City and Liverpool learn Europa fate

Soccer – Europa League:Big-spending Manchester City face a glamorous clash with Italian giants Juventus in the Europa League group stages, while Liverpool were drawn in the same group as FC Utrecht, who knocked out Celtic in the play-offs.

Roberto Mancini's side, who booked their place in the group phase with a 3-0 aggregate win over Romanian side Timisoara last night, can now look forward to taking on Juventus, twice European champions and three times victors in this competition in its former guise as the Uefa Cup.

The Italian giants defeated Shamrock Rovers 3-0 on aggregate in an earlier qualifying round earlier this month. City also face Austrian champions Salzburg and Polish champions Lech Poznan in Group A.

Uefa chiefs have warned Juventus they will take tough action if their fans target Manchester City’s new signing Mario Balotelli with racist abuse again.

The Italian club were ordered to play a match behind closed doors last year after fans racially abused the striker during a Serie A game against his former club Inter Milan.

Uefa general secretary Gianni Infantino said: “They know that our disciplinary bodies are watching. There will be sanctions if racism is used. Uefa have a zero tolerance to racism. No one is getting away with anything do to with racism.”

Racist abuse of Balotelli in Italy surfaced after the striker, who is of Ghanaian descent, was selected for the national team and prompted the fan ban by an Italian judge.

Manchester City’s football administrator Brian Marwood said the club did not anticipate any targeting of Balotelli and that they were looking forward to the clashes with Juve.

Marwood said: “I’m sure Mario, like all of our players, will be relishing the opportunity. He’s a young man with an incredibly bright future ahead of him and we will give him every support and help that he needs. We will leave it to the authorities to deal with anything that happens but we are not anticipating any issue.

“Juventus have a great history and we are very proud to be playing against them. It’s quite daunting to think we will be facing one of the greatest teams ever to have played European football but we are looking forward to the challenge.

“There’s a lot of big teams in this competition and that adds to the excitement of playing in Europe. We had a good campaign last time and got to the quarter-finals and hopefully we can go further.

“Everyone knows we have invested in the team and have bought a lot of top-quality players and it’s fixtures like the Juventus game that we want to be playing on a regular basis.”

Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard wants to win the trophy even though he admits it is not the club’s priority this season. The England midfielder echoed the sentiments of coach Roy Hodgson when he admitted the Premier League is the main focus after a disappointing seventh-placed finish last season.

But after four years without a trophy Gerrard is keen to bring some silverware back to Anfield and knows Europe represents as good a chance as any.

After getting through a play-off by completing a 3-1 aggregate victory over Trabzonspor in Turkey last night, for which the captain was left at home to recover from a back injury, the Reds have been pitted against Steaua Bucharest, Napoli and Utrecht in the group stages.

“It’s a strong group and I’m certainly looking forward to the games,” he said. “The media will make us early favourites I’m sure, because of our experience in the Champions League and last year in the Europa League.

“I’m confident we can get out of the group but it will be tough. The draw has given us some difficult challenges. I don’t think the Europa League is the priority. Everybody knows that our league position, where we finish at the end of this year, is the priority.

“But it’s another trophy, it’s a big cup. We haven’t won a trophy for four years now so it’s important we put a good show on in all the cup competitions and try to reward the fans with a final.”

Europa League holders Atletico Madrid, who defeated Fulham in the final when the London club were coached by new Liverpool boss Roy Hodgson, will take on Bayer Leverkusen, Norwegian champions Rosenborg and Greek side Aris.

All roads in this season's Europa League lead to Dublin where the final in 2011 will take place at the new Aviva Stadium.

GROUP A

Juventus
Manchester City
Salzburg
Lech Poznan

GROUP B

Atletico Madrid
Bayer Leverkusen
Rosenborg Trondheim
Aris Salonika

GROUP C

Sporting
Lille
Levski Sofia
Ghent

GROUP D

Villarreal
Club Bruges
Dinamo Zagreb
PAOK Salonika

GROUP E

AZ Alkmaar
Dynamo Kiev
BATE Borisov
Sheriff Tiraspol

GROUP F

CSKA Moscow
Palermo
Sparta Prague
FC Lausanne-Sport

GROUP G

Zenit St Petersburg
Anderlecht
AEK Athens
Hajduk Split

GROUP H

VfB Stuttgart
Getafe
OB Odense
Young Boys

GROUP I

PSV Eindhoven
Sampdoria
Metalist Kharkiv
Debrecen

GROUP J

Sevilla
Paris St Germain
Borussia Dortmund
Karpaty Lviv

GROUP K

Liverpool
Steaua Bucharest
Napoli
Utrecht

GROUP L

Porto
Besiktas
CSKA Sofia
Rapid Vienna