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The Independent UK

Luke Brown

Europa League draw: Watch full replay Uefa group stage 2019 draw as Man Utd and Arsenal learnt fate

Manchester United face a couple of long-distance midweek trips after being drawn in a Europa League group with Astana of Kazakhstan, Partizan Belgrade and AZ Alkmaar.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's team are set to play in Group L and their away clash with Astana will see United make a 6,000 mile round trip to Nur-Sultan.

Last season's finalists Arsenal have been drawn against Eintracht Frankfurt, Standard Liege and Vitoria Guimaraes. Frankfurt reached the semi-finals last term before being knocked out by Chelsea.

Wolves have been put in a group with Besiktas, Braga and Slovan Bratislava.

Scottish Champions Celtic will play Lazio, Rennes and Cluj - the Romanian club who knocked them out of Champions League qualifying.

Rangers, meanwhile, were placed with Porto, Young Boys and Feyenoord.

When do the games take place?

Matchday one: 19 September
Matchday two: 3 October
Matchday three: 24 October
Matchday four: 7 November
Matchday five: 28 November
Matchday six: 12 December

Latest updates:

2019-08-30T08:43:03.536Z

Hello and welcome along to live coverage of the Europa League draw! We'll have all the build-up to the main event, which will kick-off at around midday UK time, as Manchester United, Arsenal, Wolves, Celtic and Rangers are among those sides in the hat...

2019-08-30T08:56:08.700Z

Pot 1

104.000 Sevilla (ESP)
101.000 Arsenal (ENG)
93.000 Porto (POR)
81.000 Roma (ITA)
78.000 Manchester United (ENG)
65.000 Dynamo Kyiv (UKR)
62.000 Beşiktaş (TUR)
54.500 Basel (SUI)
50.000 Sporting CP (POR)
48.000 CSKA Moskva (RUS)
40.000 Wolfsburg (GER)
37.000 Lazio (ITA)

Sevilla are the highest ranked side in the competition, according to Uefa's coefficients, and as serial winners of this competition they are one to avoid. Manchester United and Arsenal won't need to worry about that, given their positions in pot one, and they will have the benefit of avoiding other heavy-hitters like Wolfsburg, Besiktas, Sporting, Porto and Roma. For Celtic, Rangers and Wolves, Lazio might be the softest of the lot but the reality is there is no easy draw here.

2019-08-30T09:06:33.380Z

Pot 2

37.000 PSV Eindhoven (NED)
34.500 Krasnodar (RUS)
31.000 Celtic (SCO)
31.000 København (DEN)
31.000 Braga (POR)
29.500 Gent (BEL)
29.000 Borussia Mönchengladbach (GER)
27.500 Young Boys (SUI)
27.500 Astana (KAZ)
27.000 Ludogorets (BUL)
25.500 APOEL (CYP)
24.000 Eintracht Frankfurt (GER)

Celtic's place in pot two means they will avoid tricky opponents like Eintracht Frankfurt, Borussia Monchengladbach and PSV Eindhoven. For the rest of the home nation clubs, long away trips to Cyprus, Russia and Kazakhstan all lurk here.

2019-08-30T09:26:29.516Z

Pot 3

23.000 St-Étienne (FRA)
22.000 Qarabağ (AZE)
22.000 Feyenoord (NED)
20.713 Getafe (ESP)
20.713 Espanyol (ESP)
20.000 Malmö (SWE)
18.000 Partizan (SRB)
17.500 Standard Liège (BEL)
17.092 Wolves (ENG)
11.699 Rennes (FRA)
11.500 Rosenborg (NOR)
10.500 İstanbul Başakşehir (TUR)

Wolves slot into pot three after their impressive win over Torino, which also includes Baku-based Qarabag, who Arsenal will be looking to avoid after the Henrikh Mkhitaryan socio-political kerfuffle of last season.

2019-08-30T09:33:03.560Z

Pot 4

10.500 AZ Alkmaar (NED)
9.646 Vitória SC (POR)
8.000 Trabzonspor (TUR)
7.780 Olexandriya (UKR)
6.250 Dudelange (LUX)
6.250 LASK (AUT)
6.250 Wolfsberg (AUT)
6.000 Slovan Bratislava (SVK)
6.000 Lugano (SUI)
5.250 Rangers (SCO)
3.500 CFR Cluj (ROU)
3.500 Ferencváros (HUN)

Pot Four covers the depth and breadth of Europe, and includes Rangers after Alfredo Morelos' last minute winner took them past Legia Warsaw. A trip to Olexandriya in the Ukraine or Trabzonspor in Turkey does not look particcularly attractive.

2019-08-30T09:46:59.143Z

Wolves are into the Europa League group stage with six wins from six games after victory over Torino at Molineux last night:

2019-08-30T09:49:19.370Z

Need catching up on all the ins and outs from yesterday's Champions League drawing festivities?

Champions League group stage draw revealed in full

2019-08-30T09:54:09.566Z

And a reminder of how things will work today:

What time is the Uefa Europa League draw today?

2019-08-30T10:00:09.306Z

Uefa have very handily explained their pairing system that ensures that clubs play at different times, and listed the clubs in question:

In the case of associations with two or more representatives, clubs have been paired so that they play with different kick-off times (18.55 CET and 21:00 CET) for the benefit of TV audiences. The pairings are:

Sevilla & Espanyol
Arsenal & Manchester United
Porto & Sporting CP
Roma & Lazio
Dynamo Kyiv & Olexandriya
Beşiktaş & Trabzonspor
Basel & Young Boys
CSKA Moskva & Krasnodar
PSV & Feyenoord
Celtic & Rangers
Braga & Vitória SC
Gent & Standard
Mönchengladbach & Eintracht
St-Étienne & Rennes
LASK & Wolfsberg

If a paired club is drawn, for example, in groups A, B, C, D, E or F the other paired club – once drawn – will automatically be assigned to the first available group of G, H, I, J, K or L.

2019-08-30T10:30:14.750Z

Doppelgangers!

A curious quirk of this group stage draw - Wolfsburg coud face Wolfsberg.

Yes, the more prominent German club (in Pot One) have a real chance of a trip to Wolfsberg, an Austrian side in Pot Four.

Like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny Devito in Twins. But with the Austrians considerably smaller.

In fact, I believe we could have Wolfsburg, Wolfsberg AND Wolves all drawn together in the same group. Loopy lupis looping...

2019-08-30T10:37:00.283Z

There are eight former Europa League winners in this year's group stage draw:

Feyenoord (winners in 1974, 2002)
Mönchengladbach (1975, 1979)
PSV (1978)
Frankfurt (1980)
Porto (2003, 2011)
CSKA Moskva (2005)
Sevilla (2006, 2007, 2014, 2015, 2016)
Manchester United (2017)

2019-08-30T10:47:16.676Z

2019-08-30T11:02:50.803Z

Right, the guests are in their seats, the club representatives have assembled themselves, and we are ready to go in Monaco.

2019-08-30T11:05:34.940Z

Through last season's best bits we rattle, through goals long forgotten by even the most hardcore of Europa League fans, and eventually we see the lively hoisting of the trophy by Chelsea in Baku.

Proper business now - the awarding of the Europa League Player of the Season.

2019-08-30T11:05:50.386Z

The nominees are: Olivier Giroud, Eden Hazard and Luka Jovic.

BREAKING NEWS

2019-08-30T11:07:15.080Z

Eden Hazard is the 2018/19 Europa League Player of the Season

2019-08-30T11:08:37.216Z

Hazard is not in Monaco to collect his award, but he delivers a pre-recorded two-line thank you.

Not even a single clap of applause as the host congratulates him. Onwards we go...

BREAKING NEWS

2019-08-30T11:11:04.090Z

A bit of breaking news from Uefa: Rangers have been charged with racist behaviour and ordered to close a section of their stadium.

Match: UEFA Europa League play-off first-leg match between Legia Warszawa and Rangers FC (0-0), played on 22 August in PolandCharges against Rangers FC:

- Racist behaviour (sectarian chants) - Art. 14 of the UEFA Disciplinary Regulations (DR)

Decision:

The Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Body has decided to order a partial closure of the Rangers FC stadium during the next one (1) UEFA competition match in which Rangers FC will play as the host club, for the racist behaviour of its supporters. Rangers FC shall inform UEFA of the sector(s) to be closed, which shall at least comprehend 3,000 seats. The Scottish club is ordered to display a banner with the wording “#EqualGame”, with the UEFA logo on it.

2019-08-30T11:11:49.236Z

2019-08-30T11:15:00.180Z

Ashley Cole has been brought out for a chat, with the former left-back excited to start his coaching career with Chelsea's under-15s.

Short but sweet. He reminisces briefly about Chelsea's Europa League win of 2013, and then strides into the shadowy corners at the back of the stage.