Steaua Bucharest, the only Romanian football team to ever win the UEFA Champions Cup (in 1984), will play against German team Schalke 04 in the Europa League group stage. Steaua was drawn into group J, along with Maccabi Haifa from Israel and AEK Larnaka from Cyprus.

Steaua, which is owned by Romanian millionaire Gigi Becali, was the only Romanian team to play in last year's Europa League group stage. Steaua qualified after playing Bulgarian side CSKA Sofia in the play-offs.

Schalke 04 is one of the strongest opponents that Steaua could have faced, as the German team reached the Champions League semi finals last year. Moreover, Romanian player Ciprian Marica is part of Schalke's team.

Rapid Bucharest will play in group C against Dutch side PSV Einhoven. Hapoel Tel-Aviv (Israel) and Legia Warszawa (Poland). Rapid is owned by Romanian businessman George Copos, who controls the Hilton and Crowne Plaza hotels in Bucharest and the Europa hotel in Eforie Nord, as well as other business in the food industry and the electrical equipment industry. Copos has recently named Razvan Lucescu, the former coach of the Romanian national football team and son of Mircea Lucescu (Shakhtar Donetsk's coach), as manager and strengthened his team this summer.

SC Vaslui will have to face the strongest group of the three Romanian teams who made it this far in the competition. Vaslui will play against Italian side Lazio Roma, Portugal's Sporting Lisbon and Swiss team FC Zurich. Vaslui qualified after facing Czech Sparta Prague.

SC Vaslui is owned by Adrian Porumboiu, who was an international football referee in the 90's. Porumboiu is one of the largest Romanian landowners and has significant investments in agriculture and the food industry.

More about the UEFA European League groups here.

editor@romania-insider.com

(photo source: Photoxpress.com)