Liverpool and Spurs handed tough Europa League draws

For Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur it was a mixed bag and Qarabag as the Premier League clubs were both presented with tricky draws and long hauls in the Europa League.

•

There may be more prize money available in the competition this season and a place in the Champions League for the winners, but it remains a distant prospect, quite literally given the miles involved, to win the trophy in Basle next May.

Liverpool and Spurs will have to negotiate taxing journeys – with Brendan Rodgers’ side drawn against the Russian club Rubin Kazan, who are top seeds, a tie that will involved a round trip of about 5,000 miles to the Republic of Tatarstan and a plane journey of five hours. Even so Rubin, who are coached by Rinat Bilyaletdinov – the father of former Everton winger Diniyar – are not the threat they were and are struggling this season in the bottom three of the Russian Premier League.

Also in Group B are Bordeaux, who finished sixth in Ligue 1 last season and are coached by World Cup winner Willy Sagnol, and FC Sion, who finished only seventh in the Swiss Super League. They qualified for Europe by winning the Swiss Cup and would appear the whipping boys of the group. Liverpool should remain confident of progressing.

For Spurs there is a more formidable challenge, even though they were top seeds, with Anderlecht and Monaco – who knocked Arsenal out of the Champions League last season – in Group J.

Both clubs have lost key players over the summer, but it is far from an easy group for Spurs and is made all the more difficult because the third club they will face are Qarabag, who are based in the Azerbaijan capital of Baku, although they are from the city of Agdam but cannot play their because of an ­ongoing conflict.

Spurs face a 12-hour round trip to play in Baku, covering 5,800 miles. Qarabag were knocked out of the Champions League qualifiers by Celtic, who are also in the Europa League. They have also been given a difficult draw, facing Ajax, Fenerbahce, complete with former Manchester United forwards Robin van Persie and Nani, and the Norwegian club Molde in Group A.

For Spurs, facing Anderlecht – who have lost Aleksandar Mitrovic and Chancel Mbembe to Newcastle United this summer – will revive memories of their epic 1984 Uefa Cup triumph when they beat the Belgian club on penalties in the second leg of the final at White Hart Lane after two 1-1 draws.

Spurs will be bolstered by the signing of South Korean forward Son Heung-min, who has completed his £22 million move from Bayer Leverkusen – and the hoped-for departure of Emmanuel Adebayor who is expected to undergo a medical at West Ham United on Sunday.

There are 48 teams in the competition, split into four seeding pots, with the top two clubs qualifying from each pool and being joined in the last 32 by eight clubs who drop out of the Champions League by finishing third in their groups.