I miss Bayern and Barcelona. Maybe it’s just that I’ve forgotten the pain.

BidOnLard

It’s not the 1/8ths yet, there’s time.

Sheffield Gooner

Me too. The Europa League really is a bag of shit this year. Still, bring it on…

Clockendrider

A Qarabag of shit, to be precise..

A Different George

Wasn’t Qarabag one of the islands that Gulliver traveled to?

Almọnd

This is quite a tricky group. Sporting are no push overs, Qarabag are a good organized team who rarely looses at home then I know nothing about Vorksla or Volkswagen

Confused

Vorksla are a bit like Skoda…

Eternal Titi Berg Pat Nostalgia

Come on, if our bench warmers do not beat those then we have become a very small club.

Kwame Ampadu Down

Exactly. Please stop with ‘tricky group’ comments. Arsene rotated his entire first 11 throughout the group stage & we qualified easily. There is no reason the sane shouldn’t happen again.

DBMÖ10

Sporting were potentially the only challenge in this group but with this small problem of their Senior squad have their contracts terminated , the most we’ll see is a couple of backups surrounded by their youth team.

BigArse

That’s a hell of a lot of travel.

Gunnerlocutor

But don’t forget the glamor of Baku and Poltava!

Gunnerlocutor

I meant glamour of course. English spelling is tough for us Poltavans.

Crash Fistfight

Baku looks quite nice, based on what you see of it in the coverage of the Azerbaijan Gran Pris.

Crash Fistfight

Or even Grand Prix.

We only have for Eboue

Baku is meant to be a really nice city though isn’t it?

JB_

Not sure what standard you’re holding it up to, but I guess it qualifies as ‘up and coming..’, as long as, y’know, you’re not gay and don’t care about press freedom etc.

Hantal

Gone are the days of bergkamp in a car to get to the game

marc

1970 – not 1969

jarghs

It’s 1969 until it’s 1970, that’s how it works.
Don’t mind me, I just ate a Crunchie.

Fatgooner

You know you’re in the Europa League when you have to google the name of a team you’ve just drawn.

Runzac

You knew about Ludogeretz Razgrat beforehand? Overwhelming knowledge there.

A Different George

Ozil’s goal against Ludogarets is something to watch over and over. He put two defenders plus the keeper on the floor, the keeper twice.

marc

And I think they lost 3-1 in the away leg. ‘A Ray of Light’ Ray Kennedy got the away goal

marc

Sorry – that was the final v Anderlecht! I’ll go away now!

Hantal

The big opponent here is the travelling distance, Id be very surprised to see many players appearing in the league and Europa games, at least away

Mother

Agreed.

I’d be interested to find out if anyone knows how Emery treated the Europa League group stages whilst at Sevilla?

Eternal Titi Berg Pat Nostalgia

We loaned Chambers and Nelson. It means PL starting XI must play Europa League which means we will not be shooting for top four.

Kwame Ampadu Down

No, it doesn’t. Name your PL starting 11 & I guarantee we could quote you another 11.

Jack

Oh those 6pm kickoffs where I have to pretend I’m ill in order to go home early from work. How I’ve missed those.

Ted E.

Honestly, I’m chuffed. That’s lunch hour in NYC.

Darkdreamz

We should be killing those teams but knowing us we will either draw or lose games away because of so called hostile environment and shit . Hopefully we r past the way Wenger approached them.

Rich

Those who wanted us to drop down to the Europa because we weren’t competing in the CL have got exactly what you wanted., I hope it’s everything you dreamed of and more.

Red-Sky

Don’t know what you’re on about.
This is much better than a 10-2 thrashing against one of Europe’s top dogs.

mashkeyboardgetusername

Okay then. Mainly I wanted to avoid the Scottish teams (they’re always really up for playing an English club and can seriously raise their game as a result) and we’ve got that at least.

Mpls

And then there’s the shinning thing, and Brendan. Or is that redundant?

adgonner

Boring boring boring. The season is boring. Not one thing to look forward to. Not one player to take to. The spark is gone…. In the past, at least we had players like cesc, nasri, van persie, Sanchez, arshavin, and even vermaelen whom you would enjoy watching whatever the result.. hope auba and laca provide me a reason to watch this season..

Finnish Gooner

Don’t watch then. Easy solution.

Twatsloch

I don’t miss Sanchez.

Red-Sky

I have to agree not many of the current squad have that allure of the greats..

Mpls

Nor are any of them as alluded by happy meals.

Mpls

Allured. Fucking ALLURED. Fuck off, spellcheck.

There may be some glaring typos in my future comments as I’ve about had it with spellcheck. At least they’ll make sense.

Laca-Sead

Bellerin, Nacho, Mhki, Xhaka, LAca, Auba are exciting players. I can’t wait to see how Torreira, Guendou and Sokratis are going to turn out ( sorry I get excited by unknown quantity). Most of all I am super mega looking forward at the blend our brand new flashy manger will get out of this group of players.

jarghs

“hope auba and laca provide me a reason to watch this season..”
How will you know if you’re not watching in the first place?
puzzledfaceemoji

Ordnance Dave

Lisbon is a dangerous team. Bas Dost is a lethal finisher and Fernandes is the next Ronaldo. Got to play a strong team away and at home.

A Different George

Which Ronaldo–Brazilian or Cristiano? Just asking, so I know what to watch for.

jon

You need av visa to enter Azerbadjan. However, it should be provided within three days:

https://www.evisa.gov.az/en/countries

jarghs

Every woman, every man – join the Qarabag of love
Stand up
Stand up

I’ve waited too long to post this somewhere. Right, think I’ll take the rest of the day off.

santori

Come on.

I mean, we should be able to get by.

Seen some of the CL draw and some groups are weak.

That said even if England had a 5th spot in CL, we won’t be there this season.

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