EUROPA LEAGUE FIRST-timers Dundalk will take on Zenit St Petersburg, AZ Alkmaar and Maccabi Tel-Aviv on their maiden voyage in the competition’s the group stages.
The SSE Airtricity League Premier Division champions went into this afternoon’s draw in Monaco having narrowly lost out to Legia Warsaw in the Champions League play-offs.
And Stephen Kenny’s side will travel to Russia, the Netherlands and Israel after being drawn in Group D.
Meanwhile, Manchester United face former striker Robin van Persie after being paired with Fenerbahce. Jose Mourinho’s side were drawn along with Fener, Feyenoord and Zorya in Group A.
United sold Van Persie to the Turkish side, who finished second in the Super Lig last season, in July 2015 after three years at Old Trafford.
It also saw Inter picked out to come up against Premier League outfit Southampton in Group K, which also consists of Sparta Prague and Hapoel Beer-Sheva.
Elsewhere, Roma will play Viktoria Plzen, Austria Vienna and Astra in Group E after losing out to Porto in the Champions League play-offs.
La Liga outfit Villarreal’s failure to make the Champions League group stage means they will play Steaua Bucharest, FC Zurich and Osmanlispor in Group L of UEFA’s second-tier tournament.
Here’s the draw in full:
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Trip to Israel sounds great can get a match in and go on a pilgrimage to Bethlehem
Ye, the trip should be the bomb!
You’d obviously have to leave Israel to get he Bethlehem……..
Strange to be travelling outside of Europe for a Europa League tie but sure that’s the way.
Yes Oisín, it’s crazy when you see clubs and national teams from places like Kazakhstan playing in European competitions when it’s closer to China than Europe.
Is Bethlehem not in the Palestinian territory?
There goes all the money made on travelling costs!
Why not travel via Rio and pick up cheap tickets.
A joke that Israel clubs are in European competitions
Fenerbahce is Turkish, also not in Europe. But they’re not Jewish, are they?
Turkey is in Europe !
And thankfully the aviva won’t be full of West brits cheering for United against our own club
West Brits…. Like Celtic fans.
Says the Celtic fan :-)
Celtic fans are “West Brits” too sure.
Yes a Celtic fan. How dare an Irishman support a club that was founded for the sole reason of providing food and shelter for those children fleeing Ireland due to British policy
And Barcelona were saved by an Irishman and Liverpool saw thousands of Irish immigrants. If you look hard enough, you can find a link to Ireland somewhere. You are still supporting a foreign club. Although I suppose in the case of Celtic the added hypocrisy is that you are probably inclined to sing the odd IRA song aswell? Curious enough how no one supports Hibs, given their Irish background. But I suppose being a crappy Scottish Championship team isn’t very appealing to Irish people…
Glasgow Celtic are from Scotland which is part of Britain, It can be difficult to explain this concept, which is a geographical fact to many Celtic fans in Ireland. And many would still shout for Celtic over Dundalk who are Irish if they played, this I can not understand, and remember many of these same Celtic fans would come from a republican leaning.
Good lad sloop.yes a celtic fan but one who’d rather see any Irish club progress even at celtic’s expense.
Surely the logical conclusion of that is to just support an Irish team then
Yes and you call them west Brits despite the fact that they are obviously Irish
Celtic fans born and raised in Glasgow consider themselves Irish. They carry Irish flags to all the games, they even sing Irish ballads at the games.. Every year the Football club have a special jersey commemorating the famine and the Irish tricolour is the biggest flag flying over Parkhead.. It is only Irish people who support English football teams who call Celtic British..
Well as long as they refer to their English team as British as well as Celtic, then they are right.
Cosmo, if they consider themselves Irish why not just move here, and y’know, pay tax here?
Celtic are an Irish club. I thought everyone knows that….
I sometimes wonder if some Celtic fans, like above, actually really think they are an Irish club and that Glasgow is somehow in Ireland
Whats with all the hate for celtic. Its a great club
That’s it lads, support your English clubs who cities you’ve never set foot in.. Slag off Irish people for supporting a team stepped in Irishness while you support teams who’s actual fans hate the Irish..
Sure if we want to get down to the nitty gritty of it all, why are any of us supporting a foreign game.
Daithi i get to as many wexford youths games as i can and 3 or 4 bray wanderers games every season as i was a regular at the Carlisle grounds before league of Ireland came to wexford
And Irish Celtic fans claim to hate everything British…
Do they, I’m an Irish Celtic fan and don’t hate everything British. Sure Celtic are a Scottish therefore British club with strong Irish Links.
They don’t hate the Irish apart from man city and Chelsea. They just call us caravan dwellers.
Yes couldn’t agree more well said
Zenit will walk the group but in Dundalk play like the did against Legia and BATE then they have a chance of at least troubling AZ and Maccabi.
Russian clubs can sometimes not take this competition too seriously (AEK Larnaca already knocked out Spartak Moscow this year). That said, Zenit do tend to perform well in Europe.
Zenit along with CSKA are streets ahead of the other Russian clubs on paper and usually do perform in europe, the other though dont.
Also they’ll bribe the judges
Probably.
Russian league is a summer league?
Zenit take it seriously – they won it a few years back. With the tournament winners now getting automatic entry to the next years Champions League, I think they’ll be serious about it.
I’ve seen them play on paper before and they weren’t great.
That with pen or pencil?
Good draw.could have been worse,at least they’ll have a good crack at it.
I’m not sure its a great draw. They had some unbelievable results getting here there;s no denying, but realistically they are not looking at getting out of the groups. I think they would have been better off getting at least one top club. Trips to Israel and Russia are probably not the glamour ties they had in mind. Still I hope I’m wrong and they can run it close, they’ve been unbelievable so far.
If getting out of the group isn’t what they are looking for than whats the point in qualifying? The aim should be go as far as you can go.
Jesus Cathal thats like saying Ireland are never winning the world cup, so whats the point in going? I doubt Dundalk are going to the Europa League for the craic, they’re going to try and win every game. Realistically though, that aint going to happen.
Alkmaar cheese heads!
Not to bad. Least they might be competitive
A nice set of Testimonial matches for Robin Van Persie.
Yes Dundalk have been unbelievable and there is every chance that they will remain so now that some injuries are clearing up and new players have been signed.
Tasty group there for Utd. Fenerbace and Feyenoord we know about of course about but never even heard of that team from Ukraine but I’m sure an away trip there will be tricky. I think every team in that group are cursing their luck.
You should be on the journal.co.uk Dave.
Do Van Persie and Nani play for Fenerbache?
Didn’t matter who they drew, was always gonna be a tough draw. Hopefully they can pick up a few points
Do all our game’s have a 6.00 kick off as we’ve drawn group D ? Groups A-F 6.00 , groups G-L 8.05 ?
Roll on the six defeats.
What odds ? They will get at least 2 results I reckon. Pity there is no real glamour game but they will be no pushovers here and are already bringing in one or two players. Hats off to them from a Galway United Fan in exile. Liverpool are my telly team and as an emigrant I will not stoop to taking cheap shots at Glasgow Celtic – a great club respected the world over. When I lived in South America ,where people breath football , my futsal teammates all wanted my Celtic shirt when I was leaving- not any Liverpool or Ireland top I would have worn . If know their history….
How many teams do you support? You seem to be collecting them all, like Pokemon. Pathetic.
Narrowly lost?
Ben, were we watching the same games?
They certainly played very well and stuck it to the poles but I would not describe it as narrowly missing out.
Unlucky for West Ham, would have been a good group, now they will have to say the Europa never mattered anyways.
Get the Palestinian flags ready for the Aviva lads!
Easy group for dundalk they wil top that
1 pot too early for Fiorentina. 1 pot too late for Atletico Madrid and 2 pots too late for Inter Milan. That’s the luck of the draw. Zenit may do.
Athletic Club**