SHAMROCK ROVERS WILL face Belgian side Gent, Molde of Norway and Djurgardens of Sweden in the group phase of the Europa Conference League.
The draw for the group stage was completed in Istanbul today this afternoon.
Rovers’ co-effieicent is such that they were third seeds in today’s draw, with Gent of Belgium their top-seeded opponent. Gent finished fifth in the Belgian league last season, and dropped into this competition having been beaten by Neil Lennon’s Omonia in the Europa League play-ofs.
Molde came from pot two, runners-up in last season’s Norwegian league. They played Dundalk in the Europa League group phase in 2020, winning both games.
The group is completed by Djurgardens of Sweden, who finished third in the Swedish league last season.
The winner of each group will qualify directly for the last-16 knockout phase, with the runner-up in each group progressing to a two-legged play-off against the sides that finished third in their Europa League group for the right to move to the last-16.
Speaking after last night’s 1-0 win against Ferencvaros, Rovers manager Stephen Bradley said his side’s ambition is to get out of the group.
“We spoke about it in January, I know the draw has to be nice and you’ve to get a bit of luck, but that’s our aim. We want to get out of groups. We know it’s difficult but I believe we can do it. We need a lot of things to fall our way, we’re not just going there to be there. We said that in January and now we are there, that’s our aim.”
Fixtures and kick-off times have yet to be announced by Uefa, though they say they will be confirmed by Saturday morning at the latest. The match dates have been announced, and will be completed in a tighter schedule than normal owing to the World Cup in Qatar. Games will kick off at either 5.45pm or 8pm Irish time.
The final will take place at the Eden Arena, Prague, on 7 June next year.
Europa Conference League Draw
Group A
- Istanbul Basaksehir
- Fiorentina
- Hearts
- RFS
Group B
- West Ham United
- FCSB
- Anderlecht
- Silkeborg
Group C
- Villarreal
- Hapoel Beer-Sheva
- Austria Wien
- Lech Poznan
Group D
- Partizan Belgrade
- FC Koln
- Nice
- Slovacka
Group E
- AZ Alkmaar
- Apollon Limassol
- FC Vaduz
- Dnipro-1
Group F
- Gent
- Molde
- Shamrock Rovers
- Djurgardens
Group G
- Slavia Praha
- CFR Cluj
- Sivaspor
- Balkani
Group H
- FC Basel
- Slovan Bratislava
- Zalgiris
- Pyunik
Europa Conference League Group Stage Dates
Matchday 1: 8 September 2022
Matchday 2: 15 September 2022
Matchday 3: 6 October 2022
Matchday 4: 13 October 2022
Matchday 5: 27 October 2022
Matchday 6: 3 November 2022
Great to see a league of ireland club not been in a bottom seed . Nearly an achievement in itself
Pretty good draw that I would imagine. Real shame they didn’t get FC Köln. Would have loved to see them come over in their droves to Tallaght. Likewise would have been an amazing away day for Rovers’ fans. Best of look to the hoops all the same, surely a win or two in that group is more than achievable if not progression!
They have a little squeak there ya know.
They still have to face 2 very good teams though and the third team won’t be a walk in the park either. It’ll be a tough one but looking forward to watching it.
Gent should be too strong for them, don’t see why they shouldn’t be able to get results against the other two though
Looks like the trophy got very fat over the summer
They sound like deodrant brands
One factor that may play against Rovers is the fact that the group stages finish up at exactly the same time as the league does so unless they wrap up the league title early enough they’ll be having to really split focus something fierce between a title fight and Europe. The League of Ireland schedule it turns out can be a pro and a con of Irish teams participating in Europe
Still great to have them in European football