The Europa League draw was held on Friday, which revealed who Dinamo, the only Croatian club in the competition, will play.
At the Grimaldi Forum in Monte Carlo, the draw was held for the Europa League group stage, where Croatian Champion Dinamo was placed in Group D with Anderlecht, Fenerbahce, and Spartak Trnava, reports Gol.hr on August 31, 2018.
This will be Dinamo’s seventh time competing in the group stage of the UEFA Cup and the Europa League, and so far they have not gone reached any further in the competition than the group stage. Dinamo has already met with Anderlecht in the Europa League group stage, though they have yet to meet Fenebahçe and Spartak Trnava in European competitions.
Anderlecht is the most celebrated Belgian club with 34 championship titles, two Cup Winners’ Cup titles (1976, 1978) and was the UEFA Cup winner in 1983. Dinamo has already played the Brussels club in the 2009/2010 Europa League season, where they lost at Maksimir but won at Vandenstock Stadium. On Anderlecht this season is Croatian attacker Ivan Santini and former Hajduk defender Antonio Milić.
Fenerbahçe is an institution in Turkey, a club that has won a record 28 championship titles. “Fener” fell out of the Champions League qualifiers already in the first round by losing to Benfica (0-1, 1-1). Fenerbahçe plays at the Sukru Saracoglu stadium which has a capacity of 48,000 spectators, and their more attractive players include Spanish player Soldado, Ghanaian Andre Ayew, Frenchman Mathieu Valbuena and others.
Spartak Trnava became the Slovakian champion for the first time last season after having been the Czechoslovakian champions five times. The biggest success of the club, which was founded in 1923, was placing into the UEFA Cup semi-final in 1968/69, when they were eliminated by Ajax (0-3, 2-0). Spartak has several Slovak representatives, but also the former Rijeka player Filip Dangubić.
The first round of the Europa League is played on Thursday, September 20th, and the last on the program is on December 13th.
The knockout stage begins on February 14, 2019, and the final will be played on May 29, 2019, in the capital of Azerbaijan – Baku.
