Europa League draw sets league phase matches for OFI Crete and Olympiacos

OFI Crete opponents and European return

OFI Crete learned their eight opponents for the Europa League league phase on Friday, 28 August 2026, marking the club's return to European competition after a 26-year absence. The Cretan side secured qualification to the main stage by defeating CSKA Sofia in the playoff round, winning both legs with a 5-0 aggregate scoreline to enter a European main phase for the first time in club history. Placed in seeding pot four for the draw, manager Christos Kontis and his squad will contest eight fixtures against eight separate clubs. In Heraklion, OFI will host German side Bayer Leverkusen, Belgian club Anderlecht, Polish team Lech Poznan, and German outfit Hoffenheim. For their away fixtures, OFI will travel to face Benfica in Portugal, Rennes in France, Sturm Graz in Austria, and Hapoel Beer Sheva in Israel.

Olympiacos league phase draw

Olympiacos also discovered their eight opponents in Friday's draw, securing a balanced split of four home fixtures and four away trips across the continent. The Piraeus-based club will host Italian side AC Milan, Czech team Sparta Prague, Polish side Jagiellonia, and German club Hoffenheim in Greece. Away from home, Olympiacos will travel to France to play Marseille and Rennes, to Slovenia to meet Celje, and to Portugal to face Torreense. Both Greek clubs will compete in the single 36-team league table rather than the traditional four-team group stage. The European football governing body will publish the full fixture calendar with confirmed dates and kickoff times on Sunday, 30 August 2026.

League phase format and qualification path

The Europa League follows the single-table format implemented in the 2024–2025 season, replacing the former group stage with a 36-team league phase. Each participating club plays eight matches against eight different opponents, evenly divided into four home games and four away fixtures determined by seeding pots. Teams finishing in positions one through eight at the end of the eight rounds earn direct qualification to the round of 16. Clubs finishing between ninth and 24th enter a two-legged playoff round to contest the remaining eight berths in the last 16. Teams placed ninth to 16th will host the decisive second leg at home, while teams ranked 17th to 24th host the first leg. Teams finishing 25th to 36th are eliminated directly, with no continuation in the Conference League.

Schedule and broadcast arrangements

The league phase runs across eight matchdays, beginning on 16 and 17 September 2026 and concluding on 28 January 2027. Intermediate matchdays are scheduled for 15 October, 22 October, 5 November, 26 November, 10 December 2026, and 21 January 2027. The knockout playoffs follow on 18 and 25 February 2027, before the round of 16 takes place on 11 and 18 March 2027. Quarter-finals are set for 8 and 15 April 2027, with the semi-finals following on 29 April and 6 May 2027. The tournament concludes with the final on 26 May 2027 at the stadium of Eintracht Frankfurt in Germany. In Greece, television rights for all OFI fixtures are held by COSMOTE TV, with selected matches also scheduled to be broadcast on ANT1.