Bournemouth (England), Oct 15: Bournemouth hosts Sturm Graz in its first European home game in the second round of matches in the Europa League on Thursday.
After a 2-1 victory at Real Sociedad in the opening game of its maiden campaign, coach Marco Rose’s side has another chance to forget a winless start to the Premier League.
His squad received a boost when injured forwards Amine Adli and Justin Kluivert were declared fit for the match.
Another Premier League club, Crystal Palace, which won the third-tier Conference League last season, travels to Lyon a year after its entry to the competition was blocked by UEFA because it shared ownership links with the French team.
For Palace coach Pierre Sage, it’s a return to Lyon after coaching the club from November 2023 to January 2025.
Italian giant AC Milan meets Salzburg in Austria bidding to recover from a 2-0 defeat to Benfica at the San Siro in the opener.
Another Italian force, Juventus, plays in Spain against Celta while the third English club in the competition, Sunderland, is at Portugal’s second division team Torreense.
High-flying Brighton opens its Conference League campaign against Kauno Zalgiris.
English clubs have won three of the five editions of the Conference League.
Also, leading teams in two of Europe’s top five leagues are in action. France’s Monaco meets CSKA in Sofia and Germany’s Freiburg faces visiting Czech club Jablonec. (AP)