Nottingham Forest will host a rerun of their 1979 European Cup final win over Malmö on their return to continental action after 20 years away.
The Swedish champions will visit the City Ground for one of Forest’s eight Europa League ties, evoking memories of Trevor Francis’s winning goal in the first of their back-to-back European titles. Forest will compete on this stage after swapping places with Crystal Palace, who were controversially demoted to the Conference League for breaching multi-club ownership rules. The pick of Palace’s ties are trips to face Dynamo Kyiv, probably to be staged in Poland, and the Ligue 1 club Strasbourg.
Aston Villa joined Forest in the Europa League draw and, under the tournament specialist Unai Emery, will feel confident of navigating a schedule that brings visits to Feyenoord, a José Mourinho-less Fenerbahce, Basel and Go Ahead Eagles. They will host Red Bull Salzburg, Young Boys and Bologna, as well as the potential logistical headache of a tie against the Israeli club Maccabi Tel Aviv.
Forest, competing in Europe for the first time since a Uefa Cup campaign in 1995-96 that coincidentally brought another pair of meetings with Malmö, will also welcome Porto, Ferencvaros and Midtjylland to the City Ground. They will travel to Real Betis, Braga, Sturm Graz and Utrecht.
The Forest owner, Evangelos Marinakis, and the Palace co-owner Steve Parish sat a few yards from one another in the draw hall. They saw Palace, playing in a major Europe competition for the first time, drawn to play AZ Alkmaar, the Finnish side KuPS and the Cypriot club AEK Larnaca at Selhurst Park. As well as their away games against Dynamo and Strasbourg, they will make the short trip to Dublin for a tie with Shelbourne. In contrast with the Europa League’s eight-strong fixture lists, only six league phase ties are contested by each Conference League club.
Rangers and Celtic will compete in the Europa League after costly Champions League playoff defeats. Russell Martin’s Gers will host Roma, Braga, Ludogorets and Genk; away, they will meet Porto, Ferencvaros, Sturm Graz and Brann. Celtic and Brendan Rodgers will welcome Roma, Sturm Graz, Utrecht and Braga to Glasgow; they will visit Feyenoord, Crvena Zvezda, Midtjylland and Bologna.
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A home meeting with Shakhtar Donetsk was the highlight of Aberdeen’s Conference League draw. The dates and order of both competitions’ ties are expected to be confirmed by Sunday.
