Samuel Chukwueze and his Villarreal teammates have been handed an easy Europa Conference League group after being drawn with Hapoel Be’er-Sheva, Austria Wien and Lech Poznan.
Chukwueze was on target as Villareal defeated Hajduk Split 2-0 in Thursday’s Uefa Conference League second leg play-off round.
Alfonso Pedraza put the Spaniards ahead in the 37th minute before the Nigeria international doubled the advantage four minutes before the hour mark.
The Yellow Submarine had secured a 4-2 victory over the Croatian First League outfit at the Estadi Ciutat de Valencia.
In Split, they completed a double over Valdas Dambrauskas’ Masters from the Sea to reach the group stage with a 6-2 aggregate result.
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Meanwhile, West Ham United and Anderlecht will clash in a repeat of the 1976 European Cup Winners’ Cup final after being drawn together in the same Europa Conference League group.
It was Anderlecht who won 4-2 at Heysel Stadium to land the silverware 46 years ago but the task for each side this time around is to plot a route into the knockout rounds of UEFA’s newest men’s club competition.
West Ham can point to strong recent form against Belgian teams, having beaten Anderlecht’s domestic rivals Genk 3-0 in London last season in the Europa League after drawing 2-2 away from home.
They later knocked out Sevilla and Lyon on a run to the semi-finals, where eventual champions Eintracht Frankfurt proved too strong.
FCSB and Silkeborg join West Ham and Anderlecht in Group B of the Conference League, while Villarreal also learned about their early opponents.
After winning the 2021 Europa League and reaching the Champions League semi-finals last season, Villarreal will hope to avoid a bumpy landing in the tertiary competition, with Hapoel Be’er-Sheva, Austria Wien and Lech Poznan their Group C opponents.
Fiorentina, Nice and Koln are also aiming to make an impact in the competition, which is entering its second season.
The six rounds of group games take place from September 8 to November 3 with the Europa Conference League final to be played on June 7 at Slavia Prague’s Eden Arena.
Slavia are among the teams competing, drawn to face Cluj, Sivasspor and Ballkani in Group G.
