Europa Conference League: West Ham draw Anderlecht in repeat of 1976 Brussels final

West Ham and Anderlecht will clash in a repeat of the 1976 European Cup Winners’ Cup final after being drawn together in the same Europa Conference League group.

It was Anderlecht who won 4-2 at Heysel Stadium to land the silverware 46 years ago, but the task for each side this time around is to plot a route into the knockout rounds of UEFA’s newest men’s club competition.

West Ham can point to strong recent form against Belgian teams, having beaten Anderlecht’s domestic rivals Genk 3-0 in London last season in the Europa League after drawing 2-2 away from home.

They later knocked out Sevilla and Lyon on a run to the semi-finals, where eventual champions Eintracht Frankfurt proved too strong.

FCSB and Silkeborg join West Ham and Anderlecht in Group B of the Conference League, while Villarreal also learned their early opponents.

After winning the 2021 Europa League and reaching the Champions League semi-finals last season, Villarreal will hope to avoid a bumpy landing in the tertiary competition, with Hapoel Be’er-Sheva, Austria Wien and Lech Poznan their Group C opponents.

Fiorentina, Nice and Koln are also aiming to make an impact in the competition, which is entering its second season.

The six rounds of group games take place from September 8 to November 3, with the Europa Conference League final to be played on June 7 at Slavia Prague’s Eden Arena.

Slavia are among the teams competing, drawn to face Cluj, Sivasspor and Ballkani in Group G.

Over half of UEFA’s member associations will be represented this year in the #UECL group stage… 

 Kosovo (Ballkani),  Liechtenstein (Vaduz) &  Lithuania (Žalgiris) will experience the group stage of a major UEFA club competition for the very first time 

— UEFA Europa Conference League (@europacnfleague) August 26, 2022

Draw in full:

Group A: Istanbul Basaksehir, Fiorentina, Hearts, RFS

Group B: West Ham, FCSB, Anderlecht, Silkeborg

Group C: Villarreal, Hapoel Be’er-Sheva, Austria Wien, Lech Poznan

Group D: Partizan, Koln, Nice, Slovacko

Group E: AZ, Apollon Limassol, Vaduz, Dnipro-1

Group F: Gent, Molde, Shamrock Rovers, Djurgarden

Group G: Slavia Prague, Cluj, Sivasspor, Ballkani

Group H: Basel, Slovan Bratislava, Zalgiris Vilnius, Pyunik