West Ham United will find out on Friday afternoon who they will be playing in the group stages of this season’s Europa Conference League.
The Hammers sealed a second straight season of European football on Thursday night with a 3-0 second leg victory over Viborg in Denmark, with Gianluca Scamacca, Said Benrahma and Tomas Soucek all netting to seal a 6-1 aggregate victory at the Energi Viborg Arena.
Attention quickly turns to who the Hammers could face in the competition, with the group stage draw taking place on Friday afternoon. Here is a look at who the Hammers could face, as well as the best and worst case scenario for them in the draw.
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Which teams are in each pot?
Pot 1
Villarreal (Spain)
Basel (Switzerland)
Slavia Prague (Czech Republic)
AZ Alkmaar (Netherlands)
Gent (Belgium)
Istanbul Basaksehir (Turkiye)
Partizan (Serbia)
West Ham United (England)
Pot 2
CFR Cluj (Romania)
Molde (Norway)
FCSB (Romania)
Fiorentina (Italy)
FC Koln (Germany)
Hapoel Be’er Sheva (Israel)
Apollon Limassol (Cyprus)
Slovan Bratislava (Slovakia)
Pot 3
Nice (France)
Anderlecht (Belgium)
Zalgiris (Lithuania)
Austria Wien (Austria)
Hearts (Scotland)
Shamrock Rovers (Republic of Ireland)
Sivasspor (Turkiye)
Vaduz (Liechtenstein)
Pot 4
Dnipro-1 (Ukraine)
Lech Poznan (Poland)
Slovacko (Czech Republic)
Silkeborg (Denmark)
Djurgardens FF (Sweden)
Pyunik (Armenia)
RFS (Latvia)
Ballkani (Kosovo)
Best case scenario
- West Ham United
- Slovan Bratislava
- Vaduz
- Ballkani
The best case scenario would of course see them face the lowest-ranked sides in each of the three pots. In West Ham’s case, that would see them travel to Slovakia, Liechtenstein and Kosovo to take on Slovan Bratislava, Vaduz and Ballkani respectively.
While they would be on paper, long treks, as per UEFA’s club coefficient rankings, they should in theory be the easiest games for the Hammers.
Bratislava have played in the group stages of European competitions four times, three times in the Europa League and once in last season’s Europa Conference League. However, they have never finished above third in a European group.
In their 27 th attempt of qualification for a European tournament, this is only Vaduz’s second time in a full European competition. The only other successful attempt was reaching the first round of the 1996/97 European Cup Winners’ Cup, before losing 7-0 on aggregate to Paris Saint-Germain.
For Ballkani, this is their first ever qualification for a European club competition, having to beat La Fiorita, Ki and Shkupi in qualifying to reach the group stages.
The trio are the lowest ranked sides West Ham can face and on paper, should be a comfortable route to the knockout rounds.
Worst case scenario
- West Ham United
- Hapoel Be’er Sheva
- Nice
- Pyunik
There are plenty of long journeys on offer in the competition and the worst case scenario would involve the two longest journeys in Hapoel Be’er Sheva (Isreal) and Pyunik (Armenia), as well as a meeting with well-respected side Nice (France).
A trip to Be’er Sheva may on paper be one of the easier options, but they have a solid European record and the trip is over 3,000 miles each way. Two seasons ago, they beat both Nice and Slavia Prague in the Europa League group stages having already progressed through four qualifying rounds to get there. In the 2016/17 season, they also finished second in a Europa League group including Inter Milan and Southampton, beating Inter twice and drawing twice with the Saints.
Nice played in the Europa League group stages two years ago and in the 2016/17 and 2017/18 campaigns, finishing fifth in Ligue 1 last season, missing out on Europa League qualification this season on goal difference and three points shy of the qualification rounds of the Champions League. They also enter as the top-ranked side in Pot 3.
In Pot 4, Pyunik are playing in a full European competition for the first time after 20 previous seasons of missing out after qualification ties across various UEFA club competitions. Like Be’er Sheva, the journey is just shy of 3,000 miles each way and considering it is likely to come less than 72 hours before a Premier League game, it is quite the ask to expect the Hammers to recover from that pretty instantly.
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