Bayer Leverkusen draw Marseille and Lyon in balanced Europa League league-phase route

Bayer Leverkusen have been handed a balanced but potentially demanding Europa League league-phase draw, with Marseille and Beşiktaş set to visit the BayArena while the German side face a high-profile trip to Lyon.

Leverkusen, seeded in Pot 1, will play four matches at home and four away as they begin another European campaign with ambitions of going deep into the competition.

Their home schedule includes Marseille, Salzburg, Slovenian side Celje and Beşiktaş, giving Leverkusen two particularly prominent fixtures in front of their own supporters. Away from home, they will travel to Lyon, Dinamo Zagreb, Lech Poznań and OFI Crete.

The meetings with Marseille and Lyon stand out immediately. Both French opponents bring significant European pedigree, while the trip to Lyon shapes up as one of the most difficult individual assignments in Leverkusen’s eight-game schedule.

Beşiktaş should provide another major occasion at the BayArena, with the Turkish club traditionally carrying a strong travelling support and considerable experience of continental competition.

Beyond those headline fixtures, however, the draw gives Leverkusen a route they should regard as manageable. Home games against Salzburg and Celje offer opportunities to establish control of their campaign, while trips to Poznań and Crete will present different tests without carrying the same level of difficulty on paper as some of the alternatives available in the draw.

Dinamo Zagreb adds another potentially awkward away night. The Croatian club’s European experience and home environment make that fixture one Leverkusen are unlikely to treat lightly, particularly in a league phase where dropped points can quickly affect the race for direct qualification.

The format again places a premium on finishing inside the top eight of the 36-team table, which would send Leverkusen directly into the round of 16 and remove the need for a knockout play-off in February.

That should be the immediate target from this draw. Leverkusen have avoided an overloaded schedule of elite opponents, but their route still contains enough difficult away fixtures to punish inconsistency.

The league phase begins on September 16 and 17 and concludes on January 28, with UEFA still to confirm the exact order and dates of Leverkusen’s eight matches.