MOSCOW, August 20 (RIA Novosti) - Zenit St. Petersburg, Dynamo Moscow and Urals side Amkar begin their attempts to make the group stage of the 2009/10 Europa League on Thursday evening.
The Europa League is the revamped UEFA Cup, which Russians teams have won twice in the past five seasons.
The 2007/08 winners, Zenit, travel to Portugal for their first-leg match against Nacional. Zenit parted company with trainer Dick Advocaat last week and are currently in 7th place in the Russian Premier League.
Dynamo Moscow, beaten 2-1 by Celtic over two legs for a Champions League playoff spot after winning the first match 1-0 in Glasgow, will attempt to concentrate their efforts on the Europa League. They host Bulgaria's CSKA Sofia.
Amkar travel to English Premier League side Fulham after a 4-2 home defeat to Zenit at the weekend.
The return legs are on August 27.
