MU reunites with coach Mourinho.

Similar to the Champions League, this year's Europa League also has a major format change, eliminating the traditional group stage and increasing the number of teams to 36.

MU will face Jose Mourinho's Fenerbahce in the first round of the Europa League.

With the new format, UEFA will combine technology (from computer-generated software) and a small amount of manual work to determine the group stage draw. To do this, UEFA will divide the 36 teams into four seeded groups, based on each team's coefficient in the 2024 European club rankings.

This year's Europa League promises to be exciting with the participation of many big teams. These include Manchester United and Tottenham from England, both in Group 1, along with AS Roma, Porto, Rangers, Eintracht Frankfurt, Lazio, Slavia Prague, and Real Sociedad.

Former Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho is aiming for success with Fenerbahce.

Group 2 includes formidable teams such as AZ Alkmaar, Lyon, Fenerbahce, Olympiacos, Qarabag, Galatasaray, Bodo/Glimt, Union Saint-Gilloise, and Dynamo Kyiv. Group 3 also features strong teams including Qarabag, Galatasaray, Viktoria Plzen, Bodo/Glimt, Union SG, Dynamo Kyiv, Ludogorets, Midtjylland, and Malmo. Group 4 includes Athletic, Hoffenheim, Nice, Anderlecht, Twente, Besiktas, FK RFS, Steaua Bucharest, and Elfsborg.

When a team from the seeded groups is manually drawn, the computer immediately determines their opponents based on predefined criteria in the software. Each team will play 8 matches in the group stage (previously only 6), including 4 home and 4 away matches, starting on September 25th. Ranking is based on points, and goal difference is the first criterion to determine the position of teams if they have the same number of points. After 8 rounds, the top 8 teams advance to the round of 16. Teams ranked 9th to 16th will be paired in a play-off round with teams ranked 17th to 24th to determine the remaining 8 teams that advance. Teams from position 25 onwards will be eliminated.

Opponents of the teams in Group 1

Opponents of the teams in Group 2

With the draw results, MU will face Rangers, Porto, PAOK, Bodo/Glimt, Viktoria Plzen, Twente, Steaua Bucharest and Fenerbahce, managed by Jose Mourinho, who previously led the Old Trafford team. According to the schedule, the "Red Devils" will travel to Türkiye to play Fenerbahce.

Meanwhile, Tottenham will face several tough opponents in the group including AS Roma, Rangers, AZ Alkmaar, Ferncvaros, Qarabag, Galatasaray, Elfsborg and Hoffenheim.

Opponents of the teams in Group 3

Opponents of the teams in group 4

Other strong teams like Porto and AS Roma also face tough times in this round. Portuguese representative Porto, besides facing Manchester United, will also take on Lazio, reigning runners-up Olympiacos, Maccabi Tel-Aviv, Midtjylland, Bodo/Glimt, Hoffenheim, and Anderlecht. Meanwhile, in addition to Tottenham, AS Roma will face Frankfurt, Braga, AZ Alkmaar, Dynamo Kyiv, Union SG, Athletic Bilbao, and Elfsborg...

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/boc-tham-europa-league-mu-tai-ngo-hlv-mourinho-185240830141121454.htm