After last night’s magnificent win over CD Nacional of Portugal, I’m guessing most blues fans who were able were watching or listening to the Europa League draw in Monaco today. As you may well know, Blues have drawn SC Braga of Portugal, Club Brugge of Belgium and NK Maribor of Slovenia as their opponents in the Group stages of the Europa League.

I’m intending over the international break to fully profile each team in a post of their own; to hopefully give people an idea of what we’re facing. My gut instinct is one of hope; I actually think we can progress from this group if we can build on our “Fortress St Andrews” mentality, and if the board back Chris Hughton a little further in making the squad depth better.

The most important thing right now are the dates of the games, which can be found on this PDF here. I’ve listed them below for your convenience (all times in BST).

Thursday 15th September – 8:05pm kickoff – SC Braga (H)
Thursday 29th September – 6:00pm kickoff – NK Maribor (A)
Thursday 20th October – 6:00pm kickoff – Club Brugge (A)
Thursday 3rd November – 8:05pm kickoff – Club Brugge (H)
Wednesday 30th November – 6:00pm kickoff – SC Braga (A)
Thursday 15th December – 8:05pm kickoff – NK Maribor (H)

I’ve been led to believe that the gamedates for the fifth and sixth game may change, so please check with Blues before booking anything.

Please note that this means that the home games against Leeds and Portsmouth, and the away games against Southampton, Hull, Bristol City, and Reading all will be moved; and potentially the away games against Cardiff City and Crystal Palace will also have to be rearranged.

Tags: Club Brugge, Europa League, NK Maribor, SC Braga