AC Milan And Coach Amorim Get English Opponents Sunderland And Bournemouth In Europa League Draw

AC Milan and new coach Ruben Amorim will play two English opponents in the Europa League after being drawn Friday to host Sunderland and play at Bournemouth. Amorim lost the 2025 Europa League final during a mostly unhappy 14-month spell at Manchester United that ended in January.

Milan will also host Benfica – the team it beat in the 1990 European Cup final – at San Siro in the eight-game league phase. Juventus was drawn against two Spanish opponents, Real Sociedad and Celta Vigo, and will travel to a neutral venue to play Hapoel Beer-Sheva of Israel.

Hapoel Beer-Sheva must travel to the Netherlands, Belgium, England and Turkey to play AZ Alkmaar, Union Saint-Gilloise, Bournemouth and Besiktas.

Crystal Palace, which won the third-tier Conference League last season, finally gets to play in the Europa League one year after its entry was blocked by UEFA because it shared ownership links with Lyon through United States businessman John Textor.

Lyon will now host Palace in the competition after Textor cut ties with the French club, which is owned by another American, Michele Kang.

Celtic hosts Marseille and gets two trips to Portugal, against Benfica — where the Scottish champion won the 1967 European Cup — and second-tier Torreense, surprise winner of the Portuguese Cup.

Bayer Leverkusen, which lost the 2024 final after going unbeaten in both the league and Europa League until then, was drawn to face French teams Marseille and Lyon.

Europa League games start Sept. 16-17 and the eighth and final round is played Jan. 28. The final in May is played at Eintracht Frankfurt's stadium.

The 36 teams will share a UEFA prize money fund of 565 million euros ($658 million).