Who Crystal Palace can face in Europa League as special European nights loom

Crystal Palace will discover their Europa League opponents this week alongside Bournemouth and Sunderland.

After lifting the Conference League last season , Palace will compete in the Europa League for the first time in their history.

The Eagles had originally been due to play in the Europa League last season but were demoted to the Conference League after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruled they had breached multi-club ownership rules .

17 teams have directly qualified for this season’s Europa League, while Palace automatically qualified as Conference League holders.

The 36-team tournament will be completed by seven losing teams transferring from the Champions League play-offs and the 12 teams that will qualify through the Europa League play-off round.

Fellow Premier League teams, Sunderland and Bournemouth, also join Palace in the draw after securing qualification through their league position last season.

Conference League winners: Crystal Palace Getty Serie A giants Juventus and AC Milan have also qualified for the Europa League, as have Bundesliga outfit Bayer Leverkusen and 10-time Ligue 1 champions Marseille.

The Europa League league phase draw takes place at 12pm BST on Friday, 28 August, with the Conference League draw commencing straight after.

Qualified teams: AC Milan, AZ Alkmaar, Bayer Leverkusen, Bournemouth, Celta Vigo, Crystal Palace, Hoffenheim, Juventus, Marseille, Olympiacos, Real Sociedad, Rennes, Sparta Prague, Sturm Graz, Sunderland, Torreense, Union Saint-Gilloise

It is still to be confirmed, but Palace will be in either pot 2 or 3. Their current coefficient has them sat 85th in UEFA’s rankings for European teams.

The ceremony will produce eight opponents for every team, two from each pot. That means Crystal Palace will play two of the top-ranked clubs.

They cannot play a team from their own country (Bournemouth or Sunderland) at this stage and can only play a maximum of two teams from a different association.

As such, Palace’s potential opponents from pot 1 are Bayer Leverkusen, Juventus, Milan, AZ Alkmaar and Olympiacos, with the remaining four teams to be confirmed on Thursday evening.

A trip to the Giuseppe Meazza Stadium San Siro could await Crystal Palace in the Europa League Getty Real Sociedad, Marseille, Union Saint-Gilloise (pot 1 or 2) , Sparta Prague, Rennes, Sturm Graz (pot 2 or 3) , Celta Vigo, Hoffenheim and Torreense (pot 3 or 4) are also potential opponents for Palace.