What to look out for in the UEFA Europa Conference League group stage
Friday, September 1, 2023
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Frankfurt aiming high again, Unai Emery looking to work his magic at Aston Villa and KÍ breaking new ground – we round up the main talking points.
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The third edition of the UEFA Europa Conference League group stage will not be short of intrigue after the draw on 31 August mapped out the route to the knockouts.
In this piece presented by Enterprise Rent-A-Car, we pick out some of the main storylines. Remember: Every mission matters.
When are the Europa Conference League group stage games?
Matchday 1: 21 September 2023
Matchday 2: 5 October 2023
Matchday 3: 26 October 2023
Matchday 4: 9 November 2023
Matchday 5: 30 November 2023
Matchday 6: 14 December 2023
What to look out for
Eagles dare to dream
Frankfurt are the competition's top-ranked team according to the club coefficients, and the German side will surely be contenders. Winners of the 2021/22 Europa League, Eintracht have reached the European knockout phase in four of the past five seasons and PAOK, HJK Helsinki and Aberdeen will have their work cut out denying them.
They are now led by 42-year-old Dino Toppmöller, son of Klaus, the man in charge when Bayer Leverkusen finished runners-up in the UEFA Champions League, Bundesliga and German Cup in 2001/02. Can Dino go one better in his first season as a head coach in Germany?
There are no shortage of pretenders to the crown though, not least Fiorentina, beaten finalists last term.
Emery: Hero for Villans?
West Ham beat the Viola in the 2023 final and following that success, another English team in claret and blue have been installed among favourites for this season. That is a lofty ambition for an Aston Villa side back in Europe for the first time in 13 years, but a familiar figure on the bench provides hope that they can hit the ground running: Unai Emery.
The Spaniard is a four-time Europa League winner, and while his squad may lack experience in continental competition, the former Sevilla and Villarreal boss certainly doesn't. He took the side from a point above the relegation zone when he was appointed to a seventh-placed finish last season, and oversaw a comprehensive 8-0 dismantling of Hibernian in the play-offs.
"We needed to be in the group stage so we have to be happy and enjoy it with our supporters," he said after dispatching the Scottish side. With Emery at the helm, Villa fans are dreaming of going well beyond that.
New horizons
A total of 28 national associations are represented in the 2023/24 line-up including, for the first time in UEFA competition, clubs from Iceland, the Faroe Islands and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Breidablik fly the flag for Iceland, Bosnian side Zrinjski are in Group E with Aston Villa and AZ, but it is hard to look past KÍ Klaksvík for romance.
The side from the Faroe Islands' second biggest town (population: 5,000) will welcome LOSC Lille, Slovan Bratislava and Olimpija Ljubljana in Group C. Most of the players are part-timers, including students, a wholesale food business director and an electrician, but they have already won 3-0 away to Ferencváros this term so will not be taken lightly.
Where is the 2024 UEFA Europa Conference League final being played?
The 2023/24 UEFA Europa Conference League season is set to conclude at the AEK Arena in Athens, Greece, on Wednesday 29 May 2024.
Opened in September 2022, the new stadium stands on the site of the Nikos Goumas Stadium, which had been home to AEK Athens since 1930 but sustained serious damage during an earthquake in 1999. With a capacity of over 30,000, the new stadium in the north-western suburb of Nea Filadelfia stages Greece international home games as well as AEK matches.