#europa-league

#europa-league

With the first leg taking place in Thessaloniki, PAOK will recognise the importance of establishing control before next week's return fixture. Razvan Lucescu's team arrive on the back of a goalless draw with AEK Athens-a result that extended their unbeaten run but also underlined a slight dip in attacking sharpness. PAOK have nonetheless demonstrated resilience in recent weeks. Three wins and two draws from their last five matches across all competitions reflect a team capable of grinding out results.

Let's start by asking you to name every Everton player to go to a major tournament with England since 2000 and every West Ham United player to go to the World Cup or European Championship with England since 1966? We also want you to name all of these players who share three of the same clubs and every manager of Newcastle United since 1992 including caretakers and interim bosses.

Nübel started for Stuttgart away to AS Roma in the Europa League on Thursday. He had two saves in the first half and conceded one goal to go down 1-0 at halftime. In the second half, he did not face another shot on goal until he conceded a second goal late in stoppage time to put Stuttgart's comeback chances away. Their attack could not help Nübel out, and they fell 2-0.

In fact, sat rock-bottom of the group stage table and becoming somewhat of a laughing stock from across the continent, Claude Puel's men have astonishingly failed to put a single point on the board during this year's tournament. With their knockout stage dreams already going up in smoke prior to opening 2026, Nice have remarkably lost all of their six Europa League appearances this season by an aggregate score of 13-4.

Starting with the hosts, while Stuttgart might have endured a stuttering start to proceedings when opening up the 2025/26 campaign, Die Roten have certainly turned a real corner on either side of opening the New Year. Getting 2026 underway with a major Bundesliga scalp as they stormed their way to an empathic 4-1 romp away at former champions Bayer Leverkusen, Sebastian Hoeneb's camp will be dreaming of a repeat display here.

Maccabi Tel Aviv have been given a suspended one-match away fan ban from Uefa for "racist and/or discriminatory behaviour" by it supporters during last week's Europa League game at German side Stuttgart. The Israeli club, whose supporters were barred from attending an away match at Aston Villa in November because of safety concerns, were also fined 20,000 euros (17,550) for their fans' conduct during the fixture on 11 December.