Irish Premier League outfit Shamrock Rovers have been handed a dream draw in the group stages of the Europa League.
The Rovers will make history as the first side from Ireland to ever reach the group stages of a European competition and they will be ecstatic with their draw, which will see them play home and away matches against English Premier League outfit Tottenham.
Joining the Rovers and Spurs in Group A are Greek outfit PAOK and Russian side Rubin Kazan.
The news will boost the mood of Rovers fans even further, after they qualified with a brilliant 2-1 win in extra time against Partizan Belgrade on Wednesday, which saw them progress 3-2 on aggregate.
Stoke City’s first appearance in European competition for 37 years was a successful one as they negotiated their way through to the group stages, where they will face Dynamo Kiev of Ukraine, Hapoel Tel Aviv of Israel and Turkish Super Lig outfit Besiktas in Group E.
Fellow English Premier League side Fulham will face Odense of Denmark, Wisla Krakow of Poland and FC Twente of Holland in Group K, with Martin Jol’s men keen to repeat their run to the final in the same competition in 2009-2010.
Birmingham City, who play their football in the Championship – England’s second-tier – will take on Portuguese side Braga, Club Brugge of Belgium and Maribor of Slovenia in Group H.
If Celtic are successful in their appeal to have their 3-1 aggregate loss in a play-off against Swiss side Sion overturned, due to the winners having allegedly breached a transfer ban, they would face La Liga outfit Atletico Madrid, Udinese of Serie A and French Ligue 1 side Rennes.
With four sides in every group, each side will play at least six matches, facing all their group opponents both home and away.
The top two sides in each group then advance to the round of 32, where they are joined by the eight third-placed teams from the UEFA Champions League group stages as the knockout phase of the tournament begins.
Full draw:-
Group A: Tottenham, Rubin Kazan, PAOK Salonika, Shamrock Rovers
Group B: FC Copenhagen, Standard Liege, Hannover, Vorskla Poltava
Group C: PSV Eindhoven, Hapoel Tel-Aviv, Rapid Bucharest, Legia Warsaw
Group D: Sporting Lisbon, Lazio, FC Zurich, FC Vaslui
Group E: Dynamo Kiev, Besiktas, Stoke City, Maccabi Tel-Aviv
Group F: Paris St Germain, Athletic Bilbao, Salzburg, Slovan Bratislava
Group G: AZ Alkmaar, Metalist Kharkiv, Austria Vienna, Malmo
Group H: Braga, Club Brugge, Birmingham, Maribor
Group I: Atletico Madrid, Udinese, Rennes, Sion
Group J: Schalke, Steaua Bucharest, Maccabi Haifa, AEK Larnaca
Group K: FC Twente, Fulham, Odense, Wisla Krakow
Group L: Anderlecht, AEK Athens, Lokomotiv Moscow, Sturm Graz
