Europa League: Nice, Olympique Lyonnais and LOSC's opponents for the first phase
The three French representatives in the Europa League, Nice, Lille and Lyon, now know their opponents for the league phase, following the draw held on Friday, August 29 at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco.
Franck Haise's OGC Nice, fourth in Ligue 1 last season and dropped into the Europa League after losing to Benfica in the Champions League preliminary round, has been handed the following teams: AS Roma (home), FC Porto (away), Sporting Braga (home), Fenerbahçe (away), Freiburg (home), Ludogorets Razgrad (away), Go Ahead Eagles (home) and Celta Vigo (away).
LOSC, eliminated last season in the last 16 of the Champions League, will play, still under the orders of Bruno Genesio, against GNK Dynamo Zagreb (home), AS Roma (away), PAOK Salonika (home), Red Star Belgrade (away), Fribourg (home), Young Boys Bern (away), SK Brann Bergen (home) and Celta Vigo (away).
Finally, Olympique Lyonnais, sixth in Ligue 1 last season and managed by Paulo Fonseca, will face Salzburg (home), Real Betis Sevilla (away), PAOK Salonika (home), Maccabi Tel-Aviv (away), FC Basel (home), Young Boys Bern (away), Go Ahead Eagles (home) and Utrecht (away). Lyon were eliminated in the quarter-finals of the competition by Manchester United.
Among the most anticipated matches on the French calendar, we can notably find: Nice-AS Roma, FC Porto-Nice, Lyon-Salzburg, Real Betis Seville-Lyon or even Lille-Dynamo Zagreb or AS Roma-Lille.
Like last season, the Europa League's league phase brings together 36 clubs in a unified league format. Each team will play eight matches against eight different opponents, split evenly between four home games and four away games.
Cautious reactions and ambitions displayed"It's an open draw," Olympique Lyonnais recruitment director Matthieu Louis-Jean told Canal+ Foot, for whom the club's objective will be to qualify for the last 16.
LOSC president Olivier Létang was initially pleased to be participating in the Europa League. "Let's play the matches," the manager cautiously commented, hoping that the northern club would "go far . " "It's a challenge for us," said Fabrice Bocquet, president of OGC Nice. "We want to bounce back from last year [Nice had not won a single match in the competition and were eliminated in the league phase] and experience some great emotions."
