The 2017-18 UEFA Europa League is the 47th season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 9th season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League.
The 2018 UEFA Europa League Final will be played at the Parc Olympique Lyonnais in Décines-Charpieu, France.
The winners of the 2017-18 UEFA Europa League will automatically qualify for the 2018-19 UEFA Champions League group stage, and also earn the right to play against the winners of the 2017-18 UEFA Champions League in the 2018 UEFA Super Cup.
Manchester United qualified for the 2017-18 UEFA Champions League as the title holders of Europa League. They are unable to defend their title as they qualified for the Champions League knockout phase.
Video 2017-18 UEFA Europa League
Association team allocation
A total of 190 teams from all 55 UEFA member associations participate in the 2017-18 UEFA Europa League. The association ranking based on the UEFA country coefficients is used to determine the number of participating teams for each association:
- Associations 1-51 (except Liechtenstein) each have three teams qualify.
- As the winners of the 2016-17 UEFA Europa League, Manchester United qualified for the 2017-18 UEFA Champions League; the 2017-18 UEFA Europa League berth they would otherwise have earned for finishing 6th in the 2016-17 Premier League was vacated and not passed to another English team.
- Associations 52-54 each have two teams qualify.
- Liechtenstein and Kosovo (association 55) each have one team qualify (Liechtenstein organises only a domestic cup and no domestic league; Kosovo as per decision by the UEFA Executive Committee).
- Moreover, 33 teams eliminated from the 2017-18 UEFA Champions League are transferred to the Europa League.
Starting from this season, Gibraltar are granted two spots instead of one in the Europa League. Kosovo, who became a UEFA member on 3 May 2016, made their debut in the UEFA Europa League.
Association ranking
For the 2017-18 UEFA Europa League, the associations are allocated places according to their 2016 UEFA country coefficients, which takes into account their performance in European competitions from 2011-12 to 2015-16.
Apart from the allocation based on the country coefficients, associations may have additional teams participating in the Europa League, as noted below:
- (UCL) - Additional teams transferred from the UEFA Champions League
- (UEL) - Vacated berth due to UEFA Europa League title holders playing in UEFA Champions League
Distribution
In the default access list, Manchester United enter the group stage (as the sixth-placed team of the 2016-17 Premier League). However, since they qualified for the Champions League as the Europa League title holders, the spot which they qualified for in the Europa League group stage is vacated, and the following changes to the default allocation system are made:
- The domestic cup winners of association 13 (Czech Republic) are promoted from the third qualifying round to the group stage.
- The domestic cup winners of association 18 (Poland) are promoted from the second qualifying round to the third qualifying round.
- The domestic cup winners of associations 25 and 26 (Scotland and Azerbaijan) are promoted from the first qualifying round to the second qualifying round.
Redistribution rules
A Europa League place is vacated when a team qualifies for both the Champions League and the Europa League, or qualifies for the Europa League by more than one method. When a place is vacated, it is redistributed within the national association by the following rules (regulations Articles 3.03 and 3.04):
- When the domestic cup winners (considered as the "highest-placed" qualifier within the national association with the latest starting round) also qualify for the Champions League, their Europa League place is vacated. As a result, the highest-placed team in the league which have not yet qualified for European competitions qualify for the Europa League, with the Europa League qualifiers which finish above them in the league moved up one "place".
- When the domestic cup winners also qualify for the Europa League through league position, their place through the league position is vacated. As a result, the highest-placed team in the league which have not yet qualified for European competitions qualify for the Europa League, with the Europa League qualifiers which finish above them in the league moved up one "place" if possible.
- For associations where a Europa League place is reserved for either the League Cup or end-of-season European competition play-offs winners, they always qualify for the Europa League as the "lowest-placed" qualifier. If the League Cup winners have already qualified for European competitions through other methods, this reserved Europa League place is taken by the highest-placed team in the league which have not yet qualified for European competitions.
Teams
The labels in the parentheses show how each team qualified for the place of its starting round:
- CW: Cup winners
- 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, etc.: League position
- LC: League Cup winners
- RW: Regular season winners
- PW: End-of-season European competition play-offs winners
- UCL: Transferred from the Champions League
- GS: Third-placed teams from the group stage
- PO: Losers from the play-off round
- Q3: Losers from the third qualifying round
Notably two teams take part in the competition that are not playing in their national top division, Tirana (2nd tier) and Vaduz (representing Liechtenstein, playing in Swiss 2nd tier).
- Notes
Maps 2017-18 UEFA Europa League
Round and draw dates
The schedule of the competition is as follows (all draws are held at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, unless stated otherwise).
Matches in the qualifying, play-off, and knockout rounds may also be played on Tuesdays or Wednesdays instead of the regular Thursdays due to scheduling conflicts.
Qualifying rounds
In the qualifying rounds and the play-off round, teams are divided into seeded and unseeded teams based on their 2017 UEFA club coefficients, and then drawn into two-legged home-and-away ties. Teams from the same association cannot be drawn against each other.
First qualifying round
The draw for the first qualifying round was held on 19 June 2017, 13:00 CEST.
The first legs were played on 29 June, and the second legs were played on 4 and 6 July 2017.
- Notes
Second qualifying round
The draw for the second qualifying round was held on 19 June 2017, 14:30 CEST (after the completion of the first qualifying round draw).
The first legs were played on 12 and 13 July, and the second legs were played on 20 July 2017.
- Notes
Third qualifying round
The draw for the third qualifying round was held on 14 July 2017, 13:00 CEST.
The first legs were played on 27 July, and the second legs were played on 2 and 3 August 2017.
- Notes
Play-off round
The draw for the play-off round was held on 4 August 2017, 13:00 CEST.
The first legs were played on 16 and 17 August, and the second legs were played on 24 August 2017.
- Notes
Group stage
The draw for the group stage was held on 25 August 2017, 13:00 CEST, at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco. The 48 teams were drawn into twelve groups of four, with the restriction that teams from the same association cannot be drawn against each other. For the draw, the teams were seeded into four pots based on their 2017 UEFA club coefficients.
In each group, teams played against each other home-and-away in a round-robin format. The group winners and runners-up advanced to the round of 32, where they were joined by the eight third-placed teams of the 2017-18 UEFA Champions League group stage. The matchdays were 14 September, 28 September, 19 October, 2 November, 23 November, and 7 December 2017.
A total of 29 national associations were represented in the group stage. Arsenal, Atalanta, Fastav Zlín, 1899 Hoffenheim, ?stanbul Ba?ak?ehir, 1. FC Köln, Lugano, Milan, Östersund, Real Sociedad, Red Star Belgrade, Vardar and Vitesse made their debut appearances in the UEFA Europa League group stage (although Milan and Red Star Belgrade had appeared in the UEFA Cup group stage). Vardar were the first team from Macedonia to play in either the Champions League or Europa League group stage.
Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Group E
Group F
Group G
Group H
Group I
Group J
Group K
Group L
Knockout phase
In the knockout phase, teams play against each other over two legs on a home-and-away basis, except for the one-match final. The mechanism of the draws for each round is as follows:
- In the draw for the round of 32, the twelve group winners and the four third-placed teams from the Champions League group stage with the better group records are seeded, and the twelve group runners-up and the other four third-placed teams from the Champions League group stage are unseeded. The seeded teams are drawn against the unseeded teams, with the seeded teams hosting the second leg. Teams from the same group or the same association cannot be drawn against each other.
- In the draws for the round of 16 onwards, there are no seedings, and teams from the same group or the same association can be drawn against each other.
Round of 32
The draw for the round of 32 was held on 11 December 2017, 13:00 CET.
The first legs were played on 13 and 15 February, and the second legs were played on 21 and 22 February 2018.
Round of 16
The draw for the round of 16 was held on 23 February 2018, 13:00 CET.
The first legs were played on 8 March, and the second legs were played on 15 March 2018.
Quarter-finals
The draw for the quarter-finals will be held on 16 March 2018, 13:00 CET.
The first legs will be played on 5 April, and the second legs will be played on 12 April 2018.
- Qualified teams
- Red Bull Salzburg
- Arsenal
- Marseille
- RB Leipzig
- Lazio
- Sporting CP
- CSKA Moscow
- Atlético Madrid
Semi-finals
The draw for the semi-finals will be held on 13 April 2018, 13:00 CEST.
The first legs will be played on 26 April, and the second legs will be played on 3 May 2018.
Final
The 2018 UEFA Europa League Final will be played at the Parc Olympique Lyonnais in Décines-Charpieu on 16 May 2018. The "home" team for the final (for administrative purposes) will be determined by an additional draw held after the semi-final draw.
Statistics
Statistics exclude qualifying rounds and play-off round.
Note: Players and teams in bold are still active in the competition.
Top goalscorers
- As of 8 March 2018
Top assists
- As of 8 March 2018
See also
- 2017-18 UEFA Champions League
- 2018 UEFA Super Cup
References
External links
- UEFA Europa League (official website)
Source of article : Wikipedia
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