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After two excellent qualification phases, Bradford Park Avenue have been named in Group H of the UEFA Europa League for this season's campaign.
Wins against I.F. Elfsborg and SC Wiener Neustadt led to the qualification into the Group Stage of the European competition for Avenue. This year's team has impressed in all aspects this season with Chabukiani's team in 2nd place in the Premier League and already four wins in Europe.
Bradford have been placed in Group H for this phase of the tournament. They were the third seed for the stage after arriving in the 2nd Qualification Phase.
Bradford will face a bit of a challenge in their group, though. Coming in as the first seed for the group is Sporting Lisbon who finished in 3rd place last season in the Portuguese Primeira Liga, just behind SL Benfica and champions FC Porto.
Sporting have come under fire in the Portuguese national media after apparently 'backing out' of winning the top-flight by selling £50M worth of top players this summer. They sold Matheus Pereira for £27M to Chelsea and César Lafrentz for £22M to Juventus and failed to adequately replace them, with Felipe Gutiérrez and Lorenzo Rivera their biggest signings yet.
Despite this, Sporting are still an incredible outfit and will be a tough team to face. Bradford will have to break down a defence of Jonathan Silva, Edoardo Goldaniga and Gonzalo Pizzo before trying to score against Sporting and Portugal legend Rui Patricio in goal. With a midfield filled with talents like Federico Bravo and Carlos Mané and Nelson González up-front, Sporting will be expecting a breeze through to the Knockout Round.
The second seed for Group H is Ligue 1 outfit En Avant de Guingamp, led by Benjamin Nivet. The French team finished in 5th place last season, 11 points ahead of sixth place Lyon.
Despite EAG's second seed ranking superior to Bradford's, Adam Chabukiani will be hoping to defeat this team as their actual team is definitely worse on paper in comparison to Bradford Park Avenue. Unlike Sporting, though, Nivet has managed to keep all of his top players at the club for this season which suggests a well-knit feeling around the squad.
Andy Delort is the man to look out for against Guingamp, with the 29-year-old striker winning Ligue 1's Top Goalscorer award last season with eighteen goals in 38 matches in the French top-flight.
Coming in as the fourth seed is Romanian Liga I outfit Dinamo Bucharest. The Eastern European team began their Europa League campaign in the First Qualifying Phase against Macedonian team Turnovo, before victories against Olimpija, FK Austria Wien and Ludogorets.
As expected, Dinamo are possibly the weakest team in Group H, but will still be considered a threat due to their resilience shown to come through all four qualifying phases undefeated.
Romanian international Marvin Schieb is to be considered a threat to opponents in the Group Stage. But perhaps a familiar name to Premier League fans following Bradford's story is the Ivorian midfielder Cheick Tioté who joined Dinamo back in 2019 after his Newcastle contract expired.
That will be all the teams in Group H, though, with the only other English teams featured in this tournament being Tottenham Hotspur, who finished fifth in last season's Premier League and Leeds United, who won the F.A. Cup last season at the hands of Manchester City at Wembley.
Bradford Park Avenue's first Europa League match will be against arguably the best team in Group H as Adam Chabukiani faces André Villas-Boas' Sporting Lisbon on 16th September.
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