Arsenal placed in tough Europa League group
monaco — Arsenal face a tricky Europa League group stage with ties against Cologne and Red Star Belgrade as Arsene Wenger’s side play in Europe’s second-tier competition for the first time since 1997.
The Gunners, who were also given a difficult assignment in Belarus against Bate Borisov in Friday’s draw, are playing in the Europa League after they finished fifth in the Premier League last season.
Another European giant, AC Milan, have an easier passage with ties against Austria Vienna, AEK Athens and Rijeka of Croatia.
Wayne Rooney’s Everton will have a stern test in a group containing French club Lyon, whose Groupama Stadium will host the final on May 16.
Italian side Atalanta and Cypriot minnows Apollon Limassol round out Everton’s group.
Everton manager Ronald Koeman said: “It’s a strong group, all in a good part of Europe. Easy to travel. Tough but it’s tough for everybody.”
Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas said he was glad to have been paired with “footballing nations”.
“Everton and Atalanta are good teams in good leagues and we will also have to go to Limassol which hasn’t been successful for us in the past,” he said.
French club Nice, who have strengthened their star-studded squad with the addition of Dutch veteran Wesley Sneijder this summer, drew a big-name Italian opponent in the shape of Lazio.
Nice also face early Dutch league leaders Vitesse Arnhem and Zulte Waregem of Belgium.
Paul Pogba of last season’s winners Manchester United was voted the best player of the 2016-2017 competition and received the trophy in a pre-recorded video message shown at the draw in Monaco.
Meanwhile, the familiar routine of crowd trouble at the Belgrade derby should make way for a soccer feast when Serbian champions Partizan Belgrade and city rivals Red Star clash on Sunday after midweek Europa League success, fans and officials said. Serbia will have two teams at once in the group stages of any European competition for the first time after Red Star knocked out Russia’s Krasnodar and Partizan beat Hungarians Videoton on Thursday.
Red Star advanced from the qualifying rounds for the first time since 2007 in front of 50,000 fervent home fans and their coach Vladan Milojevic wished both teams more success.
“It’s a great thing (that Serbia will have two teams in the group stage),” he told the country’s Beta news agency. “Serbian football can only benefit from the progress of as many teams as possible.”
The national team’s coach Slavoljub Muslin, a former Red Star player and manager, was just as elated. “I am happy for both clubs because this is an historic result which will certainly generate a more positive atmosphere,” Muslin said.
Such camaraderie between Belgrade’s big two has been rare in the past three decades, with the former Yugoslavia’s violent break-up and economic depression unleashing unprecedented football hooliganism.
Bloody fights, ending in hundreds of arrested offenders, dozens of injuries and even several fatalities became commonplace whenever Red Star and Partizan met in the battle for domestic supremacy while struggling in Europe.