The fate was lenient for Monaco, Rennes and Nice, who avoided the leaders of the European Cups, Friday August 25, in the draw while Nantes will have to negotiate perilous confrontations against Friborg and Olympiakos and a distant trip to Azerbaijan against Qarabag.
The day after a Champions League draw favorable to Marseille and Paris-Saint-Germain, fate smiled again on French clubs on Friday in Istanbul, where the representatives of Ligue 1 – Monaco Rennes and Nantes in the Europa League ( C3) – have avoided Arsenal, Manchester United, AS Roma or Lazio Roma. Ditto Nice in the Europa League Conference (C4), where Villarreal and West Ham, two scarecrows, will not cross paths with the Gym.
Monaco, switched back to C3 like last year after failing to qualify for the Champions League (C1), hopes to do better than the round of 16 lost to Braga last season (2-0, 1-1).
The group of the Monegasque club is rather open, even if the atmosphere of the opposing stands promises to be hot for the club from the Principality, accustomed to the cozy atmosphere of the Louis-II stadium: the Red Star of Belgrade and its legendary Marakana stadium , the Hungarians of Ferencvaros, who dream of an epic until the final scheduled in Budapest, and Trabzonspor, recent champion of Turkey with always boiling supporters.
Meeting between Rennes and Dynamo kyiv
For Rennes, there will be a trip to Turkish soil, to Istanbul against Fenerbahçe, and a trip to Cyprus to face the modest club of Larnaca. The Bretons will also have a very symbolic confrontation to play against Dynamo kyiv, a club very affected by the war in Ukraine, who played their recent European preliminary rounds in Lodz, Poland. “We don’t know where we are going to play”warned Olivier Cloarec, president of Stade Rennes.
The club from the Ukrainian capital is nevertheless gradually resuming its daily life with the restart of the national championship. Rennais and Ukrainians had already faced each other in the same competition in 2018-2019, with two victories for Dynamo (3-1 and 2-1).
Placed in hat number 4, that of the teams with the lowest UEFA index, FC Nantes knew that it was threatened in the draw. The Canaries will have to do with a strong group including Olympiakos, Qarabag and Fribourg, in this competition which starts on September 8.
No major shock to expect
For the winner of the Coupe de France, who returns to Europe eighteen years after his participation in the Intertoto Cup, remains to bet on the fervor of the Beaujoire stadium to hope to see the knockout phase.
Scarecrow of the group stage, Manchester United inherited in particular from Real Sociedad. As for the Arsenal players, back in the European Cup after a historic absence last season, they will challenge PSV Eindhoven, the Norwegians of Bodo / Glimt and Zurich in group A.
All the big clubs being placed in the first hat, no major shock is to be expected during the group stage, which is very tight in the calendar (8 September-3 November) due to the holding of the World Cup in Qatar. from November 20.
Realized in stride, the draw for the groups of the second edition of the Europa League Conference rather smiled at Nice, the only French representative in this C4.
The Gym feared Villarreal and West Ham, they finally inherited Cologne, Partizan Belgrade and the Czechs of 1. FC Slovacko, a balanced group. But, after the qualification snatched Thursday in the last minutes of the extension of the play-off match against Maccabi Tel-Aviv (2-0 after, first leg: 0-1), the people of Nice are above all happy to have their European ticket in hand .