Chelsea will travel to Heidenheim of the German Bundesliga and to Athens to face Panathinaikos in the league phase of this season’s UEFA Conference League, which was drawn on Friday in Monaco.
After finishing sixth in the Premier League last season, the Stamford Bridge club is making their Conference League debut.
They will play home games against Gent of Belgium, Shamrock Rovers of Ireland, and FC Noah of Armenia, who advanced through four qualifying rounds to the league stage.
Enzo Maresca’s Chelsea will face Heidenheim, who qualified after finishing eighth in their maiden season in the German Bundesliga.
Chelsea will also pay visits to Panathinaikos, the previous European Cup runners-up, and Astana in Kazakhstan.
The London club, which narrowly defeated Servette of Switzerland in the play-offs, will be seeking to add the Conference League to their trophy cabinet, which already includes two Champions Leagues, two Europa Leagues, two Cup Winners’ Cups, and two UEFA Super Cup.
The Conference League was established only three years ago, but it will be restructured beginning this season in the same way that the other two European leagues have been.
The group stage has been replaced by a league phase in which all 36 teams are combined.
Participants are then divided into six seeded pots, with each team playing one club from each pot for a total of six matches – as opposed to eight games per club in the Champions League and Europa League.
Fiorentina of Italy, who finished second in each of the previous two years, including to Olympiakos in the final last season, is back in the mix.
Their opponents include The New Saints, the first club from the Welsh league system to reach this level of a European competition.
Real Betis will be the Spanish representative, although no French team will compete in the league phase as Lens lost to Panathinaikos in the play-offs.
Hearts of Scotland will face FC Copenhagen and Cercle Brugge away, and Heidenheim at home.
Larne, the first club from the Northern Irish league to reach this round of a European competition, will face Shamrock Rovers from across the border. The latter will also face The New Saints.
UEFA will disclose the fixture dates on Saturday, although the opening matches will be played on October 3, with the final matchday slated for December 19.
The Conference League final will be held in Wroclaw, Poland, on May 28, next year.