Posted in: 26/08/2022 – 14:36
Istanbul (AFP) – The draw for the group stage of the European Football Championship (European League) in football, which was drawn Friday in Istanbul, made Arsenal the leaders of the English Premier League with PSV Eindhoven, while his great compatriot Manchester United will face Real Sociedad of Spain.
Arsenal, runners-up in the 2000 and 2019 editions and returning to the continental championships, are making a great start in the English Premier League, putting them in the lead with three complete victories.
And to PSV Eindhoven, the 1978 champion, who is supervised by former scorer Ruud van Nistelrooy, the team of Spanish coach Mikel Arteta will face Bodo/Glimt of Norway and Zurich of Switzerland.
Arsenal’s three rivals failed to get past the preliminary rounds of the Champions League this season.
On the other hand, the fifth group was accepted for United, the 2017 champions and 2021 runners-up, with Basque Sociedad, Moldavian Sheriff Tiraspol and Cypriot Omonia Nicosia.
The “Red Devils” compensated for their negative start in the local league, which witnessed two losses, by beating rivals Liverpool 2-1 last Monday.
United had defeated Sociedad 4-0 on aggregate in the round of 32 matches, on their way to the 2021 Europa League final, when they lost to Spanish club Villarreal on penalties.
Sheriff, who has been crowned seven times in a row in the Moldavian League and defeated European champions Real Madrid last season in the group stage, hopes to compete at least for a second place that qualifies him for the playoffs of the 16th round. Because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Transnistrian team plays its home matches in Chisinau.
The draw included 12 direct qualifiers, 10 qualified teams from the play-off round and 10 losers in the third preliminary round of the UEFA Champions League.
The 32 clubs were divided into eight groups, with four in each group. The champion of each group qualifies automatically for the round of 16, while the runner-up plays a playoff with one of the eight third-placed clubs in their group in the Champions League.
As for the third-placed players in each group, they will move on to the Conference League Supplement, where they will face the runners-up in the groups.
The first pot included Italian Roma, the third-placed holder of the Conference League title in terms of continental importance, in addition to seven clubs according to the classification.
Roma, which is supervised by Portuguese coach Jose Mourinho, signed in a third easy group that includes Bulgarian Ludogorets, Real Betis of Spain and HJK Helsinki of Finland.
Italy’s Lazio fell into a sixth group, including the Dutch Feyenoord, and the French Monaco in the eighth, along with the Serbian Red Star.
The group stage matches will be held between September 8 and November 3, the Round of 16 playoffs on February 16 and 23, the Round of 16 on March 9 and 16, the quarter-finals on April 13 and 20, the semi-finals on May 11 and 18 May and the final on May 31 in Budapest.
Last season’s edition ended with Eintracht Frankfurt winning at the expense of Scotland’s Rangers on penalties, while Sevilla, Spain, holds the record with six titles.
© 2022 AFP