2019–20 UEFA Europa League
Tournament details | |
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Dates | Qualifying: 27 June – 29 August 2019 Competition proper: 19 September 2019 – 21 August 2020 |
Teams | Competition proper: 48+8 Total: 158+55 (from 55 associations) |
Final positions | |
Champions | Sevilla (6th title) |
Runners-up | Inter Milan |
Tournament statistics | |
Matches played | 197 |
Goals scored | 548 (2.78 per match) |
Attendance | 4,069,102 (20,655 per match) |
Top scorer(s) | Bruno Fernandes (Sporting CP/ Manchester United) 8 goals |
Best player(s) | Romelu Lukaku (Inter Milan)[1] |
The 2019–20 UEFA Europa League was the 49th season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 11th season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League.
Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the tournament was suspended in mid-March 2020 and resumed in August. The quarter-finals onwards were played as a single match knockout ties at neutral venues in Germany (RheinEnergieStadion, MSV-Arena, Merkur Spiel-Arena, Arena AufSchalke) behind closed doors from 10 to 21 August.[3] The video assistant referee (VAR) system was used in the competition from the knockout stage onwards.[4]
As the title holders of the Europa League, Chelsea qualified for the 2019–20 UEFA Champions League, although they had already qualified before the final through their league performance. They were unable to defend their title as they advanced to the Champions League knockout stage, and were eliminated by the ultimate winners Bayern Munich in the round of 16.
Association team allocation
A total of 213 teams from all 55 UEFA member associations participated in the 2019–20 UEFA Europa League. The association ranking based on the UEFA country coefficients was used to determine the number of participating teams for each association:[5]
- Associations 1–51 (except Liechtenstein) each had three teams qualify.
- Associations 52–54 each had two teams qualify.
- Liechtenstein and Kosovo (association 55) each had one team qualify (Liechtenstein organised only a domestic cup and no domestic league; Kosovo as per decision by the UEFA Executive Committee).[6]
- Moreover, 55 teams eliminated from the 2019–20 UEFA Champions League were transferred to the Europa League (default number was 57, but 2 fewer teams competed in the 2019–20 UEFA Champions League).
Association ranking
For the 2019–20 UEFA Europa League, the associations were allocated places according to their 2018 UEFA country coefficients, which took into account their performance in European competitions from 2013–14 to 2017–18.[7]
Apart from the allocation based on the country coefficients, associations could have additional teams participating in the Champions League, as noted below:
- (UCL) – Additional teams transferred from the UEFA Champions League
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Distribution
The following is the access list for this season.[8]
Teams entering in this round | Teams advancing from previous round | Teams transferred from Champions League | ||
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Preliminary round (14 teams) |
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First qualifying round (94 teams) |
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Second qualifying round | Champions Path (18 teams) |
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Main Path (74 teams) |
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Third qualifying round | Champions Path (20 teams) |
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Main Path (52 teams) |
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Play-off round | Champions Path (16 teams) |
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Main Path (26 teams) |
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Group stage (48 teams) |
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Knockout phase (32 teams) |
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Changes were made to the default access list, if any of the teams that qualified for the Europa League via their domestic competitions also qualified for the Champions League as the Champions League or Europa League title holders, or if there were fewer teams transferred from the Champions League due to changes in the Champions League access list. In any case where a spot in the Europa League was vacated, cup winners of the highest-ranked associations in earlier rounds were promoted accordingly.
- In the default access list, originally 17 losers from the Champions League first qualifying round were transferred to the Europa League second qualifying round (Champions Path). However, since the Champions League title holders (Liverpool) qualified for the Champions League group stage via their domestic league, only 16 losers from the Champions League first qualifying round were transferred to the Europa League second qualifying round (Champions Path). As a result, only 19 teams entered the Champions Path second qualifying round (one of the losers from the Champions League first qualifying round would be drawn to receive a bye to the third qualifying round).
- In the default access list, originally three losers from the Champions League second qualifying round (League Path) were transferred to the Europa League third qualifying round (Main Path). However, since the Europa League title holders (Chelsea) qualified for the Champions League group stage via their domestic league, only two losers from the Champions League second qualifying round (League Path) were transferred to the Europa League third qualifying round (Main Path). As a result, the following changes to the access list were made:
- The cup winners of association 18 (Israel) entered the third qualifying round instead of the second qualifying round.
- The cup winners of association 25 (Serbia) entered the second qualifying round instead of the first qualifying round.
- The cup winners of associations 50 (Wales) and 51 (Faroe Islands) entered the first qualifying round instead of the preliminary round.
Redistribution rules
A Europa League place was vacated when a team qualified for both the Champions League and the Europa League, or qualified for the Europa League by more than one method. When a place was vacated, it was redistributed within the national association by the following rules:
- When the domestic cup winners (considered as the "highest-placed" qualifier within the national association with the latest starting round) also qualified for the Champions League, their Europa League place was vacated. As a result, the highest-placed team in the league which had not yet qualified for European competitions qualified for the Europa League, with the Europa League qualifiers which finished above them in the league moving up one "place".
- When the domestic cup winners also qualified for the Europa League through league position, their place through the league position was vacated. As a result, the highest-placed team in the league which had not yet qualified for European competitions qualified for the Europa League, with the Europa League qualifiers which finished above them in the league moving up one "place" if possible.
- For associations where a Europa League place was reserved for either the League Cup or end-of-season European competition play-offs winners, they always qualified for the Europa League as the "lowest-placed" qualifier. If the League Cup winners had already qualified for European competitions through other methods, this reserved Europa League place was taken by the highest-placed team in the league which had not yet qualified for European competitions.
Teams
The labels in the parentheses show how each team qualified for the place of its starting round:[8]
- CW: Cup winners
- 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, etc.: League position
- LC: League Cup winners
- RW: Regular season winners
- PW: End-of-season Europa League 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
- Q2: Losers from the second qualifying round
- Q1: Losers from the first qualifying round
- PR: Losers from the preliminary round (F: final; SF: semi-finals)
Club Brugge (UCL GS) | Shakhtar Donetsk (UCL GS) | Red Bull Salzburg (UCL GS) | Benfica (UCL GS) |
Olympiacos (UCL GS) | Bayer Leverkusen (UCL GS) | Inter Milan (UCL GS) | Ajax (UCL GS) |
Getafe (5th) | VfL Wolfsburg (6th) | Beşiktaş (3rd) | Krasnodar (UCL PO) |
Sevilla (6th) | Rennes (CW) | Wolfsberger AC (3rd) | LASK (UCL PO) |
Arsenal (5th) | Saint-Étienne (4th) | Lugano (3rd) | Porto (UCL Q3) |
Manchester United (6th) | CSKA Moscow (4th) | Young Boys (UCL PO) | Dynamo Kyiv (UCL Q3) |
Lazio (CW )
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Sporting CP (CW) | APOEL (UCL PO) | İstanbul Başakşehir (UCL Q3) |
Roma (6th)[Note ITA]
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Oleksandriya (3rd) | CFR Cluj (UCL PO) | Basel (UCL Q3) |
Borussia Mönchengladbach (5th) | Standard Liège (3rd)[Note BEL] | Rosenborg (UCL PO) |
Champions Path | Main Path | ||
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PAOK (UCL Q3) | Celtic (UCL Q3) | ||
Copenhagen (UCL Q3) | Maribor (UCL Q3) | ||
Qarabağ (UCL Q3) | Ferencváros (UCL Q3) |
Champions Path | Main Path | ||
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Maccabi Tel Aviv (UCL Q2) | Nõmme Kalju (UCL Q2) | Spartak Moscow (5th) | Feyenoord (3rd) |
AIK (UCL Q2) | Sutjeska Nikšić (UCL Q2) | Braga (4th) | 3rd )
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BATE Borisov (UCL Q2) | Saburtalo Tbilisi (UCL Q2 )
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Mariupol (4th) | Rijeka (CW) |
HJK (UCL Q2) | Valletta (UCL Q2) | Antwerp (PW)[Note BEL] | Midtjylland (CW) |
Dundalk (UCL Q2) | The New Saints (UCL Q2) | Trabzonspor (4th) | Bnei Yehuda (CW) |
Sarajevo (UCL Q1)[Note UCL Q1] | Austria Wien (4th) | Viktoria Plzeň (UCL Q2) | |
Thun (4th) | PSV Eindhoven (UCL Q2) | ||
Sparta Prague (3rd) |
Champions Path | Main Path | ||
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Piast Gliwice (UCL Q1) | Sūduva (UCL Q1) | Espanyol (7th) | AZ (4th) |
Ludogorets Razgrad (UCL Q1) | Ararat-Armenia (UCL Q1) | Wolverhampton Wanderers (7th) | FC Utrecht (PW) |
Astana (UCL Q1) | F91 Dudelange (UCL Q1) | Torino (7th)[Note ITA]
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4th )
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Slovan Bratislava (UCL Q1) | Linfield (UCL Q1) | Eintracht Frankfurt (7th) | 5th )
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Sheriff Tiraspol (UCL Q1) | HB Tórshavn (UCL Q1) | Strasbourg (LC) | Osijek (3rd) |
Partizani (UCL Q1) | Feronikeli (UCL Q1 )
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Arsenal Tula (6th) | Esbjerg (3rd) |
Valur (UCL Q1 )
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FC Santa Coloma (UCL PR F) | Vitória de Guimarães (5th) | AEL Limassol (CW) |
Shkëndija (UCL Q1) | Lincoln Red Imps (UCL PR SF) | Zorya Luhansk (5th) | Viitorul Constanța (CW) |
Riga (UCL Q1) | Tre Penne (UCL PR SF )
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Gent (5th)[Note BEL] | Lechia Gdańsk (CW) |
Yeni Malatyaspor (5th) | BK Häcken (CW) | ||
Sturm Graz (PW) | Gabala (CW )
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Luzern (5th) | Lokomotiv Plovdiv (CW) | ||
Jablonec (4th) | Partizan (CW) | ||
Mladá Boleslav (PW) |
Progrès Niederkorn (4th) | Cardiff Metropolitan University (PW) | St Joseph's (3rd) | La Fiorita (2nd )
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Ballymena United (2nd) | NSÍ Runavík (2nd) | Engordany (CW) | Prishtina (2nd) |
Cliftonville (PW) | KÍ Klaksvík (4th) | Sant Julià (2nd) | |
Barry Town United (3rd) | Europa (CW) | Tre Fiori (CW )
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One team not playing a national top division took part in the competition; Vaduz (representing Liechtenstein) played in 2019–20 Swiss Challenge League, which is Switzerland's 2nd tier.
- Notes
- 2018–19 Albanian Superliga, but were banned from entering UEFA competitions.[9] As a result, the berth was given to the sixth-placed team of the league, Laçi, since the fifth-placed team of the league, Flamurtari, failed to obtain a UEFA licence.[10]