Interesting away trips await 1. FC Union Berlin and SC Freiburg in the Europa League. The two Bundesliga representatives escape the supposedly toughest groups and instead meet clubs from Portugal, Sweden and Belgium as well as Greece, Azerbaijan and France.
Union Berlin and SC Freiburg got solvable tasks in the group phase of the Europa League (all games live and exclusively on RTL). Union Berlin will meet Sporting Braga from Portugal, Malmö FF (Sweden) and Belgian runners-up Union St. Gilloise from September 8th. So the fans of the Köpenicker will have interesting and diverse opportunities to travel through Europe.
On their European comeback, Freiburg will face Serbian champions Red Star Belgrade, Qarabag Agdam from Azerbaijan and FC Nantes from France. Above all, the trip to the Azerbaijani representative offers plenty of potential to get to know Europe – after all, it is more than 3000 kilometers from the Black Forest to the south-east of the continent.
Heavyweights like Manchester United, AS Roma or FC Arsenal were spared the duo. That was the result of the draw in Istanbul, among others, by Bundesliga record player Charly Körbel, who was invited to represent the current title holder, Eintracht Frankfurt. The SBU will compete in the Champions League next season and meet Tottenham Hotspur, Sporting Lisbon and Olympique Marseille in the preliminary round.
The group stage begins on September 8th and ends on November 3rd. The group winners qualify directly for the round of 16, while those runners-up play in the final round playoffs against those third in the Champions League. Third-placed teams continue to play in the intermediate round of the Europa Conference League. The knockout rounds will continue from February. The final is scheduled for May 31, 2023 in Budapest. Union and Freiburg qualified for the Europa League as fifth and sixth in the Bundesliga last season.
