In Profile: Our Group G Opponents
- Leicester City’s UEFA Europa League Group G opponents profiled
- The Foxes will take on SC Braga, AEK Athens and FC Zorya Luhansk
- Fixtures will be played across October, November and December
The Foxes will travel to Portugal, Greece and Ukraine over the course of the next three months as they get their fifth campaign in Europe underway.
Friday’s draw, involving 48 teams from four different pots, placed City in Group G alongside SC Braga, AEK Athens and FC Zorya Luhansk.
Group stage fixtures – confirmed on LCFC.com in due course – will be played throughout October, November and December, with the first taking place on Thursday 22 October.
SC Braga
During Friday’s draw, City were first matched up against pot one side SC Braga, who compete in the Portuguese Primeira Liga.
Under the stewardship of ex-Swansea City, Sheffield Wednesday and Sporting CP manager Carlos Carvalhal, Braga finished third in the league and won the Taça da Liga in 2019/20 to seal UEFA Europa League qualification.
Known as Os Arcebispos, meaning the Archbishops, Braga celebrate the 100th year anniversary of the foundation of their club next year.
During the last century, they have won the Taça de Portugal on two occasions (1966 and 2016), two Taça da Ligas (2013 and 2020) and the Segunda Divisão twice (1947 and 1964).
On the European front, they won the UEFA Intertoto Cup in 2008, while they finished as Europa League runners-up in 2010, narrowly losing out to FC Porto in the Dublin final.
Braga play their home games at the Estádio Municipal de Braga, which is located in the city and holds just over 30,000 fans.
AEK Athens
The second opponents Leicester City were drawn against on Friday were pot three side AEK Athens, who finished third in the 2019/20 Greek Super League.
Italian Massimo Carrera – a defender for Juventus, Atalanta and Napoli during his playing career – joined AEK Athens as manager last year following spells at Juventus, CSKA Moscow and the Italy national team.
At Juventus, as a player in the mid-1990s, he won Serie A, the Champions League, the Coppa Italia, the Supercoppa Italiana and the UEFA Cup following a Serie B win with Bari in 1989.
Capped once by his nation’s senior team in 1992, Carrera guided his side into the group stages of the Europa League thanks to a dramatic 2-1 win over German Bundesliga outfit Wolfsburg on Thursday.
The success at the 69,618-seater Athens Olympic Stadium in the third round qualification tie came courtesy of a 94th-minute winner from Iran international Karim Ansarifard.
Known as, Énosis, meaning Union, they have a rich history behind them having won the Greek Super League 12 times, most recently in 2017/18, as well as 15 Greek Cups, three Greek Super Cups and one Greek League Cup.
In Europe, they reached the Champions League Quarter-Finals (formerly the European Cup) in 1968/69, knocked out by Slovakian side FC Spartak Trnava, while they made it to the semi-finals of the Europa League, then UEFA Cup, in 1976/77.
Former City defender Theo Zagorakis, who won the League Cup in 2000 and the UEFA European Championships with Greece in 2004, moved to AEK Athens following two years with the Foxes.
FC Zorya Luhansk
The Ukrainian Premier League’s FC Zorya Luhansk, placed in pot four for the Europa League draw, qualified for the competition after finishing third in 2019/20.
They are managed by Viktor Skrypnyk, who as a defender helped Werder Bremen win the league and cup double in 2004, just a year after the last of his 21 caps for Ukraine at senior level.
As a manager, Skrypnyk had two years at Werder Bremen following spells in their youth side and Werder Bremen II, before spending a season in Latvia, where he won the Virslīga with FC Riga in 2018/19.
Formed in 1923 and known as the Men, Zorya Luhansk won the Ukrainian First League in 2006, the Ukrainian Second League three years earlier, and finished as runners-up in the 2015/16 Ukrainian Cup.
Earlier in their history, they won the Soviet Top League in 1972, the Soviet Cup back-to-back in 1974 and 1975 and the Soviet First League in 1962 and 1966.
FC Zorya Luhansk currently play their home games at the 12,000-seater Slavutych-Arena in Zaporizhia.