Liverpool received a favourable draw on Friday for this season’s Europa League group stage, although Premier League opponent Brighton & Hove Albion may anticipate playing European powerhouses Ajax and Marseille in their inaugural venture into continental competition.The Reds under Jurgen Klopp will compete in Group E against Toulouse, Union Saint-Gilloise, and LASK of Austria.
The Liverpool team, who finished fifth in the Premier League last season, is participating in the Europa League for the first time since losing to Sevilla in the championship match in 2015/16.
In the 2007 Champions League qualifying rounds, Liverpool defeated Toulouse in a previous encounter between the two teams in Europe.
Brighton earned a glitzy draw in Group B after finishing sixth in the domestic standings last season, enabling them to enter Europe for the first time ever.
The Seagulls will take on Ajax, the 1993 Champions League winners Marseille, and the Greek champions AEK Athens. Ajax is a four-time past champion of Europe and was the UEFA Cup winner in 1992.
West Ham United, champions of the Europa Conference League the previous campaign, will also travel to Greece to play Olympiakos in Group A, which also includes German Bundesliga team Freiburg and Serbian team TSC Backa Topola.
Following a second-place finish in the Serbian league the previous year, TSC is making a rare debut into Europe.
Rangers, the runners-up in the 2022 Europa League, were placed in Group C together with Real Betis, Sparta Prague, the Czech champions, and the reigning champions of Cyprus, Aris Limassol, following their loss to PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League play-offs.
Slavia Prague, Sheriff Tiraspol of Moldova, and Servette of Geneva will be the opponents for Jose Mourinho’s Roma, who fell to Sevilla in the season’s championship game on penalties.
On September 21, group stage matches will be played, and the Europa League championship game will take place in Dublin on May 22, 2024.
