Europa League group stage set

Fontvieille, Monaco – English side Tottenham received an easy draw in the Europa League on Friday, while 2010 champion Atletico Madrid faces one of the toughest groups.

Tottenham won its group in the Champions League last season but finished fifth in the English Premier League last season and did not qualify again. Placed in Group A, it faces Russia's Rubin, Greece's PAOK and Ireland's Shamrock.

Shamrock is the first Irish team to play in the group stage of a UEFA event.

Atletico was placed in Group I with Italy's Udinese, which qualified for the Champions League this season but was eliminated in the playoff round, France's Rennes and, for now, Switzerland's Sion.

Sion could be disqualified for using ineligible players in qualification, and Scotland's Celtic would step in as a replacement.

Following are the rest of the groups:

Group B: Copenhagen (Denmark). Standard Liege (Belgium). Hannover (Germany), Vorskla Poltava (Ukraine).

GROUP C: PSV Eindhoven (Netherlands), Hapoel Tel Aviv (Israel), Rapid Bucharest (Romania), Legia Warsaw (Poland).

GROUP D: Sporting Lisbon (Portugal), Lazio (Italy), Zurich (Switzerland), Vaslui (Romania).

GROUP E: Dynamo Kyiv (Ukraine), Besiktas (Turkey), Stoke City (England), Maccabi Tel Aviv (Israel).

GROUP F: PSG (France), Athletic Bilbao (Spain), Red Bull Salzburg (Austria), Slovan Bratislava (Slovakia).

GROUP G: AZ Alkmaar (Netherlands), Metalist Kharkiv (Ukraine), Austria Vienna (Austria), Malmo (Sweden).

GROUP H: Braga (Portugal), Club Brugge (Belgium), Birmingham City (England), Maribor (Slovenia).

GROUP J: Schalke (Germany), Steaua Bucharest (Romania), Maccabi Haifa (Israel), AEK Larnaca (Cyprus).

GROUP K: Twente (Netherlands), Fulham (England), Odense (Denmark), Wisla Krakow (Poland).

GROUP L: Anderlecht (Belgium), AEK Athens (Greece), Loko Moscow (Russia), Sturm Graz (Austria).