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Milan to face Celtic, Lille; Inter's Lukaku named Europa League player of the season

02-Oct-2020 14:52:20 | Yahoo Sports

Broadcast: NO USE AFTER OCTOBER 31, 2020. MUST ON SCREEN COURTESY "©UEFA 2020". EDITORIAL USE ONLY - STRICTLY NO COMMERCIAL USE. Digital: NO USE AFTER OCTOBER 31, 2020. MUST ON SCREEN COURTESY "©UEFA 2020". EDITORIAL USE ONLY - STRICTLY NO COMMERCIAL USE. NO USE SOCIAL MEDIA.**~ VIDEO SHOWS: HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE DRAW TO THE EUROPA LEAGUE / INTER MILAN'S ROMELU LUKAKU BEING AWARDED EUROPA LEAGUE PLAYER OF THE YEAR 2019-20, SOUNDBITE FROM LUKAKU ACCEPTING AWARD RESENDING WITH COMPLETE SHOTLIST AND SCRIPT SHOWS: NYON, SWITZERLAND (OCTOBER 2, 2020) (UEFA - SEE RESTRICTIONS ABOVE) 'POT 1' 1. PRESENTERS AT DRAW WITH GRAPHIC SHOWING TEAMS IN 'POT 1' 2. FIRST TEAM BEING DRAWN FROM 'POT 1' 3. BALL BEING OPENED 4. AS ROMA (ITA) DRAWN, THE FIRST TEAM DRAWN IN THE DRAW 5. BALL BEING OPENED 6. ARSENAL FC (ENG) BEING DRAWN 7. SL BENFICA (POR) DRAWN 8. SSC NAPOLI (ITA) DRAWN 9. CELTIC FC (SCO) DRAWN 10. TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR (ENG) DRAWN 'POT 2' 11. GRAPHIC SHOWING TEAMS IN 'POT 2' 12. FIRST TEAM FROM 'POT 2' BEING DRAWN 13. BSC YOUNG BOYS (SUI) DRAWN 14. LEICESTER CITY FC (ENG) DRAWN 15. AC SPARTA PRAHA (CZE) DRAWN 16. REAL SOCIEDAD DE FUTBOL (ESP) DRAWN 'POT 3' 17. GRAPHIC SHOWING TEAMS IN 'POT 3' 18. 'POT 3' BEING MIXED 19. FIRST TEAM BEING DRAWN FROM 'POT 3' 20. CFR 1907 CLUJ (ROU) BEING DRAWN 21. MOLDE FK (NOR) DRAWN 22. AEK ATHENS FC (GRE) DRAWN 23. AC MILAN (ITA) DRAWN 24. LASK (AUT) DRAWN 'POT 4' 25. GRAPHIC SHOWING TEAMS IN 'POT 4' 26. PRESENTERS MAKING FIRST DRAW FROM 'POT 4' 27. PFC CSKA-SOFIA (BUL) DRAWN 28. DUNDALK FC (IRL) DRAWN 29. LOSC LILLE (FRA) DRAWN 30. HNK RIJEKA (CRO) DRAWN 31. ROYAL ANTWERP DC (BEL) DRAWN GROUP STAGE DRAW 32. (MUTE) GRAPHIC SHOWING GROUPS A - F 33. (MUTE) GRAPHIC SHOWING GROUPS G - L EUROPA LEAGUE PLAYER OF THE SEASON 2019-20 34. INTER MILAN'S, ROMELU LUKAKU, BEING PRESENTED WITH TROPHY AFTER HE WAS NAMED EUROPA LEAGUE PLAYER OF THE SEASON 2019-20 35. (SOUNDBITE) (English) EUROPA LEAGUE PLAYER OF THE SEASON 2019-20, ROMELU LUKAKU, SAYING: "First of all, I want to thank God for putting me in this position; to do the job that I love, to play for a team that I loved as a child. I want to congratulate Sevilla as well, personally. They won the competition, so I want to congratulate them on having a good tournament. I want to thank my mom, my brother, and all the people, my agents for supporting me. I want to thank Antonio Conte (Inter Milan coach) and his staff and everybody at the club, the board, the president for their trust and for helping me throughout this season. But most importantly, I want to thank my team mates. My team mates have been great with me from day one. They've been like brothers to me. They're real family members. Every day when I come into training, I come in with a smile and it's because of them. They make me want to work harder. So, I want to thank you guys for everything that you do for me. And I hope this year we're going to do much better than we did last year and that we're going to have a lot of success together. Thank you, to everybody." STORY: Seven-times European champions AC Milan, winners of a marathon 24-penalty shootout against Rio Ave on Thursday (October 1), were rewarded by being drawn against Celtic and Lille in their Europa League Group on Friday (October 2). Milan, banned from the competition last season for breaching UEFA's break-even Financial Fair Play rule, scraped through 9-8 on penalties after snatching a last-gasp 2-2 draw with the Portuguese side. They were drawn in Group F, one of the toughest of the 12 groups, which also features Sparta Prague. Coppa Italia winners Napoli also had a tricky draw as they will face Real Sociedad, AZ Alkmaar and Rijeka in Group F while AS Roma, the third Serie A side in the hat, will meet Young Boys Bern, Cluj and CSKA Sofia in Group A. English pair Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur both appeared to be given straightforward draws, with Mikel Arteta's side to face Rapid Vienna, Norway's Molde and Ireland's Dundalk in Group B. Tottenham, Champions League runners-up two seasons ago, face Ludogorets Razgrad, LASK Linz and Royal Antwerp in Group J. Leicester City, the other Premier League side among the 48 teams, will face Braga, AEK Athens and Ukrainian side Zorya Luhansk in Group G. Meanwhile, Inter Milan's Romelu Lukaku was named the Europa League player of the season for 2019-20 after the Belgian forward led the Italian side to the final with goals in every knockout round. Lukaku, who revived his career in Italy with 34 goals in all competitions in his first season at the club, scored seven times in the Europa League in six matches after Inter dropped down from the Champions League into the second-tier competition. Inter lost the final 3-2 to Sevilla in August but the 27-year-old forward had done enough to sway the vote in his favour with 270 points, beating Manchester United's Bruno Fernandes (128) and Sevilla's Ever Banega (118) to claim the prize. While accepting the award, Lukaku started by congratulating Sevilla and preceded to thank his club, family and team mates. (Production: Kurt Michael Hall)