Topic: Europa League 2010-11 - all you need to know (draw dates, matchday dates, etc)

[blurred]

Dates for your diary and the answers to some questions you might have are below:

Liverpool enter the competition at the 3rd qualifying round stage, where we will be a seeded team (along with the likes of Juventus, Stuttgart, CSKA Moscow, AZ Alkmaar, Sporting Lisbon...) meaning we will be drawn against an unseeded team entering at this stage, or against one of the winners from the previous qualifying rounds.

Currently qualified un-seeded teams in the 3rd qualifying round include: CSKA Sofia, Red Star, Hapoel Tel Aviv, IFK Goteborg, Slovan Bratislava, and Hadjuk Split.

The draw for that fixture is on 16th July. It should be noted that at this point only the first legs of the 2nd qualifying round will have taken place, so there is a distinct chance of us ending up with an either/or draw. If that is the case, our opponents will be confirmed on the 22nd July, when the second legs for that round have been completed.

The first leg of the 3rd qualifying round will be on Thursday 29th July.
The second leg of the 3rd qualifying round will be on Thursday 5th August.

If we are successful in that tie, we go into the play-off round. Teams already qualified for the play-off round include Man City, Villa, Napoli, Leverkusen, Dortmund, PSG, Lokomotiv Moscow, Metalist Kharkiv, PSV, Feyenoord, Porto, Trabzonspor, Grasshopper Zurich. Also entering the qualifying round will be 15 drop outs from the Champions League qualifying procedure (10 from the non-champions route, and 5 from the champions route)

The draw for that is on Friday 6th August.
The first leg for the play-off is on Thursday 19th August.
The second leg for the play-off is on Thursday 26th August.

If we are successful in that tie, we go into the group stages.

The draw for the group stages is on Friday 27th August.

There are 6 matchdays in the group stage, and they are:

Thursday 16th September
Thursday 30th September
Thursday 21st October
Thursday 4th November
Wednesday 1st/Thursday 2nd December (TBC)
Wednesday 15th/Thursday 16th December (TBC)

If we are successful in the group stage (groups of 4, home and away against each side as per the Champions League) then the draw for the round of 32 and round of 16 will both take place on 17th December. Competing in this will be the 12 group winners and runners up from the Europa League, and the 8 3rd placed sides from the Champions League groups.

The matchdays are as follows

The first leg of the round of 32 is on Thursday 17th February.
The second leg of the round of 32 is on Thursday 24th February.
The first leg of the round of 16 is on Thursday 10th March.
The second leg of the round of 16 is on Thursday 17th March.

If we are successful in that, the draw for the quarter final and semi final will be made on Friday March 18th.

The matchdays are as follows:

The first leg of the quarter final is on Thursday 7th April.
The second leg of the quarter final is on Thursday 14th April.
The first leg of the semi-final is on Thursday 28th April.
The second leg of the semi-final is on Thursday 5th May.

If we are successful in that, then we will have reached the final, which is to be played at Lansdowne Road in Dublin, which after re-construction will be known as the Aviva Arena, but for the purposes of the UEFA Europa League will be simply known as 'Dublin Arena' for the final.

The final will be played on Wednesday 18th May, kicking off at 1945 BST.

[aedge659]

Thanks for the info, interesting that if we get and either or in the first qualifer we could potentially only have 7 days to arrange travel and tickets to an away game, if we are drawn away first obviously.

[redbyrdz]

Thanks for that, doesn't look like the easiest competition so far!
Is there anything like country protection? Would hate meeting city in our second round.

[TLT]

Thanks for this, look forward to more Euro aways next year.

[SMD]

Cheers, should be an interesting season next year!

[Pata]

I am distressed to learn from here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010%E2%80%9311_UEFA_Europa_League
that Sibir Novosibirsk are seeded, so Liverpool can't get them in the 3rd qualifying round.
Somewhere completely random, please (but with a decent enough local stadium, so that they're not tempted/forced to play in their capital). 1st leg away as I am likely to be in Russia at the start of August.

[Istanbulievable]

Thanks for the info, interesting that if we get and either or in the first qualifer we could potentially only have 7 days to arrange travel and tickets to an away game, if we are drawn away first obviously.

Was looking at that myself, not ideal at all.

[aedge659]

Thought i'd post a list of possible opponets for the 3rd qualifying round as it stands for everyone:
 
 
Winners of match involving Kalmar FF v Dacia
Luzern
Winners of match involving Lausanne-Sport v Borac Banja Luka
Winners of match involving Cercle Brugge v TPS
Nordsjęlland
Winners of match involving Bnei Yehuda v Shamrock Rovers
Winners of match involving Stabęk v Dnepr Mogilev
Slovan Bratislava
Winners of match involving Ventspils v Teteks
Winners of match involving Molde v Jelgava
Beroe Stara Zagora
Viktoria Plzeň
Jablonec
IFK Göteborg
Winners of match involving Maccabi Tel Aviv v Mogren
Apollon
Aalesund
Hajduk Split
Winners of match involving Dukla Banskį Bystrica v Zestaponi
Winners of match involving Rabotnički v Mika
Inter Turku
Winners of match involving Honka v Bangor City
Winners of match involving MYPA v UE Sant Julią
Winners of match involving Maribor v Videoton
Winners of match involving Gefle v Dinamo Tbilisi
Winners of match involving Dinamo Minsk v Sillamäe Kalev
Winners of match involving OFK Beograd v Torpedo Zhodino
Winners of match involving Spartak Zlatibor Voda v Differdange
Winners of match involving Zrinjski v Tre Penne
Winners of match involving Baku v Budućnost Podgorica
Winners of match involving Qarabağ v Portadown
Jagiellonia Białystok
Winners of match involving Ruch Chorzów v Valletta
Winners of match involving Cibalia v Cliftonville
Winners of match involving Győri ETO v Atyrau

[sheff-jim]

Shamrock Rovers would be boss

[-Paddy-]

Na, Dinamo Tbilisi is where it's at.

REVENGE FOR '79.

[matchball]

Bring it on, lets get back on the road again, love the Euro aways....

[blurred]

Shamrock Rovers would be boss

Shamrock Rovers would be possibly the worst draw ever. It'd be horrific. I'd be absolutely gutted if we got them.

[Hightown Phil]

Luxembourg would be different.

[aedge659]

Luxembourg would be different.

So would Armenia, Macedonia. Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan.

[kalle-anka]

I would like a Swedish team, would be a good reason to go back home and I of course the Swedsh girls 

[Minore]

Please give us a Swedish team, Göteborg or Gävle, see ya there

[-Paddy-]

Gutted, am almost certainly going to miss the 3rd qualifiying round as I'm skint (Well, I've made a mint this WC, but am in debt with a few people, haha), so I'm swerving.

Hopefully we get a nice trip for the play off mind

[igloo]

Swedish or a Norwegian team would be great !!

[blurred]

Assuming the seeds win their second round ties (which isn't guaranteed, but anyway), there's roughly

a 1 in 4 chance of us playing in Scandinavia (3 Finnish teams, 3 Swedes, 3 Norwegians and 1 Danish),
a 1 in 5 chance of us playing in central eastern Europe (2 Czechs, 2 Slovakians, 1 Slovenian, 1 Hungarian and 1 Bulgarian)
a 1 in 6 chance of us playing in the former Yugoslavia (2 Croatians, 2 Serbians, 1 Bosnian and 1 Macedonian)
a 1 in 10 chance of us playing in north eastern Europe (2 Poles, 1 Belarussian and 1 Latvian)
a 1 in 12 chance of us playing in 'mediterranean' Europe (2 Israelis and 1 Cypriot)
a 1 in 12 chance of us playing in 'western' Europe (2 Swiss and 1 Belgian)
a 1 in 16 chance of us playing in the arsehole of nowhere (2 Azerbaijanis)

[aedge659]

Assuming the seeds win their second round ties (which isn't guaranteed, but anyway), there's roughly

a 1 in 4 chance of us playing in Scandinavia (3 Finnish teams, 3 Swedes, 3 Norwegians and 1 Danish),
a 1 in 5 chance of us playing in central eastern Europe (2 Czechs, 2 Slovakians, 1 Slovenian, 1 Hungarian and 1 Bulgarian)
a 1 in 6 chance of us playing in the former Yugoslavia (2 Croatians, 2 Serbians, 1 Bosnian and 1 Macedonian)
a 1 in 10 chance of us playing in north eastern Europe (2 Poles, 1 Belarussian and 1 Latvian)
a 1 in 12 chance of us playing in 'mediterranean' Europe (2 Israelis and 1 Cypriot)
a 1 in 12 chance of us playing in 'western' Europe (2 Swiss and 1 Belgian)
a 1 in 16 chance of us playing in the arsehole of nowhere (2 Azerbaijanis)

Made me smile with the last one

[Helsinki Red]

Swedish or Finnish team please.

[dannymc]

Bangor City

[LONGWORTH]

Any team in Scandinavia would make a nice change. 

[kalle-anka]

anyone know if you can bet on this =)?

[GeeFJay]

and tomorrow it is!

[blurred]

I'm quite sexually excited

[blurred]

anyone know if you can bet on this =)?

What, who we will be drawn against? No, you can't.

[kalle-anka]

What, who we will be drawn against? No, you can't.

to bad... i think we'll get Kalmar FF.

[SMD]

Are we definitely away first leg or is it a free for all regardless of seeding?

[matchball]

Draw format

The 70 sides will be allocated to seven groups of ten teams. Each group is split into equal numbers of seeded and unseeded teams according to club rankings, and balls containing seeded teams will be placed in one bowl and unseeded teams in another. A ball from each bowl will be placed in a large empty bowl, where they are shuffled. The first side drawn will play its first match at home, against the second team drawn. Clubs from the same association may not be drawn against each other.

So, we could be either at home or away first....

[GeeFJay]

can't find the quote but i swear we are away first leg due to being seeded

[blurred]

can't find the quote but i swear we are away first leg due to being seeded

No, we're not. The draw procedure is as quoted above.

Teams who were seeded last year (PSV, for instance) played first legs at home. Also, some ties were switched meaning seeded teams played home first (Roma, for instance).

[matchball]

can't find the quote but i swear we are away first leg due to being seeded

http://www.uefa.com/uefaeuropaleague/news/newsid=1504191.html

[willss]

What, who we will be drawn against? No, you can't.

I've put bets on draws before.  The one I remember is the 2006 CL 3rd round qualifying when we could have got Everton.  Maybe that was a one off.

[kindalen]

anyone with too much time on their hands want to match possible teams to the nearest few airports?

[blurred]

anyone with too much time on their hands want to match possible teams to the nearest few airports?

No - we do our own research around here, and if people put up pre-emptive guides to all the destinations it'd make it easier for a bunch of scroungers who've not bothered to look into things themselves to come on and nick the best deals, forcing the prices up for the rest of us who've done all the work. It's the way this forum's been run for as long as it's existed. If people want to go to the games then they either have to do their own legwork and research, or wait until those who are going have boxed themselves and their mates off before routes and stuff are being punted around. Don't mean that to sound arsey, but it's just the way it is really.

It'd also be pointless - there's something like 58 possible opponents at this stage (including all the either/ors), which'll be whittled down to somewhere between 10 and 20 (maximum) first thing tomorrow morning anyway when the pots are drawn.

[kindalen]

is that a definite no?

[blurred]

Maybe

[Hightown Phil]

to bad... i think we'll get Kalmar FF.

I'll give you 3/1.

PM me.

[blurred]

I'll give you 3/1.

PM me.

I'll push the boat out to 7/2.