Europa League draw: Bournemouth, Sunderland get glamour ties with AC Milan

The draw for the 2026‑27 UEFA Europa League and Conference League league phases was held on Friday, revealing the match‑ups for all participating clubs. English sides Bournemouth and Sunderland, who qualified for Europe for the first time in decades, both received high‑profile ties against AC Milan, the seven‑time European champion.

Bournemouth, finishing sixth in last season’s Premier League, will play its first continental campaign. The club will host Milan at the Dean Court stadium on the south coast and will also host Czech side Viktoria Plzen, Austrian club Sturm Graz and Israeli champions Hapoel Beersheba. In away fixtures, the club will travel to Spain twice – to face Real Sociedad and Celta Vigo – and will visit Sparta Prague and Norwegian Cup winners Lillestrom. Bournemouth’s campaign is a milestone for the club, which has never competed in European competition before.

Sunderland finished seventh in the Premier League, giving them their first European outing since 1973. Their first round of fixtures includes a trip to the San Siro to face Milan. At home, Sunderland will play Dutch side AZ Alkmaar, Croatian club Dinamo Zagreb and Bulgarian outfit Levski Sofia. The team will also travel to Belgium’s Anderlecht, Poland’s Jagiellonia Bialystok and Lech Poznan, and will visit Portugal’s Torreense, the second‑division club that shocked the nation by winning the Portuguese Cup last season. Torreense will host its European matches at Estadio do Algarve near Faro.

Other English clubs in European competition include Crystal Palace, the winners of the 2025‑26 UEFA Conference League. Now under the management of Pierre Sage, Palace will face Real Sociedad, Sparta Prague, Lech Poznan and German side Hoffenheim at home. Their away opponents are Lyon, Salzburg, Jagiellonia and Istanbul’s Besiktas. Celtic, after a dramatic loss to LASK in the Champions League playoffs, will compete in the Europa League. They will host Marseille and will travel to Benfica, Celta Vigo, Besiktas and Torreense. Bayer Leverkusen and Juventus are also among the teams to watch in the Europa League, with Juventus having won the predecessor competition, the UEFA Cup, three times.

The Conference League will feature a mix of clubs from across Europe. Brighton and Hove Albion, the Premier League’s representative, will host Monaco in what is expected to be their most glamorous game. They will also host Romanian champions Universitatea Craiova and Lithuanian title holders Kauno Zalgiris, and travel to Panathinaikos, Getafe and Czech side Jablonec. Other Conference League participants include Atalanta, Ajax and Freiburg, as well as Hearts and Trabzonspor. Hearts will host Monaco and travel to Turkey to play Trabzonspor, and will also visit Swiss champions Thun.

UEFA announced that the league‑phase fixtures will be released over the weekend, with the first matches scheduled for 16 and 17 September. The Europa League final will take place on 26 May 2027 in Frankfurt, Germany, where Aston Villa will face Freiburg, the winners of last season’s tournament. The Conference League final is set for 2 June 2027 at the Besiktas stadium in Istanbul.

The draws have set the stage for a season of European football that will see clubs from all corners of the continent compete for prestige and silverware. The matches will test the squads’ depth and resilience, as they balance domestic commitments with the demands of continental competition. The draws also underscore the growing competitiveness of clubs from the Premier League, with Bournemouth and Sunderland earning their first European spots and Crystal Palace adding a new trophy to its cabinet. The season promises to deliver drama, surprise upsets and memorable performances as the clubs vie for the chance to lift the Europa and Conference League trophies.