Porto, Aston Villa and our other Europa League opponents

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FC Red Bull Salzburg

·29. August 2025

Porto, Aston Villa and our other Europa League opponents

Eight league phase opponents confirmed

Now it is official! With the draw for the UEFA Europa League's league phase, we finally know which eight teams we will be facing in Europe in 2025/26.

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Our four home opponents

FC Porto (POR)
Ferencvaros (HUN)
FC Basel (SUI)
Go Ahead Eagles Deventer (NED)

Our four away opponents

Aston Villa (ENG)
Olympique Lyon (FRA)
SC Freiburg (GER)
FC Bologna (ITA)

Views

I think we've got some exciting and challenging opponents. I see Porto and Aston Villa as particularly strong teams, who I believe are among the favourites for the tournament. The two matches against relatively nearby Basel and Freiburg are also exciting. Our aim is to play well in the league and perform to the best of our ability against all of these teams.

Thomas Letsch

We have been drawn against some really strong opponents in the league phase. There is a lot of quality there, and I am already looking forward to the matches. Away from home in particular, we will be playing against teams who will push us to the limit. We will prepare very carefully on the competition over the next few weeks so that we are well equipped for the matches. We are definitely really looking forward to it.

Mads Bidstrup

Tickets for the UEFA Europa League: exclusive from Tuesday

Four-match packages for our UEL home games will be available from next week, with our season ticket holders having exclusive presale rights. Premium season ticket holders will automatically have their seats booked with a 20 per cent discount.

Details on the ticketing process and further sales phases will follow next Tuesday, 2 September 2025.

Fixtures to follow this weekend

The exact scheduling of our UEFA Europa League matches is expected to be announced by UEFA over the weekend. The provisional schedule outlines the following dates:

Matchday 1: 24. & 25. September 2025
Matchday 2: 2 October 2025
Matchday 3: 23 October 2025
Matchday 4: 6 November 2025
Matchday 5: 27 November 2025
Matchday 6: 11 December 2025
Matchday 7: 22 January 2026
Matchday 8: 29 January 2026

How the UEFA Europa League's league phase works

Since last season, a league mode has replaced the group stage in UEFA competitions. In the UEFA Europa League, as in the Champions League, each team is drawn against eight different opponents, resulting in four home and four away matches.

At the end of the eight rounds, there is an overall table of all 36 participating teams. The top eight then advance directly to the round of 16. Teams ranked 9th to 24th compete in a play-off round with home and away matches for the remaining places in the knockout phase.

Further changes compared to previous years are that after elimination, there is no longer a ‘relegation’ to the UEFA Conference League, as was previously the case for the third-placed teams in the group stage. In addition, the league phase schedule now extends until the end of January.