After the celebrations of Thursday night, when all three Greek teams went through in the Europa League, PAOK, Aris and AEK all came back down to earth with a bump yesterday as they learned their opponents in the group stage of the competiotion.

Aris were drawn in Group B against Spain's Atletico Madrid, Bayer Leverkusen from Germany and Rosenborg of Norway.

PAOK are in Group D along with Villarreal from Spain, Club Bruges of Belgium and Croatia's Dinamo Zagreb.

AEK will face Zenit St Petersburg from Russia, Anderlect of Belgium and Croatia's Hajduk Split.

Aris face the daunting task of having to play last season's Europa League winners home and away. Led by Uruguayan striker Diego Forlan, who was voted the best player at this summer's World Cup, the Spaniards will be clear favorites to win the group.

However, Bayer Leverkusen are also experienced campaigners in European competition although they have lost to Greek opposition - AEK and Olympiakos - on the two occasions they played in Greece during the last decade. This year, the Germans will be strengthened by the return to the club of former German national team captain Michael Ballack from Chelsea.

Rosenberg, by far Norway's most successful side, will also prove tough opposition. In six games against Greek opposition in the Champions League, they have only lost once.

After overcoming the mighty Fenerbahce, many would say that PAOK deserved an easy draw. The Thessaloniki club's group certainly seems to be easier than that of their local rivals Aris.

Villarreal is the top-seeded team in the group. Known as the "Yellow Submarine", the Spaniards have excelled in Europe in recent years, reaching the semifinals of the Champions League in 2006. However, Villarreal is substantially weaker these days and finished only seventh in the Spanish League last season.

Bruges also has plenty of European experience but missed out on the Belgian championship last season, finishing second. Dinamo Zagreb is also one of Croatia's top clubs, currently sitting fourth in the local league, but neither of these teams are vastly superior to PAOK.

AEK probably has a taller order in its group as it has to take on Belgian champion Anderlecht, which was knocked out of the Champions League in the qualifying stages by Partizan Belgrade on penalties. Anderlecht have won the UEFA Cup, now the Europa League, once in their history.

Zenit St Petersburg will also pose a challenge to the Yellows. The Russians won the Europa League in 2008 and beat AEK 5-1 in the same tournament in 2004-5. The next year, Zenit knocked AEK out of the tournament.

Hajduk Split may not be Croatia's most famous team but it also has a strong pedigree, with six local leagues and five cups to its name.

The first round of games will be on September 16. The second matchday will be on September 30 and the remaining four games will be played on October 21, November 4, December 1 or 2, and December 15 or 16.

 

GROUP A
Juventus
Manchester City
Salzburg
Lech Poznan

GROUP B
Atletico Madrid
Bayer Leverkusen
Rosenborg Trondheim
Aris

GROUP C
Sporting
Lille
Levski Sofia
Ghent

GROUP D
Villarreal
Club Bruges
Dinamo Zagreb
PAOK

GROUP E
AZ Alkmaar
Dynamo Kiev
BATE Borisov
Sheriff Tiraspol

GROUP F
CSKA Moscow
Palermo
Sparta Prague
FC Lausanne-Sport

GROUP G
Zenit St Petersburg
Anderlecht
AEK
Hajduk Split

GROUP H
VfB Stuttgart
Getafe
OB Odense
Young Boys

GROUP I
PSV Eindhoven
Sampdoria
Metalist Kharkiv
Debrecen

GROUP J
Sevilla
Paris St Germain
Borussia Dortmund
Karpaty Lviv

GROUP K
Liverpool
Steaua Bucharest
Napoli
Utrecht

GROUP L
Porto
Besiktas
CSKA Sofia
Rapid Vienna

PAOK have receieved a hero's welcome in Thessaloniki after the snatched a draw in extra time against Fenerbahce in Istanbul on Thursday night to secure a place in the group stage of the Europa League.

Substitute Zlatan Muslimovic scored the valuable goal for the visitors with a cool finish under pressure to make the score 1-1 and give PAOK the result they needed to go through after having won the first leg in Thessaloniki 1-0.

In a white-hot atmosphere at the Sukru Saracoglu Stadium but with the backing of 2,500 of their own fans, PAOK held their own in the first half but went behind just five minutes into the second period when a shot by former Newcastle midfielder Emre Belozoglu from outside the area took a slight deflection and flew past Dario Kresic.

PAOK regrouped and went on the attack, coming inches from an equaliser when Lucio Filomeno's shot was blocked almost on the line and Dimitris Salpigidis skewed the follow-up wide.

The visitors had to wait until the 103^rd minute for their goal when Muslimovic, who had latched onto Vierinha's headed flick on, held of the Fenerbahce defenders and slotted home.

"I think our qualification was justified," said PAOK coach Pavlos Dermitzakis. "We came to Istanbul and scored a goal and that's what I thought we would need to do to qualify.

"We we really wanted this result because I thought we should have gone through against Ajax in the Champions League qualifiers."

The result was greeted with wild celebrations by the PAOK fans who attended the game, making up for the skirmishes that took place before the game with some Fenerbahce supporters when the coaches from Thessaloniki arrived at the stadium.

There were also celebrations at Macedonia Airport when the PAOK squad returned at 5 a.m., as well as at the White Tower in Thessaloniki.

PAOK's qualification made it three from three for Greek teams in the Europa League. The will find out who they will be grouped with when the draw takes place on Friday afternoon.