Rangers Face Man Utd, Tottenham In Europa League

Rangers will face both Manchester United and Tottenham in the new-look league phase of the Europa League.

The Scottish Premiership side will play Spurs at Ibrox, with the Red Devils welcoming Rangers to Old Trafford for their first meeting in 14 years.

Each team plays eight fixtures in the ‘league phase’, with this year’s men’s tournament following the Champions League in having a radical change, including the end of a group stage.

United will travel to Fenerbahce to reunite with former boss Jose Mourinho, while they also play Mourinho’s old side Porto away.

Rangers’ other fixtures include a difficult trip to last season’s Conference League champions Olympiakos and French side Nice.

The hi-tech draw followed the same format as Thursday’s Champions League draw, but this time, it was former Athletic Bilbao striker Aritz Aduriz replacing Cristiano Ronaldo to press the all-important button.

The button then launches the AI algorithm which arranges which teams will face each other.

Meanwhile in the Conference League, Chelsea will host League of Ireland side Shamrock Rovers, while Welsh side The New Saints have a trip to Italy to play Fiorentina.

Scottish Premiership side Hearts play Copenhagen who lost to Manchester City in the last 16 of the Champions League last season.

Northern Irish side Larne welcome Shamrock and Belgium side Gent to Inver Park.

The order of matches for the Champions League, Europa League and Conference League will be confirmed on Saturday.

Manchester United (A)
Rangers (H)
Porto (A)
PAOK (H)
Fenerbahce (A)
Bodo/Glimt (H)
Viktoria Plzen (A)
FC Twente (H)
FCSB (A)
Rangers
Tottenham (H)
Manchester United (A)
Lyon (H)
Olympiakos (A)
Union SG (H)
Malmo (A)
FCSB (H)
Nice (A)
Tottenham
Roma (H)
Rangers (A)
AZ Alkmaar (H)
Ferencvaros (A)
Qarabag (H)
Galatasaray (A)
Elfsborg (H)
Hoffenheim (A)

The expanded 36-team Europa League sees each team play eight games – four at home (H) and four away (A) in the league system, against two opponents from each of the four seeding pots.

Teams who finish in the top eight will qualify automatically for the last 16, while those who place ninth to 24th will compete in a two-legged knockout play-off for the chance to join them.

Whoever finishes 25th or lower will be eliminated and will not be entered into the Conference League.

The number of matches in the new format will increase from 125 to 189 while each team will play a minimum of eight games instead of six, and a maximum of 17.

Europa League action begins on 25-26 September, and with the increased number of fixtures, the league phase runs until 30 January rather than finishing before Christmas.

The Conference League is slightly different in that there are still just six games, with sides playing three games at home and three away.

League phase action begins on 3 October and runs until 19 December.