Leicester City learn Europa League group stage opponents

The UEFA Europa League draw was held today and we found out Leicester City’s opponents for their first European group stage since the Champions League run of 2016/17.

Fixtures kick off on October 22nd and will carry on into early December. Below we’ll break down each of the teams the Foxes will face.

SC Braga - Portugal

While we couldn’t face the two highest ranked teams in the draw (Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur), pot 1 still included some very tough draws like Roma or Bayer Leverkusen.

Instead, the Foxes managed to find one of the lowest ranked teams from the first group. Braga finished 3rd in the Portuguese League last year, although they did win the League Cup.

After emerging top of Wolves’ Europa group last season, Braga bombed out in the first knockout round.

If anything, they’re probably weaker this year, with the loss of on again/off again Leicester transfer target Trincao, and will rely on Portuguese forward Paulinho, who bagged 25 goals in all competitions last year.

AEK Athens

AC Milan were probably the only name you wanted to avoid from pot 3, and we duly did so, landing another 3rd place finisher from last season, this time from the Greek league.

The Athenians couldn’t make it even this far last year, failing to Trabzonspor in the play off round of qualifying. This year they fared better, thanks to a last minute winner over Wolfsburg.

Much like Braga, they’re also led by a Portuguese front man in Nelson Oliveira, who was once just ok for Nottingham Forest.

Zorya Luhansk

Luhansk were technically the highest ranked team from pot 4, but compared to Lille or Nice, the 3rd place finishers from the Ukranian League are not a difficult draw.

The Ukrainians also failed to make this round last year, and the most difficult aspect of the fixture will be the long away trip, although it wont be to Luhansk itself, as UEFA has opted not to hold fixtures in a war zone.