The draw for the Europa League second qualifying round takes place at around 12pm this afternoon in Nyon, Switzerland, but how will it work?
Wolves are one of the 27 teams to have directly qualified for the second qualifying round, alongside 47 pairs of teams from the first qualifying round.
All 74 teams have been divided into five groups of ten teams and two groups of 12 teams. Within the seven groups, the 74 teams are split equally as 37 seeded teams (including Wolves) and 37 unseeded teams.
You may have seen yesterday that Nuno Espirito Santo’s side were assigned a place in group seven – one of the groups of 12 teams, meaning they already have a narrowed down idea of who their opponents could be.
Draw procedure
All the clubs in Wolves’ group (and group six) have been ordered randomly and identified by a number – 1 to 6 for the seeded teams and 7 to 12 for the unseeded.
The numbers for group seven are as follows:
Seeded
- Aris Thessaloniki (GRE)
- Esbjerg (DEN)
- Vitória SC (POR)
- Wolves
- Budapest Honvèd (HUN) / Žalgiris Vilnius (LTU)
- Partizan (SRB)
Unseeded
- AEL Limassol (CYP)
- Sabail (AZE) / Universitatea Craiova (ROU)
- Shakhtyor Soligorsk (BLR) / Hibernians (MLT)
- Connah's Quay (WAL) / Kilmarnock (SCO)
- Crusaders (NIR) / B36 Tórshavn (FRO)
- Jeunesse Esch (LUX) / Tobol Kostanay (KAZ)
During the draw, two bowls will be prepared, one containing balls with slips of paper numbered 1–6 for the seeded teams and the other containing balls with slips of paper numbered 7–12 for the unseeded.
A ball will be taken from each bowl and placed in an empty bowl in the middle, where they will be shuffled. One of the two balls is drawn at random, then opened to display the number it contains. The second ball is drawn to complete the pairing.
For example, if the first ball drawn contains the number 2 and the second the number 8, Esbjerg and the winner of the first qualifying round match between Sabail and Universitatea Craiova will play each other. In addition, the first ball drawn, here containing the number 2, designates the home team for the first leg, while the second ball drawn will be the away team for the second leg.
Please remember, the dates of the fixtures, as well as possible fixture reversals regarding home and away teams for each leg, are still subject to change.
Any fixture changes will be announced on wolves.co.uk and across the club’s social media channels as soon as they are confirmed. With this in mind, supporters are urged to avoid making any travel or accommodation arrangements until that time.
