ASTON VILLA will host Coppa Italia winners Bologna and visit Dutch side Feyenoord in their Europa League opening stage fixtures.
Scottish Premiership clubs Celtic and Rangers will both welcome Italian giants AS Roma to their home grounds following Friday’s group stage draw.
Nottingham Forest’s return to European competition after nearly three decades features a challenging encounter against Portuguese powerhouse Porto.
Forest, who last participated in European football during the 1995-1996 season, also face Swedish opponents Malmo in a rematch of their 1979 European Cup final victory.
The draw procedure divided thirty-six participating clubs into four seeding pots based on UEFA’s official club coefficient rankings.
Each team will play eight league phase matches consisting of four home fixtures and four away matches against opponents from every seeding pot.
The top eight teams from the league phase table will advance directly to the competition’s round of sixteen knockout stage.
Teams finishing between ninth and twenty-fourth position will enter two-legged knockout playoffs for the remaining round of sixteen spots.
Crystal Palace, demoted from the Europa League due to multi-club ownership regulations involving Olympique Lyonnais, will host Strasbourg and visit Dynamo Kyiv in the third-tier Conference League.
French club Lyon, permitted by UEFA to compete in the Europa League, will host Austrian champions RB Salzburg and visit Spanish side Real Betis.
Roma face additional challenging fixtures including an away trip to French club Nice and a home match against Lille alongside their Scottish encounters.
German Cup winners VfB Stuttgart prepare to welcome Dutch opponents Feyenoord among their group stage assignments. – Reuters
