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Alla Zakarian

31-08-2018 | 20:31 Football
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KNOW YOUR RIVALS: Arsenal to face Sporting CP, Qarabag FK and Vorskla FC

Arsenal’s opponents for the Europa League 2018/19 season have revealed. The Gunners are in the Group E. Unai Emery’s side will play against Sporting CP, Qarabag FK and Vorskla FC. What to expect from the opponents and what have they achieved in their previous UEFA Champions and Europa League campaigns?
  • Sporting CP (Portugal)

Sporting CP from Portugal are the Arsenal’s major and tricky opponent in the group stage. Sporting CP participated in the Europa League and Champions League tournaments several times and have set many records. At the 2018 FIFA World Cup Sporting CP had 14 players that came through their youth system, making it the most represented youth academy system in the tournament followed by FC Barcelona with 11. The 31-year-old Luis Nani is the most famous football player in Sporting CP’s squad for now and he certainly know how to play against Premier League clubs. How did they qualify? - Automatic Qualifiers UEFA club competition honours (runners-up in brackets) UEFA Cup: (2005) UEFA Cup Winners' Cup (1): 1964 Domestic honours (most recent triumph in brackets) League title: 18 (2002) Portuguese Cup: 16 (2015) Ten-year European record (UEFA Champions League unless indicated otherwise) 2016/17: group stage 2015/16: UEFA Europa League round of 32 (having transferred from UEFA Champions League play-offs) 2014/15: UEFA Europa League round of 32 (having transferred from UEFA Champions League group stage) 2013/14: did not take part in UEFA competition 2012/13: UEFA Europa League group stage 2011/12: UEFA Europa League semi-finals 2010/11: UEFA Europa League round of 32 2009/10: UEFA Europa League round of 16 (having transferred from the UEFA Champions League play-offs) 2008/09: round of 16 2007/08: UEFA Cup quarter-finals (having transferred from the UEFA Champions League group stage) Records UEFA club competition Biggest home win 16-1: Sporting CP v APOEL FC 13/11/63, European Cup Winners' Cup second round first leg Biggest away win 0-9: ÍA Akranes v Sporting CP 17/09/86, UEFA Cup first round first leg Heaviest home defeat 0-5: Sporting CP v FC Bayern München 25/02/09, UEFA Champions League round of 16 first leg Heaviest away defeat 7-1: FC Bayern München v Sporting CP 10/03/09, UEFA Champions League round of 16-second leg UEFA Champions League (group stage to final) Biggest home win 3-0: Sporting CP v FC Dynamo Kyiv 12/12/07, group stage 3-0: Sporting CP v AS Monaco FC 17/09/97, group stage Biggest away win 2-3: Olympiacos FC v Sporting CP 12/09/17, group stage 1-2: FC Dynamo Kyiv v Sporting CP 02/10/07, group stage 0-1 twice, most recently FC Basel 1893 v Sporting CP  09/12/08, group stage Heaviest home defeat 0-5: Sporting CP v FC Bayern München (see above for details) Heaviest away defeat 7-1: FC Bayern München v Sporting CP (see above for details) UEFA Cup/UEFA Europa League Biggest home win 7-0: Sporting CP v CS Politehnica Timisoara 24/10/90, second round first leg Biggest away win 0-9: ÍA Akranes v Sporting CP (see above) Heaviest home defeat 0-3: Sporting CP v Gençlerbirligi SK 27/11/03, second round second leg Heaviest away defeat 5-0: Celtic FC v Sporting CP 02/11/83, second round second leg
  • Qarabag FK-Azerbaijan

Qarabag FK is an Azerbaijan football club, who become the second club from Azerbaijan to advance to the group stage of a European competition, making it’s first three consecutive seasons in the UEFA Europa League group stages in 2014-15. Qarabag is the first Azerbaijani team to advance to the group stage of the higher UEFA Champions League 2017/18 season. Arsenal could be without midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan for their visit to Qarabag. Azerbaijan have banned Armenians from entering the country over tensions between the bordering rivals. And when Mkhitaryan was playing for Dortmund in 2015, security concerns led to the German club decided to leave him out of their squad for a Europa League game against Azerbaijani club Gabala. However, UEFA have released a statement on this situation:”It is a standard procedure for Uefa to send letters of support to associations, clubs or embassies in order to obtain visa for players in order to be able to travel to another country and play in Uefa competition matches.” How did they qualify? - Victorious in the UEFA Europa League play-off round UEFA club competition honours (runners-up in brackets) None Domestic honours (most recent triumph in brackets) Domestic title: 5 (2017) Azerbaijani Cup: 6 (2017) Ten-year European record (UEFA Champions League unless indicated otherwise) 2016/17: UEFA Europa League group stage (having transferred from UEFA Champions League third qualifying round) 2015/16: UEFA Europa League group stage (having transferred from UEFA Champions League third qualifying round) 2014/15: UEFA Europa League group stage (having transferred from UEFA Champions League third qualifying round) 2013/14: UEFA Europa League play-offs 2012/13: did not take part in UEFA club competition 2011/12: UEFA Europa League third qualifying round 2010/11: UEFA Europa League play-offs 2009/10: UEFA Europa League play-offs 2008/09: did not take part in UEFA club competition 2007/08: did not take part in UEFA club competition Records UEFA club competition Biggest home win 5-0: Qarabağ v FC Samtredia 11/07/17, UEFA Champions League second qualifying round second leg Biggest away win 0-4: FK Banga v Qarabağ 30/06/11, UEFA Europa League first qualifying round first leg Heaviest home defeat 0-4: Qarabağ v Chelsea FC 22/11/17, UEFA Champions League group stage 0-4: Qarabağ v FC København 27/08/98, UEFA Cup Winners' Cup qualifying phase second leg Heaviest away defeat 6-0: Chelsea FC v Qarabağ 12/09/17, UEFA Champions League group stage 6-0: FC København v Qarabağ 13/08/98, UEFA Cup Winners' Cup qualifying phase first leg 6-0: Montpellier Hérault SC v Qarabağ 10/07/99, UEFA Intertoto Cup second round second leg UEFA Champions League (group stage to final) Biggest home win N/A Biggest away win N/A Heaviest home defeat 0-4: Qarabağ v Chelsea FC (see above for details) Heaviest away defeat 6-0: Chelsea FC v Qarabağ (see above for details) UEFA Europa League/UEFA Cup Biggest home win 4-0: Qarabağ v Valletta FC 22/07/14, UEFA Europa League second qualifying round second leg Biggest away win 0-4: FK Banga v Qarabağ (see above) Heaviest home defeat 0-3: Qarabağ v FK Jablonec 30/07/97, first qualifying phase second leg Heaviest away defeat  5-0: FK Jablonec v Qarabağ 23/07/97, first qualifying phase first leg
  • Vorskla FC –Ukraine

The outsiders of the group are Vorskla from Ukraine. The biggest success of the club’s history in the European competitions was their qualification to the 2011-12 UEFA Europa League group phase and of course playing in this year’s campaign also a big deal for the club. Vorskla, howbeit are well known for Arsenal’s midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who has played 3 seasons in the Ukrainian Premier League with Metalurh and Shakhtar Donetsk. Mkhitaryan even scored a goal against them back in 2010. How did they qualify? - Automatic qualifiers Biggest win: 21/07/2011, Vorskla 3-0 Glentoran, Poltava 27/06/1998, Vorskla 3-0 Leiftur, Poltava 20/06/1998, Leiftur 0-3 Vorskla, Ölafsfjördur Biggest defeat: 20/08/2009, Benfica 4-0 Vorskla, Lisbon Appearances in UEFA Europa League:  6 Appearances in UEFA Intertoto Cup:  1 Player with most UEFA appearances: 16 Volodymyr Chesnakov (  UKR) Top scorers in UEFA club competitions: 4 Vitaliy Kobzar (  UKR) Olexandr Melashchenko (  UKR) Ahmed Januzi (  ALB)   In total, Arsenal will face just under 8,000 miles of flights in the Europa League group stage this season just to play their three away games, maximising the impact of the Thursday-Sunday schedule that has such a drastic impact on teams playing in the European second-tier competition. Thankfully, in Unai Emery, Arsenal have a new manager who knows a bit about winning in Europe. His three back-to-back Europa League triumphs with Sevilla, in 2014, 2015 and 2016, made his career and place him alongside Giovanni Trapattoni as the most successful manager in the history of the competition.

Fixtures

Arsenal vs FC Vorskla (H) - September 20 vs Qarabag (A) - October 4 vs Sporting (A) - October 25 vs Sporting (H) - November 8 vs FC Vorskla (A) - November 29 vs Qarabag (H) - December 13  

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