Brighton 2023/24 Europa League pot & potential group stage opponents

For some teams in the Premier League, the Europa League has become an unwanted distraction. For Brighton & Hove Albion, it is the pinnacle of their success as a football club.

Brighton enter the Europa League group stage draw on Friday 1 September with high hopes and big expectations on their maiden European campaign. The Seagulls were in League One only 12 years ago but are now readying themselves to take on the likes of Roma and Bayer Leverkusen on Thursday nights.

Here’s who Brighton could face during their historic first campaign in the Europa League.

With fixtures still to play to determine the rest of the teams who will play in the Europa League next season, it’s not entirely straightforward predicting who Brighton might face in Europe.

The group stage draw is divided into four pots, each of which consists of eight teams, and a group is then made up of one team from each pot. Which teams are in which pots is dependent on historical performance in European competition and is decided by each club’s UEFA coefficient ranking.

Theoretically, clubs with higher rankings will get easier draws as they will be in a pot with similarly matched teams. Considering a side cannot be drawn against any team in the same pot as they are in, this can be critical in avoiding a difficult group stage draw.

Given Brighton have never been in Europe before, they will receive a coefficient based on a percentage of the Premier League’s coefficient. The Seagulls current ranking is 21.799, one of the lowest of the clubs confirmed in the competition at present, and they will sit in pot 2 or 3 as a result.

By contrast, Liverpool are the club with the highest coefficient in the Europa League with a ranking of 123.000.

On Thursday 31 August, the final qualifying round of matches will take place to determine the other teams who will make up the Europa League group stages. The likes of Ajax, Dinamo Zagreb and Aberdeen may all find their names in the draw come Friday 1 September.

Of course, Brighton will also avoid Liverpool and West Ham United in the group stages as two teams from the same federation cannot be drawn against one another at this stage.

At present, Brighton could well get Xabi Alonso’s high-flying Leverkusen, Jose Mourinho’s stubborn finalists Roma, the always entertaining Italians Atalanta or the 2020/21 champions Villarreal – all of which would prove incredibly tough match-ups.

Ruben Amorim’s Sporting CP could cause problems for the Seagulls given they reached the quarter-finals of the competition last campaign, while French outfits Marseille and Rennes would also prove stern tests.

Bundesliga surprise package Freiburg could be on the cards, as could Manuel Pellegrini’s Real Betis, both of which would be tough for the Seagulls. However, Brighton would likely be unfazed by coming up against Servette, Sturm Graz or Toulouse on Thursday nights.

Potential unqualified opponents Brighton could face