Europa League draw: Manchester United given gruelling group

Wolverhampton Wanderers were handed an encouraging draw on their return to European competition proper for the first time in 38 years, when they avoided big-name opposition in a Europa League group that pits them against Besiktas of Turkey, Braga of Portugal and Slovan Bratislava of Slovakia.

Nuno Espírito Santo will be happier than Unai Emery with the draw, for Arsenal’s opponents in Group A include Eintracht Frankfurt and Standard Liège, while Manchester United face demanding trips to Partizan Belgrade and Astana of Kazakhstan. Eintracht reached the semi-finals of the Europa League last season, losing to Chelsea, though they have since parted with two of their most impressive players in Luka Jovic and Sébastien Haller, sold to Real Madrid and West Ham respectively.

Of the British teams in the draw the lower-seeded Scottish sides found themselves with perhaps the most testing programmes. Celtic are in an attractive Group E with Lazio, Rennes and Cluj, while Rangers will have arguably the toughest test in emerging from a group featuring Porto, Feyenoord and Young Boys of Switzerland.

Arsenal went all the way to the final last season, to be beaten 4-1 in Baku by Chelsea. The 2020 final will be staged in Gdansk, Poland, which is not such a challenging prospect for teams and supporters from this country, though in terms of arduous trips in this season’s group stage Manchester United have drawn the short straw with games in Kazakhstan and Serbia in addition to Alkmaar of the Netherlands.

Thursday night football notoriously tends to impact on a team’s performance the following weekend, and Ole Gunnar Solskjær and his players face a round trip of 6,000 miles to reach Astana.

Arsenal’s opponents can at least be relatively conveniently reached, while Wolves’ Portuguese manager will relish a trip to Braga. Besiktas might be a challenge for a side that reached the group stage via a final play-off victory over Torino this week, though Wolves will be confident of picking up points against their Portuguese and Slovakian opponents.

While Lazio might be Celtic’s most illustrious opponents in Group E, Rennes should not be underestimated after their recent victory against Paris Saint-Germain in the French league, and Neil Lennon and his players need no introduction to Cluj having played them this month. The Romanian champions knocked Celtic out of the Champions League with a 4-3 win, after Celtic appeared to have done the hard work by gaining a 1-1 draw in the away leg. Dan Petrescu’s side went on to lose to Slavia Prague in the Champions League play-off round, which is why they are back facing familiar opponents in the Europa League.

“There are some glamour ties to look forward to and maybe we can exact some retribution against Cluj,” the Celtic manager said. “Rennes are a good side too, they won the cup in France last season, but I think we can make a good impact in the group.”

In Group G the Rangers manager, Steven Gerrard, will be aware that the Swiss champions, Young Boys, gave Manchester United a decent game in the Champions League at Old Trafford last season, that Porto were runners-up in the Portuguese league while Jaap Stam’s Feyenoord finished third in the Eredivisie.