Confirmed Europa League rivals and dates for 2022/23 Manchester United diary

After missing out on Champions League football, Manchester United will be hoping to go all the way in the Europa League this season.

The main aim for the campaign will be to edge their way into a top-four finish in the Premier League, but Europe’s second-tier competition offers a backdoor passage to the big time. The Europa League was the last trophy United won some five years ago under former boss Jose Mourinho.

He will be competing in the competition this time around after guiding his Roma side to success in the inaugural Europa Conference League. Finalists Feyenoord are also in the hat.

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Also already qualified are top-four challengers Arsenal, who finished 11 Premier League points ahead in fifth last season. They are joined by Lazio, Braga, Rennes, Real Sociedad, Real Betis, Union Berlin, Freiburg and Nantes.

Another 20 teams will come through qualifying in time for the start of the group stages on September 8. The draw for the group stages takes place in Istanbul, Turkey at midday on August 26.

Matchday Two is a week later on September 15 while United will also play on October 6, 13 and 27. The group stages will conclude on November 3.

If United come runners-up in their group, they will have to go through the extra play-off knockout round, which will feature the eight teams who finished third in their Champions League group.

Home and away legs for this will be played on February 16 and 23. Should United finish as group winners, they will immediately progress through to the last 16, which will take place on March 9 and 16.

The quarter-finals are played across April 13 and 20 with the semi-finals almost a month later on