Europa League 2015 schedule and scores: An exciting group stage kicks off

The Europa League is back, ladies and gentlemen. Often dismissed as the dorky little brother of the Champions League, the Europa League still manages to bring plenty of entertainment and enjoyment to it’s viewers thanks to bizarre matchups, crazy stories, and -- more often than you may think -- incredible football.

Looking at the teams in this year’s Europa League group stage, it’s hard not to think that this is the strongest crop of teams the competition has seen in some time. Some are big clubs fallen on hard times, while are teams from a lower tier trying to prove that they can play with the best. There’s also a bunch of teams that look like they’re just along for the ride, but any number of them are perfectly capable of putting in a big upset. It happens every year, because there is no competition crazier or harder to predict than the Europa League.

Since there are so many matches on today -- the Europa League doesn’t get to break up their groups over two days like the Champions League does -- we went ahead and picked three of the best and most interesting for you. You can see the full slate of matches in all its glory down at the bottom, though, because there’s still a number of intriguing matches to be had. If we went over every interesting Europa tie, we’d be here all week long.

This is a fascinating matchup to have play out in the Europa League. Liverpool are a team of mystery -- they’re an incredibly talented team, but they’ve struggled through every match this season in the English Premier League and look like they’re still trying to find their way after what seems like yet another change in direction and vision from Brendan Rodgers. They’re taking on Bordeaux, who are a rising team in France’s Ligue 1. They’re not in the elite yet, but a home win over a huge English club like Liverpool would be a massive way to declare that they’re knocking on the door.

It’s another season and another transition for Napoli, who are struggling mightily early in their Serie A campaign under new manager Maurizio Sarri. Their attack has been out of sync, the midfield isn’t isn’t gelled yet, and the defense has been a hot mess. They’ve been looking at the Europa League as a chance to help cement their gameplan and build themselves into a better team again, but Napoli are facing a stiff challenge in their first match against Club Brugge.

One of the surprise teams in the Europa knockout rounds last season, the Belgians gave Manchester United a good fight in their away leg of their Champions League playoff before running out of gas and succumbing to United’s huge talent gap at home. They’re going to be trying to build off that experience to go on a deeper and more impressive Europa League run this season, in order to try to establish themselves as a legitimate European contender. Knocking off Napoli in Italy would be a good first step to doing that.

One of the more interesting group pairings is Dutch power Ajax Amsterdam going up against Scottish giants Celtic --not so much for what they’ve done lately as what for what they haven’t done lately. The current financial climate in European football has left the once-proud clubs unable to compete with their English and German and Spanish counterparts in the transfer market, and now on the pitch as well. Ajax’s problems have gotten so bad that they failed to win the Eredivisie last season, and neither team could get through Champions League qualifying. Both of these teams are in desperate need of a momentum shift -- and maybe, just maybe, they can use this match to help start that turnaround.

Full Europa League group stage schedule
Full TV and online streaming listing available here.

Fenerbahce (Turkey) 1-3 Molde (Norway)

Ajax (Netherlands) 2-2 Celtic (Scotland)

Qabala (Azerbaijan) 0-0 PAOK (Greece)

FC Midtjylland (Denmark) 1-0 Legia Warsaw (Poland)

Viktoria Plzen (Czech Republic) 2-0 Dinamo Minsk (Belarus)

Groningen (Netherlands) 0-3 Olympique Marseille (France)

Saint-Etienne (France) 2-2 Rosenborg (Norway)

Skenderbeu Korce (Albania) 0-1 Besiktas (Turkey)

Anderlecht (Belgium) 1-1 AS Monaco (France)

Asteras Tripolis (Greece) 1-1 Sparta Prague (Czech Republic)

FK Partizan (Serbia) 3-2 AZ Alkmaar (Netherlands)