Slavia Prague footballers with Slovakian winger Ivan Schranz will face Eintracht Frankfurt, Ajax Amsterdam, Fenerbahce Istanbul, PAOK Thessaloniki, Malmö FF, Ludogorets Razgrad, RSC Anderlecht and Athletic Bilbao in the main phase of the 2024/25 Europa League.
Marián Tvrdoň and Erik Jirka in Viktoria Plzeň’s jersey will face up to five opponents, i.e. Frankfurt, PAOK, Ludogorets, Anderlecht and Bilbao. The home match against Manchester United will be interesting, and the remaining opponents are Real Sociedad and Dynamo Kyiv. It was decided by Friday’s draw in Monaco.
Slavia will play in the main phase of EL after being eliminated in the Champions League playoff, where they were defeated by French Lille (0:2, 2:1). Thus, she will repeat her participation from last season, in which she made it to the round of 16.
There, they faced AC Milan, to whom they lost 1:3 and 2:4. After last year’s participation in the European Conference League, Plzeň improved by a level. On the way to promotion, it defeated Ukrainian Kryvbas (2:1, 1:0) in the 3rd round of qualification, and in the playoffs it won both games over Scottish Heart of Midlothian 1:0.
The Czech vice-champion will face Ajax, Fenerbahce, Malmö and Anderlecht at home, and Frankfurt, PAOK, Ludogorets and Bilbao await him outside. Pilsen will welcome Manchester, Real Sociedad, Ludogorets and Anderlecht at home, and will test their strength with Frankfurt, PAOK, Dynamo and Bilbao on their opponents’ grounds.
EL, like the Champions League, has undergone a format change. From the 2024/2025 season, instead of traditional groups, the league phase will be played according to the so-called the Swiss system. In both competitions, the number of participants increased from 32 to 36. All teams will play eight matches, four at home and four away.
The first eight teams advance directly to the round of 16, the teams in 9th to 24th place will fight for the round of 16 in a two-game playoff, and the last twelve in the competition will finish. Relegated teams will not start in the lower EKL and participation in Europe will end for them.
From the round of 16, the traditional elimination spider with double matches will be played. The final is scheduled for May 21 in Bilbao, Spain.
The draw was also adapted to the new format. Although the clubs were divided into four baskets, nine participants were placed in each of them according to the coefficient. The main reason was to ensure that one team didn’t run into the strongest eight while another ran into the weakest eight.
At the same time, there was a restriction that one team could not play with more than two opponents from the same country. During the draw, teams from the first basket were first drawn from a bowl with balls, and the computer gradually selected eight opponents.
Source: sportweb.pravda.sk
