RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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NYON, SWITZERLAND - NOVEMBER 7: A view of the draw balls during the UEFA Europa League 2022/23 Knock-out Round Play-offs draw at the UEFA Headquarters, The House of the European Football, on November 7, 2022, in Nyon, Switzerland. (Photo by Kristian Skeie UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images). | UEFA via Getty Images
Sunderland find out their Europa League opponents this week. This is a sentence most of us would never have thought could be a reality after finishing 16th in the Championship just over two years ago.
On Friday, in a studio in Monaco, representatives from Sunderland will be watching on as the fixtures for the competition are pieced together throughout the afternoon. We could be drawn against some of the big guns of Europe, with AC Milan and Juventus being arguably the two biggest.
We’ve watched these two in Champions League finals, and both have won that particular competition. They could be squaring up against Sunderland in the coming months in a fixture which would portray just how far we’ve come in a very short space of time.
The idea of Sunderland playing in Europe hasn’t sunk in yet personally, and I dare say it’ll remain this way until matchday one of the group stage next month. It doesn’t seem like two minutes since I was stood in the Navy Club, pint in hand, looking at the list of teams who could be our opponents in the coming months.
I’ve written several articles this summer about how the upcoming campaign is the most exciting in living memory, and not just because of the Europa League, but it’s got a huge part to play. A disappointing start away at Ipswich shouldn’t change this, and I’ll confidently say that by the time Friday comes around, I’ll not be dwelling on the 90th-minute winner from Mr Jack Clarke.
Football is an adventure; it should be enjoyed, and European qualification for a club run more efficiently than ever before is our adventure. Watching Sunderland get drawn against big European sides with rich histories will feel like a dream, but it’s been made a reality because of a project in which the first piece was laid when Kyril Louis-Dreyfus arrived.
This season isn’t going to be easy by any means, and the 2-1 loss in Suffolk was an early wake-up call and a reminder of just that. We’re also going to be in the spotlight more, and each defeat will be met with ‘Oh, they’re struggling now, that’s because of Europe’ from so-called experts, and it will get boring. But let them crack on.
We’ve had to wait a very long time for a shot at European competition, and there will be fans of other clubs who have also never seen their side play continental football. This week, we have the biggest draw we’ve ever been involved in, and then we’re back at the SoL for the first time since qualifying for Europe.
Yes, we had a bump in Ipswich on Saturday, but some of the reaction to the narrow loss has been ridiculous. We’ll lose games, but we’ll also win games this season. It happens; it’s football, and we can enjoy a weekend of seeing us pencilled in against some exciting European sides. I’m counting down the days until the big day.
If you can’t get excited for our first-ever European Cup draw, then I don’t know what will…
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