Arsenal and Chelsea have discovered their Europa League group stage fates – and Friday’s draw pitted against some little-known sides.
Unai Emery’s Gunners were paired with Portugal’s Sporting in Group E but were drawn alongside Qarabag of Azerbaijan and Vorskla Poltava of the Ukraine.
Maurizio Sarri’s Chelsea face a trip to PAOK Thessaloniki in Greece but also face intriguing clashes with BATE Borisov of Belarus and Hungarian side Vidi.
What lies in store for the Premier League pair? Here, we give you the lowdown on their lessen-known opponents…
Qarabag
Arsenal’s most high-profile opponent will be Portuguese team Sporting CP, but their other two opponents in Group B are more unfamiliar, starting with Qarabag. The Azerbaijani champions, managed by Gurban Gurbanov, have never faced Arsenal but they played Chelsea in the Champions League group stages last season – losing 6-0 at Stamford Bridge and 4-0 at home.
Qarabag, whose supporters refer to them as the ‘Barcelona of the Caucasus’ missed out on a place in this season’s Champions League group stages with a qualifying defeat to BATE Borisov, but overcame Moldovan team FC Sheriff to take their place in the Europa League. The majority of their playing squad are Azerbaijani but they also count Iceland goalkeeper Hannes Halldorsson and Spaniards Michel and Dani Quintana among their number.
FC Vorskla Poltava
As well as Azerbaijan, Arsenal must travel to Ukraine to face FC Vorskla Poltava. Vorskla finished third in the Ukrainian top flight last season – their highest finish since 1996/97 – and are taking their place in the group stages of a European competition for only the second time in their history. Last time, in 2011/12, they finished bottom of a Europa League group containing Standard Liege, Hannover and Copenhagen without winning a game.
Vorskla play at the 25,000-capacity Butovsky Vorslka Stadium and are coached by Vasyl Sachko. Their squad is dominated by Ukrainians but also contains Brazilians Artur and Nicolas Careca, who is on loan from Gremio.
BATE Borisov
Belarusian champions BATE Borisov have made regular appearances in Europe in recent decades – they twice lost to Arsenal in this competition last season – but Chelsea will be facing them for the first time in Group L. This year, they dropped into the Europa League having lost to PSV in a Champions League play-off.
They are managed by Alyaksey Baha, who took charge this summer, and have won the last 18 consecutive Belarusian titles. Their squad does not contain many familiar names, but it does include Arsenal midfielder Alexander Hleb, who is in his fifth spell with the club.
FC Vidi
Chelsea will also face Hungarian side Vidi – who were known as Videoton until changing their name this year. Vidi have only faced English opponents once in their history, when they beat Manchester United on penalties following a 1-1 draw on aggregate in the 1984/85 UEFA Cup quarter-finals.
Vidi went on to finish as UEFA Cup runners-up that year, losing 3-1 to Real Madrid in the final, but they have not scaled those heights since. They won the Hungarian title last season for the first time since 2014/15, but they will not be expected to cause Maurizio Sarri’s team too many problems. Their squad contains few English connections – although French defence Loic Nego did have a brief spell at Charlton Athletic.
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Sourse: skysports.com
