Sunderland are back in Europe after 53 years, and the Stadium of Light has never hosted a European tie

The Europa League league phase starts tonight, and the tie worth staying up for in India kicks off at 12:30am IST. Sunderland play AZ Alkmaar at the Stadium of Light. It is the first European match the ground has ever staged, and the first Sunderland have played anywhere in Europe since 1973.

Fifty-three years is a long time to wait

The last time Sunderland were a European club, they got there by winning the FA Cup as a Second Division side. That was the Leeds final at Wembley on 5 May 1973, Ian Porterfield’s goal and Jim Montgomery’s double save, and it put them into the 1973-74 Cup Winners’ Cup. They beat Vasas Budapest 3-0 over two legs, then ran into Sporting CP in the second round.

All of that happened at Roker Park. The Stadium of Light did not open until July 1997, which is why a club with a European past has a ground with none. There is a nice symmetry to how it closes. The first sporting fixture the new stadium ever held was a friendly against Ajax that finished goalless. Twenty-nine years later its first competitive European night is against another Dutch club.

Seventh place, from a relegation favourite

How they qualified is the better story. Sunderland came up through the Championship play-offs and went into last season as relegation favourites. They finished seventh, took the last Europa League place on the final day, and posted their highest league finish since 1999-2000. Regis Le Bris has since signed an extension.

Their September has been less serene. Sunderland lost 2-0 at home to Arsenal on 12 September, goalless at the break and then undone twice in the second half.

AZ are a genuinely awkward first draw

Alkmaar is not a soft landing. AZ sit in the top half of the Eredivisie and come to Wearside off a 1-1 home draw with Willem II on 11 September, captain Jordy Clasie scoring in the 32nd minute before Devin Haen levelled with nine to play.

The matchup reads as a clash of habits. Sunderland press in a mid-block and run the game through Granit Xhaka and Enzo Le Fee. AZ want the ball on the floor, with Clasie and Calvin Stengs setting the rhythm. Brian Brobbey sits in the middle of it as the obvious subplot. Sunderland signed him from Ajax, he is 24, and he scored twice for the Netherlands against Sweden at the World Cup.

There is no head-to-head record between the two. They have never met.

The rest of matchday 1, in IST

Thirty-six clubs are in this league phase. Tonight’s early pair, Ararat-Armenia against Sparta Praha and Omonia against Celta, start at 10:15pm IST. Everything else goes at 12:30am, including Milan against Benfica, Anderlecht against Lyon, Leverkusen against Celje, Olympiacos against Jagiellonia, Sturm Graz against Rennes and Hapoel Beer-Sheva against Dinamo Zagreb.

Thursday brings the other half: Juventus against NEC, Celtic against Ferencvaros, Crystal Palace against Lech Poznan, Real Sociedad against Bournemouth, Besiktas against Marseille, Viktoria Plzen against Union SG, Lillestrom against Torreense, and the early two, OFI Crete against Hoffenheim and Levski Sofia against Salzburg.

Three of the 36 are English: Sunderland, Crystal Palace and Bournemouth. Only one of them started last season as a relegation bet.

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