Midday. Don't waste your time on it (I will periodically update the groups for the PL participants as/when the draw is appropriate) .
EL group stage draw (PL clubs only) : Group B : Arsenal, Rapid Vienna, Molde (Norway) , Dundalk. Group G : Braga, Leicester, AEK Athens, Zorya Luhansk (Ukraine) . Group J : Spurs, Ludogorets (Bulgaria) , LASK (Austria) , Antwerp.
Group J it is It would be so much easier if we were in Group A or B, we wouldn't have to watch the whole bloody thing...
I’ll take that group all day long, both in terms of opposition quality and travelling. Bulgaria not ideal (away leg definitely for a B team) but Austria and especially Belgium are all good.
LASK are probably the team we have to be most wary of, given they dumped Sporting Lisbon out in the playoffs this season, while last season topped their group which also included Sporting (again) and PSV Eindhoven ...or to put it another way, they were instrumental in our signing Bergwijn last season
So the Goons have the easiest travel itinerary. We have the Ludos (who AFAIK have been EL regulars for much of the past decade) . I assume the foul wet weather today will now focus squad members not putting in a shift as to where their likely next 4 away games are in a Spurs starting XI.
An interesting thought ... In Corona times will UEFA schedule the fixtures based on current attendance constraints ?? Normally we would have to play away if the Goons are at home, but the above means no possible rival spectator aggro.
One Bulgarian team a season clearly isn't enough. Now we've got the Bulgarian Chelsea. Their league used to be dominated by the two big Sofia teams, CSKA and Levski. They won 57 titles between them. Ludogorets were a lower league side until they got bought up by Kiril Domuschiev in 2010. They've since won 9 titles on the bounce.
Doesn't look like it. I thought that we might have played Antwerp, but apparently not. They're an English club, too.
