Indeed, some very, very interesting fixtures and trips for Erik ten Hag's MUFC in this new refurbished version of the Europa League.
The draw is the same as the Champions League and one that nobody truly understands.
Anyway, United's eight league opponents are:
- Rangers (H)
- Porto (A)
- PAOK (H)
- Fenerbahce (A)
- Bodo/Glimt (H)
- Viktoria Plzen (A)
- Twente (H)
- FCSB (A)
I do believe this is a good draw with a mixture of everything: tough games, straight forward wins and ones where we will be up against it. I feel as though all the home games are very winnable although Rangers are a bit of a threat but on the road, mouthwatering.
The first away trip is to the Stadium of the Dragon to face Porto which is then followed by a trip to Turkey where we will take on a couple of familiar faces.
Fred, Sofyan Amrabat and of course, ex-United manager - whom we won this competition with back in 2017 - Jose Mourinho.
Very interesting.
Other than Rangers, Porto and Fenerbahce, I feel that we should be good enough to win the rest and qualify for the next stage.
For those of you who don't know how the qualification works (just like myself), the teams that finish in the top 8 of the league phase will automatically go through to the round of 16. The other 16 teams will then contest a play-off where the winners will qualify for the knockouts and the rest will be eliminated.
Hope that makes things clear for you because it did fuck all for me 🤷♂️.
Background Image: Europa League trophy | Creator: DeFodi Images | Credit: DeFodi Images via Getty Images - SuperSport