UEFA EUROPA LEAGUE DRAW: EVERTON WILL face the real 'Tractor Boys' as well as Benfica, a club steeped in European football history, in the group stage of the new-look Europa League.

David Moyes’ side take on the Portuguese club as well as AEK Athens and BATE Borisov from Belarus in Group I.

BATE stands for the ‘Borisov Works of Automobile and Tractor Electric Equipment’ and they showed their mettle in last season’s Champions League, drawing home and away with Juventus.

Fulham, the other Premier League representatives in the competition – the rebranded Uefa Cup – will play AS Roma, Basle and CSKA Sofia.

Everton club secretary David Harrison said: “Benfica is a tie everyone will be looking forward to but it will be a tough night both home and away. Belarus will have plenty of its own difficulties to cope with there, and AEK Athens are a big club too.”

Harrison said the new format was a big improvement on the old Uefa Cup where each group contained five clubs, with each playing two sides at home and two different ones away.

Benfica have a strong European pedigree having won the European Cup in 1961 and 1962 and reached the final on seven occasions. They finished third in the Portuguese league last season however behind Porto and Sporting Lisbon.

Fulham, who beat Russian side Amkar Perm to qualify for the group phase, now have a trip to the Stadio Olimpico to look forward to.

Celtic dropped out of the Champions League in the qualifiers at the hands of Arsenal and now have their eyes on becoming the Europa League’s first winners.

They face Hamburg, Hapoel Tel Aviv and Rapid Vienna. Ronnie Hawthorn, Celtic’s head of operations said: “It’s obviously nice to win any competition but it would be particularly historic to become the first winners of the Europa League and that is our goal.

“Each of these games have their own challenges and we will prepare carefully for each of them.”

Hamburg are a tough prospect, they finished fifth in the Bundesliga last season under former Tottenham boss Martin Jol, and are currently second in the German league.

Rapid Vienna meanwhile underlined their potential by beating Aston Villa on away goals to reach the group phase.

Fulham managers Roy Hodgson admitted it was a tough group but said he would not be losing any sleep over the draw.

Hodgson said: “We are seeing this as an adventure. We are aware that for a team like Fulham to even reach this stage is a fantastic achievement.

“We will do our best and put on a good performance but I will not have sleepless nights if we lose to Roma. I will have sleepless nights if we are bottom of the Premier League and that is why it has to be the priority.”

Hodgson also played down the possible threat to fans – Rome has become a notorious destination for English supporters. He added: “I can’t imagine that at this stage of the competition a team like Fulham or a team like Basle or Sofia going to engender the type of hatred that will get their fans sharpening their knives, because that’s what they do over there.

“There is no doubt that they do have a very dangerous bunch of fans. A Roma-Lazio derby is not a place for the faint-hearted.”