Europa League draw: Crystal Palace’s potential opponents and pots explained | OneFootball

Crystal Palace will discover their Europa League opponents today, with Bournemouth and Sunderland also involved in the draw. According to The Standard, Palace enter as Conference League holders in their first season in the competition.

They were initially due to play in last season’s Europa League but were moved to the Conference League after the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled they had breached multi-club ownership rules.

17 teams have qualified directly. The 36-team field will be completed by seven Champions League play-off losers and 12 Europa League play-off winners.

Each club will be drawn against eight opponents, two from each pot. Teams cannot face sides from their own country at this stage and can meet a maximum of two from any other association. Palace are in Pot three with Bournemouth and Sunderland, and sit 85th in UEFA’s coefficient.

From Pot one they could draw Bayer Leverkusen, Juventus, AC Milan, Benfica, AZ Alkmaar, Lyon, Olympiacos, Marseille or Real Sociedad.

Pot two contains Celtic, Ferencvaros, Viktoria Plzen, Union Saint-Gilloise, Dinamo Zagreb, Red Bull Salzburg, Sparta Prague, Rennes and Anderlecht.

From their own pot, excluding Bournemouth and Sunderland, possible opponents are Sturm Graz, Lech Poznan, Celje, Jagiellonia Bialystok, Omonia Nicosia and Celta Vigo. Pot four features Hoffenheim, Besiktas, Torreense, Hapoel Be'er Sheva, NEC Nijmegen, OFI Crete, Lillestrom, Levski Sofia and Ararat-Armenia.

Source: The Standard

“Artificial intelligence was used to assist in creating this article based on reporting from the original source quoted.”