Europa League: Arsenal drawn with Eintracht, Utd face Astana

Monaco: Last season’s runners-up Arsenal were placed in the same section as Eintracht Frankfurt in the draw for the Europa League group stage in Monaco on Friday, while Manchester United face a long trip to Kazakhstan.

Unai Emery’s Arsenal side lost to Chelsea in the final in Baku after Eintracht had been eliminated by the same side on penalties in the last four.

Standard Liege and Portugal’s Vitoria Guimaraes are also in Group F.

United, Europa League winners in 2017, will face Astana of Kazakhstan as well as Partizan Belgrade and former finalists AZ Alkmaar of the Netherlands in Group L.

Wolverhampton Wanderers, the third English team in the draw, will take on Turkish side Besiktas in Group K.

Meanwhile, Scottish champions Celtic meet Lazio and Rennes in Group E as well as CFR Cluj, the Romanian side to whom they lost in Champions League qualifying.

Scottish rivals Rangers will take on former European Cup winners Porto and Feyenoord as well as Young Boys in Group G.

Meanwhile, Rangers have been ordered to close a section of Ibrox for the second consecutive home Europa League tie following a second UEFA charge for sectarian singing already this season.

The Glasgow giants secured their place in the Europa League group stages with a dramatic late 1-0 win over Legia Warsaw on Thursday despite 3,000 seats at Ibrox being closed off for fans.

That was due to the original charge for “racist behaviour”, including sectarian singing, against St Joseph’s of Gibraltar at Ibrox on July 18.

A second charge was brought against Rangers for chants in the away leg to Legia in Warsaw last week, which will again see 3,000 seats are Ibrox closed to supporters.

The club have announced they will not accept tickets for their next away European fixture in an effort to avert another closure.

Agence France-Presse