Europa League Draw Pits Spurs Against Shamrock Rovers

The draw for the group stage of the Uefa Europa League was today made in Monaco, organising the 48 qualifying teams in the draw into 12 groups of four on a seeded basis. The first matches be played starting the 15th of September and will run until the 15th of December, with all teams playing one another home and away. England was represented by four teams in the shape of Tottenham Hotspur, Fulham, Stoke City and League Cup winners Birmingham City, with no teams from either Northern Ireland, Wales or Scotland after Celtic's defeat at the hands of Sion entering the draw, and Shamrock Rovers flying the flag for the Republic of Ireland. Rovers were rewarded for beating Partizan Belgrade 2-1 to progress to this group stage with high-profile matches against Tottenham Hotspur with Russian side Rubin Kazan and PAOK of Greece making up the group. It is arguably Stoke who have the toughest group to conquer, with arduous trips to Israel, Turkey and the Ukraine to overcome if they wish to progress to the Round of 32. Each away leg is bound to be a volatile affair as well, given the reputations of the fans of those opponents (as well as Stoke's own more colourful element). Birmingham City, under manager Chris Hughton, will no doubt also see their draw as stacked against them with last year's finalists Sporting Braga, Belgium's Club Brugge and Slovenian Capital of Culture 2012 winners Maribor. Elsewhere Arsenal's Champions League qualifier opponents Udinese are rewarded for losing against Arsene Wenger's team with a daunting double-header against Atletico Madrid. Group A: TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR, Rubin Kazan, PAOK and Shamrock Rovers. Group B: Copenhagen, Standard Liege, Hannover 96 and Vorskla Poltava. Group C: PSV Eindhoven, Hapoel Tel-Aviv, Rapid Bucharest and Legia Warsaw. Group D: Sporting Club Portugal, Lazio, Zurich and Vaslui. Group E: Dynamo Kyiv, Besiktas, STOKE CITY and Maccabi Tel-Aviv. Group F: Paris St Germain, Athletic Club Bilbao, Salzburg and Slovan Bratislava. Group G: Alkmaar, Metalist Kharkiv, Austria Wien and Malmo. Group H: Braga, Brugge, BIRMINGHAM CITY and NK Maribor. Group I: Atletico Madrid, Udinese Calcio, Stade Rennais and Sion. Group J: Schalke, Steaua Bucharest, Maccabi Haifa and AEK Larnaca. Group K: Twente, FULHAM, Odense and Wisla Krakow. Group L: Anderlecht, AEK Athens, Locomotiv Moscow and Sturm Graz