Today’s UEFA Europa League draw in Monaco has coupled Rangers FC with Premier League giants Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United. Aside the two English heavy weights, Rangers also drew Union SG, Malmö, Lyon, Olympiacos, FCSB and Nice.
Rangers will be facing Tottenham Hotspur at home, while Rangers fans can also prepare themselves for meetings at Ibrox with Belgian side Union SG, French side Lyon and the Romanian side FCSB.
On the away section of the League phase the Glaswegians will be travelling to Greece for their game against Olympiacos, to Sweden for their game against Malmö, to England for their game against Man United and to France for their game against Nice.
At first glance the draw appears to have matched The Gers to some tough opponents, with Tottenham Hotspur ending 5th in the Premier League last season and Manchester United winning the second tier European competition back in 2017.
In the new League phase set up for the UEFA Champions League, Europa League and Conference League there will be an initial thirty-six team League phase, in which each team plays eight matches against eight different teams. The best eight teams will move on to the next round, while the numbers nine to twenty-four play a play-off round, and the bottom twelve are eliminated.
UEFA Conference League draw
Straight after the results for the Europa League draw were revealed, the Conference League draw followed. In the third tier European club competition Hearts of Midlothian got matched with Copenhagen, Heidenheim, Omonoia, Petrocub, Cercle Brugge and Dinamo-Minsk. Hearts’ home games will be against Omonoia, Heidenheim and Petrocub, while the Edinburgh side will have to travel to Copenhagen, Dinamo-Minsk and Cercle Brugge.
Due to Kilmarnock their 1-1 draw against Copenhagen in the play-offs (1-3 on aggregate) yesterday and St Mirren losing out against SK Brann in the qualifiers, Scotland will be represented by three teams in Europe this season: Celtic (Champions League), Rangers (Europa League), Heart of Midlothian (Conference League). During yesterday’s Champions League draw Celtic learned it will have to play Aston Villa, Borussia Dortmund, Leipzig, Young Boys, GNK Dinamo, Club Brugge, Slavia Bratislava, and Atalanta.
The European season will start in the weekend of 17-19 September. The exact match fixture schedule will be shared by UEFA tomorrow.
