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UEFA Europa League and Europa Conference League group draws, as they happened: Man United, Arsenal West Ham and Hearts discover their opponents

Manchester United, Arsenal and West Ham know their fates after the Europa League and Europa Conference League group stage draws

By Conor Pope
Contributions from
Mark White
 last updated
Europa Conference League trophy
(Image: © Getty Images)

The Europa League and Europa Conference League draws have now taken place. 

• Arsenal have been drawn into Group A of the Europa League, with PSV Eindhoven, Bodø/Glimt and FC Zurich

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Let's take a look at the Europa League pots first:

There are 32 teams, split into four pots, and they will be drawn into eight groups. 

On the subject of Manchester United, Cristiano Ronaldo could make his first appearances in the Europa League since 2002/03, when he made two appearances in the then-UEFA Cup with Sporting. He didn’t manage a goal in the two-legged tie against Partizan, so he’s still to break his duck there, but he did bag an assist. Take that, Lionel.

What's that? You want to see the only photograph FourFourTwo could source of 17-year-old CR7 (or CR28, as he seemed to be then) playing against Partizan Belgrade in the UEFA Cup?

Dynamo Kyiv are in the Europa League draw after losing to Benfica in the Champions League play-offs. 

Also in Pot 1 are Jose Mourinho’s Roma, who triumphed in the inaugural Europa Conference League last year – a feat so momentous that the Special One got a permanent reminder of it inked on his arm.

Remarkably, there are just three former winners of the competition in this afternoon's draw: Manchester United (2017), Feyenoord (1974, 2002) and PSV (1978).

The furthest team that Manchester United or Arsenal will have to face would be Qarabag. The Azerbaijan Premier League champions are located in Baku, five and a hours away by air. It’s not that much further to go to New York, is it?

There might be Brighton interest in today’s Europa League draw. Union Saint-Gilloise’s chairman is Tony Bloom, who also heads the Seagulls. The two sides have a good working relationship, too, with Brighton’s Kacper Kozlowski going on loan there last season and Union’s Denis Undav moving to the Amex in the summer.

The most difficult group for Manchester United and Arsenal? It almost certainly involves either of the two Dutch sides from Pot 2. 

The weaker teams in the Europa draw are some of the furthest away – making the best possible outcome for both Arsenal and United a tricky call. Ludogorets are the lowest-ranked side in Pot 2… but wouldn’t the Premier League giants prefer a short-haul hop to Malmo?

Arsenal will be thankful for the small mercy of being in the same pot as Olympiacos, a bogey team that they really don’t like facing in Europe.

Manchester United could well come face to face with an old friend in the form of Ruud van Nistelrooy. 

Luckily for the Red Devils, they can't face former manager Jose Mourinho just yet in the competition. The Special One’s Roma side are the top-ranked team in the draw following their Conference League victory last season.

We're just starting off the programme in Istanbul, so we'd expect the draw to start in around 10 minutes – there will inevitably be a bit of chat and introducing the ball-pickers (stop laughing) before we get going proper.

Premier League players who could face former clubs in the Europa League group stage:

Karl-Heinz Korbel, Eintracht Frankfurt legend, is bringing the Europa League trophy onto the stage. Eintracht were last season's winners, beating Rangers 5-4 on penalties after a 1-1 draw in Seville.

The final this season will be held in Budapest, Hungary, meaning we have a Hungarian legend along to help with the balls.

They're now running through the pots and the rules, explaining how clubs from the same countries are paired to ensure different kick-off times. So one of Manchester United and Arsenal will always have an early kick-off on Thursdays – usually 5.45pm UK time.

Get ready, the draw's starting now!

Arsenal are the first team out of the bowl. They go into Group A.

Dynamo Kyiv are the Pot 1 team in group B.

Jose Mourinho's Roma allocated to Group C.

Manchester United in Group D.

SC Braga go into Group E.

Lazio into Group F.

Olympiacos, Greek champions, into Group G.

Crvena zvezda into Group H.

Starting on Pot 2 now.

These are the Pot 2 teams:

Van Nistelrooy's PSV go into Group A against Arsenal!

Pot 3 about to start. These are the teams:

Pot 4 about to start. here are the teams:

Here's the full groups for the Europa League 2022/23:

And here are the groups in a nicer format. You're welcome.

Let's take a look at the English sides' groups then.

For Man United, it's a little different. Getting to Tiraspol in Moldova takes around three hours by plane (with no direct flights from Manchester for fans running right now), while a trip to Nicosia in Cyprus for the Omonoia away game takes just shy of five hours. Those games will be tough on the legs.

Let's turn attention to the Europa Conference League draw.

This will be Unai Emery’s first-ever Europa Conference League campaign. The Basque boss is a master of the second-tier competition, having won four trophies and finished second in 2019 with Arsenal – and now he embarks on the third tier with Villarreal, who are the top-ranked side in this season’s competition. 

Also making their debut in the competition this season, Vaduz will become the first club from Liechtenstein to ever play in a UEFA competition group stage. 

The most difficult draw for West Ham, according to the coefficient, at least, would involve drawing Romanian side Cluj, Ligue 1 giants Nice and Dnipro-1, the phoenix club of Dnipro who reached the Europa final in 2015. 

The easiest draw for West Ham? On paper, it’s Slovan Bratislava, Vaduz and Kosovan debutants Ballkani.

A word about Dnipro-1, who rose from the ashes of FC Dnipro and took the Microsoft approach of renaming the club like a successive Word document.

The presentation is just beginning, with an emotional video tribute to last year's winners, Roma.

In the meantime, let's rattle through a few more interesting tidbits.

There may well be interest from Manchester United fans in one of the Europa Conference League sides. Not for the players, nor the manager… but the owner. 

We've got our ball-picker! Volkan Demirel, the former Fenerbahce goalkeeper.

In case you wondered, the best club nickname in the Europa Conference League is AZ’s Kaaskoppen. That translates as “Cheeseheads”. 

Here's a blast from the past! Vladimir Smicer just rocked up.

We're about to get going! Here's the pots – we'll start with Pot 1.

İstanbul Başakşehir go into Group A:

West Ham into Group B:

Villarreal into Group C:

AZ Alkmaar into Group E:

Gent into Group F:

Partizan into Group D:

Slavia Praha in Group G:

Basel into Group H:

Now for Pot 2:

Fiorentina into Group A:

FCSB into Group B:

Hapoel Beer-Sheva into Group C:

Cologne into Group D:

Apollon Limassol into Group E:

Molde into Group F:

Slovan Bratislava into Group H:

And now we're ready to divvy out Pot 3. Here are the teams:

Hearts into Group A:

Vaduz into Group B:

Shamrock Rovers into Group F:

Anderlecht into Group B:

Austria Wien into Group C:

Nice into Group D:

Sivasspor in Group G:

Žalgiris Vilnius  into Group H:

That's Pot 3 out of the way. Here's what Pot 4 holds:

RFS into Group A:

Silkeborg into Group B:

Dnipro-1 

Slovácko into Group D:

Here are the Europa Conference League groups for 2022/23 in full:

What do we make of West Ham's group then? They have trips to FCSB in Romania, Anderlecht in Belgium and Silkeborg in Denmark to contend with.

Here are the Europa Conference League groups in one handy graphic:

We'll wrap up the liveblog there – whether you're a Man United, Arsenal, West Ham Hearts, or Shamrock Rovers fan, enjoy your European jaunts this season!

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