The League Phase draw for the 2025/26 Europa League will take place this week, with Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa awaiting their fate.
Last year’s edition saw Tottenham crowned champions after a 1-0 victory over Manchester United in an all-English final, bringing to an end their 17-year wait for major silverware.
As a result, Spurs secured automatic qualification for the Champions League, but there is still a chance for another English winner this year.
Both Forest and Villa are already in the hat for the league phase, with the latter qualifying via a sixth-place Premier League finish last term.
Meanwhile, the East Midlands outfit earned a promotion into Europe’s second-tier competition, as they were bumped up from their initial place in the Conference League.
After FA Cup winners Crystal Palace were relegated from the Europa League to the Conference League for a breach of UEFA’s multi-club ownership rules, Forest took their spot instead.
With two English sides vying for glory this year, here are all the details about the Europa League 2025/26 league phase draw.
Europa League draw: Date and how to follow
The 2025/26 Europa League draw will be held on Friday, August 29.
It will take place on the same day as the Conference League draw, with the two being combined into one single show.
This will take place at the Grimaldi Forum in Monte Carlo, Monaco.
Proceedings will get underway at 12pm UK time.
The Europa League draw will go first, followed by the Conference League.
talkSPORT 2 will have full coverage of the draw.
To tune in to talkSPORT 2 through the website, click HERE for the live stream.
You can also listen via the talkSPORT app, on DAB digital radio, through your smart speaker and on 1089 or 1053 AM.
It will also be available to watch live for FREE on UEFA.com. You can find out more HERE.
Europa League draw: Format
The league phase draw will follow the same procedure as last year, when a new format was introduced.
Each of the 36 participating teams will be split into four pots based on their club’s European coefficient ranking.
All teams will be manually drawn using physical balls, before automated software decides eight opponents for them.
Every side will be pitted against two clubs from each pot, one of those being played at home and the other away.
Teams from the same country cannot be drawn against each other, and can only play two sides from the same country during the league phase.
The draw will start with Pot 1, with teams assigned opponents one-by-one and continuing into all other pots until every team discovers their fate.
Europa League draw: Teams and pots
Thirteen teams qualify directly for the Europa League league phase, with a further 12 sides securing their places through qualifying, culminating in a play-off round.
The play-off round will conclude this week ahead of the draw.
The 36-team line-up is completed by 11 losing teams transferring from the Champions League third qualifying round and play-offs.
As things stand, these are the sides who have already booked their place in the league phase of the Europa League.
Pot 1: Roma, Porto, Feyenoord, Lille, Dinamo Zagreb, Real Betis
Pot 2: Lyon, Viktoria Plzen
Pot 3: Nice
Pot TBD: Red Bull Salzburg, Aston Villa, SC Freiburg, Nottingham Forest, Bologna, Celta Vigo, VfB Stuttgart, Go Ahead Eagles
Europa League play-off round fixtures
Wednesday, August 27
- AEK Larnaca v Brann, 17:30 (Agg 1-2)
Thursday, August 28
- KuPS v Midtjylland, 16:00 (Agg 0-4)
- Sigma Olomouc v Malmo FF, 17:30 (Agg 0-3)
- Samsunspor v Panathinaikos, 18:00 (Agg 1-2)
- Ludogorets Razgrad v Shkendija, 18:30 (Agg 1-2)
- PAOK v Rijeka, 18:30 (Agg 0-1)
- Dynamo Kyiv v Maccabi Tel Aviv, 19:00 (Agg 1-3)
- Genk v Lech Poznan, 19:00 (Agg 5-1)
- Utrecht v Zrinjski, 19:00 (Agg 2-0)
- Young Boys v Slovan Bratislava, 19:00 (Agg 1-0)
- FCSB v Aberdeen, 19:30 (Agg 2-2)
- Sporting Braga v Lincoln Red Imps, 20:00 (Agg 4-0)
Europa League draw: Fixture dates
The first games of the new Europa League season will take place on September 24 and 25.
This year’s final will take place at Besiktas Park in Istanbul on Wednesday, May 20, 2026.
- Matchday 1: September 24-25, 2025
- Matchday 2: October 2, 2025
- Matchday 3: October 23, 2025
- Matchday 4: November 6, 2025
- Matchday 5: November 27, 2025
- Matchday 6: December 11, 2025
- Matchday 7: January 22, 2026
- Matchday 8: January 29, 2026