Soccer

UEFA Europa League 2011, Matchday 1: A Dozen Teams We Know And Love, More That We Don’t

Keeping up with the group stages of the UEFA Europa League is tough. Sure, we all know Tottenham Hotspur, Lazio and Paris St. Germain, but what is an AEK Larnaca? And what are Birmingham doing here?

by Kim McCauley

Sep 15, 2011, 1:43 PM UTC

Not really up on all of the teams in this edition of the UEFA Europa League? Don’t worry, it’s not your fault. While this competition always produces some interesting storylines and showcases some emerging stars, it doesn’t have the glamour of the Champions League and there are always battles with long travel and bad pitches for some very big clubs.

Having said that, the quality of this competition has increased significantly from when it was called the UEFA Cup. Bash Michel Platini on Financial Fair Play and his role in the World Cup bidding nonsense if you like, but this is one place where he’s absolutely gotten it right. His changes to the Europa League have made it a higher quality competition, and football fans should be grateful for that.

There are a lot of fun matches on, but very few of them are widely available on television. If you reside in the USA and you have your television services through DirecTV, many of these games are available on their temporary soccer channels in the general vicinity of channel 480 and higher. If you’re a customer of theirs, check their guide. Otherwise, we will list the games available to people in the UK on ESPN UK and those in the USA on GolTV.

1:00 pm ET, 6:00 pm BST

PAOK vs. Tottenham Hotspur (ESPN UK)

Shamrock Rovers vs. Rubin Kazan

FC Copenhagen vs. Vorskla

Hannover 96 vs. Standard Liege

Hapoel Tel-Aviv vs. Rapid Bucharest

PSV Eindhoven vs. Legia Warsaw

FC Zurich vs. Sporting Lisbon

Lazio vs. FC Vaslui

Besiktas vs. Maccabi Tel-Aviv

Dynamo Kiev vs. Stoke City

Paris St. Germain vs. SV Salzburg (GolTV)