Europa Conference League reigning champions West Ham United will be playing in the Europa League this term and have been drawn with Super League Greece side Olympiacos, Bundesliga’s SC Freiburg and Serbian club Backa Topola (aka FK TSC) in Group A of the competition.
The Hammers last featured in the Europa League in 2021-22, where they lost 3-1 on aggregate to eventual winners Eintracht Frankfurt in the semi-finals.
Manager David Moyes will be keen to go one better this time as winning the competition will automatically see them qualify for the Champions League.
The 2023/24 group stage is set ✅#UELdraw pic.twitter.com/rKmamwpJyf
— UEFA Europa League (@EuropaLeague) September 1, 2023
West Ham were drawn in Group H alongside Dinamo Zagreb, Rapid Wien and Genk two seasons ago, and they finished top of the group to book a place in the knockout stages.
They dumped Sevilla and Lyon out of the competition but came up short in the semis.
The Irons are competing in Europe for a third successive season for the first time in the history of the club, and they will be keen to impress again.
The group campaign gets underway on 21 September and ends on 14 December 2023, and West Ham will look to finish as group leaders and book a place directly in the last-16.
The group runners-up will face a preliminary knockout round against the eight third-placed teams from the Champions League groups, while the third-placed teams in the Europa League will advance to the preliminary knockout round of the Europa Conference League.
Unfortunately for West Ham fans, they will be unable to attend the first away fixture this season due to a UEFA ruling banning them because of incidents at the Europa Conference League final last term.
