Hopefully, two days of Champions League excitement hasn’t drained your desire to watch European club football, because we’ve got even more for you. Imagine you just finished enjoying a lovely buffet and discovered a desert buffet that’s just good enough to get your attention.
UEFA Europa League 2013: Time to get the group stages underway
In the wake of all the Champions League buzz comes that other European club tournament. Europa League’s group stages get underway on Thursday.
Harold Cunningham
That’s the Europa League.
Several clubs from the English league system will be participating including Tottenham, Swansea City and Wigan Athletic. While Spurs and the Swans will be among the early favorites, Wigan's relegation and subsequent salary purge leaves them ill-equipped for European play, but they earned the place and will get a chance to potentially surprise some people.
There's also Fiorentina and Lazio from Italy, Bordeaux and Lyon from France, Eintracht Frankfurt and Freiburg from Germany, and Real Betis, Sevilla and Valencia from Spain, along with teams from other leagues across the continent.
It may not have the glitz and glamour of the Champions League -- or the fancy theme song -- but there should still be some good matchups and interesting storylines.
Here’s a complete schedule of all of Thursday’s games from Group A to Group L. All times listed are Eastern.
Group A
St Gallen vs. Kuban Krasnodar 1 p.m.
Valencia vs. Swansea City 1 p.m.
Group B
Dinamo Zagreb vs. Chornomorets 1 p.m.
PSV Eindhoven vs. Ludogorets Razgrad 1 p.m.
Group C
Standard Liege vs. Esbjerg 1 p.m.
SV Salzburg vs. Elfsborg 1 p.m.
Group D
NK Maribor vs. FK Rubin Kazan 1 p.m.
Zulte-Waregem vs. Wigan Athletic 1 p.m.
Group E
Fiorentina vs. Paços de Ferreira 1 p.m.
Pandurii Targu-Jiu vs. Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk 1 p.m.
Group F
Eintracht Frankfurt vs. Bordeaux 1 p.m.
Maccabi Tel-Aviv vs. Apoel Nicosia 1 p.m.
Group G
Dynamo Kiev vs. Racing Genk 1 p.m.
FC Thun vs. Rapid Vienna 3:05 p.m.
Group H
Estoril vs. Sevilla FC 3:05 p.m.
SC Freiburg vs. Liberec 3:05 p.m.
Group I
Guimaraes vs. Rijeka 3:05 p.m.
Real Betis vs. Lyon 3:05 p.m.
Group J
Apollon Limassol vs. Trabzonspor 3:05 p.m.
Lazio vs. Legia Warsaw 3:05 p.m.
Group K
Sheriff Tiraspol vs. Anzhi Makhachkala 3:05 p.m.
Tottenham Hotspur vs. Tromso 3:05 p.m.
Group L
Maccabi Haifa vs. AZ Alkmaar 3:05 p.m.
PAOK Salonika vs. Shakhter Karagandy 3:05 p.m.
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