UEFA Europa League PREVIEW 17 Sep 2026: Palace and Bournemouth begin new European chapters as Europa League returns

Seven matches open the Europa League league phase on Thursday, and two of them send English clubs into competitions they have never played before. Crystal Palace, the reigning UEFA Conference League champions, host Lech Poznan at Selhurst Park in their first ever Europa League fixture; Bournemouth, who have never played a major European match in the club's history, travel to San Sebastian to face Real Sociedad, the Copa del Rey holders. Both English sides arrive out of domestic form: Palace lost 3-2 at home to Ipswich Town on Sunday, and Bournemouth were held 2-2 by Brentford the same weekend.

Lech Poznan's own build-up has been about resilience rather than swagger. The Polish champions arrive off a 2-1 defeat at Gornik Zabrze that ended a nine-match unbeaten run, and captain Mikael Ishak, the only player left from Lech's last European group-stage campaign, says the club is in a stronger place than it was then. Real Sociedad's visitors come with fresher wounds: the Basque club were beaten 3-0 at home by Atletico Madrid on Sunday and go into Thursday without the suspended Jon Mikel Aramburu, while Igor Zubeldia is a doubt with a hamstring issue.

At Celtic Park, Martin O'Neill's side host Ferencvaros still absorbing a heavy blow of their own: Celtic lost 3-0 to Rangers in the League Cup quarter-final on Sunday, a result captain Callum McGregor did not dress up. "Rangers were a team," he said. "We looked like a group of individuals. We put pressure on ourselves, and we need to respond to that on Thursday." Ferencvaros midfielder Corbu said the Hungarian champions can find something at Celtic Park if they play with discipline and courage.

Besiktas host Marseille with a personal subplot at right-back: Amir Murillo, sold by Marseille to the Turkish club in February, faces his old employers for the first time. Besiktas arrive on a run of three straight wins that includes victory away at Fenerbahce; Marseille travel to Istanbul having lost three Ligue 1 matches in a row, most recently 1-0 at Rennes.

Levski Sofia's home tie with Salzburg is the Bulgarian champions' first appearance on the competition's main stage in fifteen years, though manager Julio Velazquez played it down rather than up this week, saying his focus was entirely on a domestic fixture before it. Salzburg travel to Sofia high on goals from Haris Tabakovic, who has scored nine times in ten appearances this season.

Juventus's campaign, a consequence of missing out on the Champions League places in Serie A last season, begins at home to NEC Nijmegen, a club they have never met in any competition; the Dutch side arrive having lost 3-0 at Cambuur, ending a run of 29 league matches without going scoreless, with Gonzalo Crettaz and Emre Mor both forced off injured in that game. And in the tie with the least glamour but arguably the best story, Viktoria Plzen host Royale Union Saint-Gilloise having reached this stage only by coming back from 3-0 down on aggregate to beat Crvena Zvezda in the play-off, winning 5-4 after extra time; Union arrive without three players, Kamiel Van De Perre, Adem Zorgane and Raul Florucz, all suspended after disciplinary incidents in the Champions League exit that sent them down to this competition in the first place.