Rennes inherited Friday a rather raised group in the Europa League with Lazio Rome, Celtic Glasgow and the Romanians of Cluj. For Saint-Etienne, the draw is more favorable with Wolfsburg, Ghent, and the modest Ukrainian club Olexandriya.
"We are rather satisfied, we will be able to allow our supporters to have beautiful posters with Lazio and Celtic and Cluj Club which has an interesting course and many qualities," reacted Stade Rennais general manager Olivier Létang asked about RMC Sport from Monaco, where the draw was held.
On the Etienne side, Bernard Caïazzo, one of the leaders of the club is "suspicious" of supposedly easy groups. He is especially happy to have "not too far away trips with Belgium and Germany Wolfsburg is a very great club that we will find with great pleasure, the Ukrainians we do not know them very well", he recognized on RMC sport. Olexandriya, 3rd in her last championship last year, is in fact an almost unknown team and is playing her first group stage of Europa League.
Tombeur de Strasbourg, Frankfurt will find Arsenal
This first round does not present large posters, with Arsenal, the finalist of last season, opposed to Eintracht Frankfurt, last year's semi-finalist, Standard de Liège and Portuguese of Vitoria Guimaraes. The Gunners will be rubbing against the hot public of Frankfurt, the team that has just eliminated Strasbourg dams.
For this first round, the "big guys" do not have to shake as a whole. Manchester United, winner of the C3 in 2017, is against the Kazahks of Qarabag, the Serbs of Partizan Belgrade and the Dutch of AZ Alkmaar.
Group A: Sevilla FC (ESP), Apoel Nicosia (CHY), Qarabag (AZE), Dudelange (LUX)
Group B: Dynamo Kiev (UKR), Copenhagen (DEN), Malmo (SWE), FC Lugano (SUI)
Group C: FC Basel (SUI), Krasnodar (RUS), Getafe (ESP), Trabzonspor (TUR)
Group D: Sporting Portugal (POR), PSV Eindhoven (NED), Rosenborg (NOR), LASK (AUT)
Group E: Rome Lazio (ITA), Celtic Glasgow (SCO), Rennes (FRA), Cluj (ROU)
Group F: Arsenal (ENG), Frankfurt (GER), Standard Liège (BEL), Vitoria Guimaraes (POR)
Group G: Porto (POR), Young Boys Bern (SUI), Feyenoord Rotterdam (NED), Glasgow Rangers (SCO)
Group H: CSKA Moscow (RUS), Ludogorets (BUL), Espanyol Barcelona (ESP), Ferencvaros (HUN)
Group I: Wolfsburg (GER), La Gantoise (BEL), Saint-Etienne (FRA), Olexandriya (UKR)
Group J: AS Roma (ITA), Borussia Moenchengladbach (GER), Istanbul Basaksehir (TUR), Wolfsberg (AUT)
Group K: Istanbul Besiktas (TUR), Braga (POR), Wolverhampton (ENG), Sloven Bratislava (SVK)
Group L: Manchester United (ENG), Astana (KAZ), Partizan Belgrade (SRB), AZ Alkmaar (NED)