Chelsea will be paired with overseas opposition in the Europa League semi-final draw on Friday morning, after Thursday’s results left us as the only English club remaining in European competition this season.
The draw will take place in Switzerland from 11am UK time and the other three teams are Basel, the conquerors of Tottenham, Benfica who knocked out Newcastle and Fenerbahçe whose quarter-final opponents were Lazio.
Basel and Fenerbahçe are in a European semi-final for the first time and the Swiss club would be new opponents for Chelsea. We visited Fenerbahçe on the way to making the Champions League final in 2008. The Istanbul club have former Chelsea players Raul Meireles and Miroslav Stoch in their squad.
We faced Benfica as recently as last season’s Champions League quarter-final.