They might not be the continent’s blue-riband club competition, but both the Europa League and the Conference League can be a source of serious fun for those clubs playing in them.
The draws for the group stages of both tournaments have now taken place, with clubs including Liverpool, West Ham, Brighton and Aston Villa learning their opponents for six group matches over the next four months.
The Athletic’s experts on those clubs, Gregg Evans, Roshane Thomas, Andy Naylor and Jacob Tanswell, give their thoughts on the draw their team got.
Europa League
Liverpool
Opponents: LASK (Austria), Union Saint-Gilloise (Belgium), Toulouse (France)
First impressions of the draw
Look, this is not where Liverpool want to be after six straight seasons in the Champions League, reaching the knockout phase on every occasion, but sometimes the most memorable moments for supporters are on unusual, unexpected away days — and this draw has certainly thrown up a few.
How difficult these games against LASK, Union Saint-Gilloise and Toulouse will be depends on the strength of the teams Jurgen Klopp decides to field in these six fixtures. “We’ll make it our competition,” he said of the Europa League last season, publicly playing down any sadness around playing in the continent’s second-best club competition.
So while the group stage might not be that exciting in terms of big-name opponents, what is likely to follow should be, and in the meantime, trips to Linz, Brussels and the south of France will be lapped up by those lucky enough to get their hands on tickets.
What looks like the key game and why?
Liverpool will fancy their chances against all three opponents having avoided a difficult group, and in truth there is no real stand-out crunch fixture.
The representatives of LASK present at the draw smiled when they saw Liverpool were on their way, immediately recognising the quality of their opponents. Union Saint-Gilloise, widely known as USG, impressed in reaching the quarter-finals of this competition last season while also finishing third domestically, but while Toulouse won the French Cup, they finished 13th out of 20 in Ligue 1, so shouldn’t offer up too much resistance.
Which opposition player are you most looking forward to seeing?
Seeing Kevin Mac Allister play against his brother Alexis would be exciting when Liverpool face USG. Centre-back Kevin, 25, joined the Belgian team from Argentinos Juniors, the club back home where 24-year-old Alexis also started his pro career, this summer.
Which game are you most looking forward to?
LASK away is appealing, largely because Linz, Austria’s third-biggest city, is a new destination for Liverpool but also because of the surprise element around their team.
Liverpool have never played LASK, so history will be created regardless. It’s also only the third time the Austrian side have qualified for the group stage of a European competition, so they will pumped up — especially when visiting Anfield — and sometimes that throws up quirky storylines.
What should the rest of the group expect from your club?
Plenty of noise around the fixtures, tough games, and perhaps a scattering of second-string players. There’s no doubt Liverpool will use the Europa League group stage to introduce academy players into the first-team, with the likes of winger Ben Doak, 17, and centre-back Jarell Quansah, 20, likely to be at the top of the list.
With a wealth of attacking talent in the squad, Klopp will also be able to name very strong line-ups if needed.
The drop down in status after so long at UEFA’s top table and the switch to playing on Thursdays might take a little getting used to but once the 2023-25 Europa League gets up and running in a couple of weeks, Liverpool will be out to win it (PS: The final on May 22 is in Dublin).
Gregg Evans
West Ham United
Opponents: Olympiacos (Greece), Freiburg (Germany), TSC Backa Topola (Serbia)
First impressions of the draw
West Ham have the quality and experience to qualify from Group A. It is worth remembering the east Londoners finished top of their Europa League group in 2021-22 and of their Conference League one last season, winning 10 of the 12 matches.
What looks like the key game and why?
The matches against Olympiacos could be tough. Having won the Greek title a record 47 times, the men from Athens’ port district of Piraeus are regulars in the European competitions and will be determined to improve on last season’s Europa League group stage exit, when they failed to win a game.
Which opposition player are you most looking forward to seeing?
Matthias Ginter has struggled to return to the heights of his young career at Freiburg and then Borussia Dortmund. That said, the now 29-year-old has been capped 51 times by Germany. Having rejoined Freiburg last summer, Ginter will be tasked with marking Michail Antonio and company, and it will be interesting to see how the centre-back deals with West Ham’s attacking threat.
Which game are you most looking forward to?
Olympiacos. It will be tough but manager David Moyes will have confidence his team can seal victory. The group draw takes West Ham to Greece, Germany and Serbia. Moyes has often spoken about his excitement that the fans get to visit new countries thanks to their participation in European competitions — and this season will be no different.
What should the rest of the group expect from your club?
Having won the Europa Conference League in May this year and made the Europa League semi-finals a season earlier, West Ham have aspirations for another successful European run. The additions of Edson Alvarez, James Ward-Prowse, Konstantinos Mavropanos and Mohammed Kudus mean they have much-needed squad depth to cope with four competitions.
“We went to Australia (on their pre-season tour) and they were talking about us winning the Conference League,” said Moyes. “To be in that position is huge, so I’m glad I’ve got my first one and I’m looking forward to trying to get my second one — and seeing if we can take West Ham on another European tour and one which is successful.”
Roshane Thomas
What should West Ham expect from Freiburg?
Sebastian Stafford-Bloor: They are not to be underestimated. Christian Streich may well be one of the most likeable characters in the Bundesliga, but he is also its longest-serving head coach and arguably among its best. Over the last three seasons, he has taken Freiburg from finishing 10th in 2020-21 to eighth, then fifth this past May. Given they have the fourth-smallest wage spend in the German top flight, that is a vast over-achievement.
A lack of significant squad turnover in recent years has helped to forge an honest and hard-working group, and they are a side who use the ball and the flanks well and defend to an extremely high standard.
Watch out for Vincenzo Grifo’s delivery and Michael Gregoritsch’s movement in the penalty box. West Ham will also need to do their homework on Streich’s set pieces, which have consistently been among the most effective in Germany.
Brighton & Hove Albion
Opponents: Ajax (Netherlands), Marseille (France), AEK Athens (Greece)
Which game are you most looking forward to?
AEK Athens. I’ve never been to Greece’s historic capital (I have been to both Amsterdam and Marseille), so that’s another city to tick off the list. Plus they are a club with a rich tradition. They only missed out on the Champions League group stage in the final round of qualifying, losing 3-1 on aggregate to Belgium’s Royal Antwerp.
What looks like the key game and why?
Hard to call until the order of fixtures is confirmed but facing Ajax will be special for defender Joel Veltman, a Champions League semi-finalist with the record 36-time Dutch champions four years ago.
The benefit of winning the group is a passage straight through to the round of 16 in March — welcome breathing space after the climax to the group phase in December. Finishing second would mean squeezing a two-leg play-off against a team dropping down having come third in their Champions League group into an already busy February schedule.
Overall though, the aim for Brighton has to be: top two to get through.
Which opposition player are you most looking forward to seeing?
I’m intrigued by the July move and development of Ismaila Sarr at Marseille.
He’s a player I always liked during his four seasons in England with Watford. He scored his first goal for his new club in last Saturday’s 2-0 home win over Brest.
What should the rest of the group expect from your club?
Loud fans, a demonstrative head coach and a team playing a brand of high-risk, high-reward football, the like of which you probably won’t have encountered before.
Twenty-five years ago this week, Brighton were homeless and preparing for a fourth-tier ‘home’ game against Swansea City at Gillingham’s stadium (a temporary ground-share 75 miles, 112km, from Brighton) in front of 2,931 fans.
In less than three weeks, they’ll be playing in European competition for the first time and they are going to make the most of it, on the pitches, in the stands… and elsewhere.
Andy Naylor
Europa Conference League
Aston Villa
Opponents: AZ Alkmaar (Netherlands), Legia Warsaw (Poland), HSK Zrinjski (Bosnia-Herzegovina)
First impressions of the draw
Villa would have the same level of excitement regardless of who was in their group. The Birmingham club sent a contingent of delegates to the draw in Monaco and should be seen as one of the favourites in the competition, at least until the third-placed sides drop down from the Champions League groups for the knockout phase. It looks a well-balanced draw, with top seeds AZ Alkmaar a consistent European side, while trips to Poland and Bosnia-Herzegovina present a different set of challenges. Managing travel on a Thursday-Sunday schedule will be important to head coach Unai Emery.
What looks like the key game and why?
Both games against AZ. Win both, or avoid losing both, and Villa should be in a good position to progress into the knockout stages. UEFA’s coefficient rankings have the Dutch club, semi-finalists in this competition last season, as the 38th best side in the world and especially at home, they are likely to give Emery’s side the toughest test of these six matches. With that said, going to unusual destinations — in this case, Bosnia-Herzegovina — provides intangible challenges, such as managing the logistics and potentially playing Zrinjski in a stadium where the capacity is just 9,000.
Which opposition player are you most looking forward to seeing?
AZ have Premier League old boys in Mat Ryan and Jordy Clasie, who played for Brighton and Southampton respectively, but the unknown quantity is Jens Odgaard. The 24-year-old Dane is playing in his fourth different country, including a spell with Inter Milan. He is one of those types of forwards you are just waiting, hoping, will burst into life and hit the purple patch his potential warrants.
Which game are you most looking forward to?
Zrinjski looks cool. Away to a typical, almost stereotypical, Conference League side. Their stadium in the historic city of Mostar is rather open and unshielded from any inclement weather, and these kinds of teams carry a sense of mystique.
What should the rest of the group expect from your club?
For Emery to take this very seriously. Having won four Europa League finals in the past 10 completed seasons with Sevilla and Villarreal (and managed in a fifth during his time at Arsenal), the Villa head coach is a specialist in European competitions and knows how to put a very strong team out in each game. In other words, he will take no prisoners.
Jacob Tanswell
Mark Carey’s data takeaways
Who has the best chance of winning the competition?
In principle, Liverpool have to be the early favourites to win the 2023-24 Europa League. It was only 15 months ago that Jurgen Klopp’s men were in the Champions League final, just missing out on a seventh title with that narrow 1-0 loss to Real Madrid in Paris.
Per Opta’s Power Rankings (between zero and 100), Liverpool’s rating of 94.5 is the third-highest in the 13,000-team database, which highlights how anomalous their place in the Europa League is in the wider context of their recent success.
In practice, Liverpool might not take the competition by storm as Klopp is likely to rotate his squad during their group matches. No club wants to lose games of football, but the Europa League will not be a priority to Liverpool as they aim to return to the Champions League next season.
Should the Premier League clubs be confident?
Brighton are on the European stage for the first time in their 121-year history, but should fear no one in a group also containing Ajax, Marseille, and AEK Athens. While those three clubs have strong histories in European competition — with Ajax and Marseille both having won the European Cup/Champions League — Opta’s Power Rankings have Roberto De Zerbi’s side as the strongest team of the four on current performances, as the 20th-highest in the entire database with a rating of 89.4.
The same goes for West Ham, whose rating of 88.8 is the 23rd-highest in the database — well ahead of any of their group opponents Olympiacos, Freiburg and TSC. Couple that with their Conference League triumph last season and Moyes’ side have the experience, strength and confidence to have a good go at matching their run to the semis of the 2021-22 Europa League.
Which player should I be keeping an eye on?
If you are not aware of Florian Wirtz’s talents by now, where have you been?
After shaking off injury issues, the German attacking midfielder reminded everyone of his talent with Bayer Leverkusen last season — earning the Europa League’s young player of the season award by scoring three goals and assisting two as they made it to the semi-finals.
Only Manchester United’s Bruno Fernandes logged more open-play chances created (23) than Wirtz’s 21 in total, across the whole competition — which highlights his eye for a pass as well as the intelligence of his execution when operating between the lines.
Leverkusen’s Europa League group this time — Qarabag of Azerbaijan, Norway’s Molde and Hacken from Sweden — looks very winnable, with Wirtz likely to be the one wreaking havoc on opposition back lines again. At just 20 years old, an injury-free season could see the German’s potential go to another level.
(Top photos: Getty Images)
