2023–24 UEFA Europa League
![]() The Aviva Stadium in Dublin hosted the final. | |
Tournament details | |
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Dates | Qualifying: 8–31 August 2023 Competition proper: 21 September 2023 – 22 May 2024 |
Teams | Competition proper: 32+8 Total: 21+36 (from 32 associations) |
Final positions | |
Champions | ![]() |
Runners-up | ![]() |
Tournament statistics | |
Matches played | 141 |
Goals scored | 439 (3.11 per match) |
Attendance | 4,370,262 (30,995 per match) |
Top scorer(s) | Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Marseille) 10 goals |
Best player(s) | Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Marseille)[1] |
Best young player | Florian Wirtz (Bayer Leverkusen)[2] |
The 2023–24 UEFA Europa League was the 53rd season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 15th season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League.
The
This edition was the final season with the current format of 32 teams participating in the group stage, after UEFA announced that a brand new format would be introduced for the following edition.[3] Due to the format change, no clubs can be transferred from the Champions League group stage to the UEFA Europa League under the Swiss format, and this edition's winners onwards will no longer be able to defend the title.[4]
Sevilla were the defending champions, but could not defend their title after being eliminated in the group stage of the 2023–24 UEFA Champions League.
Association team allocation
A total of 57 teams from 34 of the 55 UEFA member associations participated in the 2023–24 UEFA Europa League. Among them, 15 associations had teams directly qualifying for the Europa League, while for the other 40 associations that did not have any teams directly qualifying, 19 of them have teams playing after being transferred from the Champions League (the only member association which could not have a participant was Liechtenstein, which did not organise a domestic league, and could only enter their cup winner into the Europa Conference League given their association ranking). The association ranking based on the UEFA country coefficients was used to determine the number of participating teams for each association:[5]
- The title holders of the UEFA Europa Conference League were given an entry in the Europa League (if they did not qualify for the Champions League through league performance).
- Associations 1–5 each had two teams qualify.
- Associations 6–16 (except Russia)[Note RUS] each had one team qualify.
- 36 teams eliminated from the 2023–24 UEFA Champions League were transferred to the Europa League.
Association ranking
For the 2023–24 UEFA Europa League, the associations were allocated places according to their 2022 UEFA country coefficients, which took into account their performance in European competitions from 2017–18 to 2021–22.[6]
Apart from the allocation based on the country coefficients, associations could have additional teams participating in the Europa League, as noted below:
- (UCL) – Additional teams transferred from the UEFA Champions League
- (UECL) – Additional berth for UEFA Europa Conference League title holders
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Distribution
The following is the access list for this season.[7]
Teams entering in this round | Teams advancing from previous round | Teams transferred from Champions League | ||
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Third qualifying round (14 teams) |
Champions Path (10 teams) |
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Main Path (4 teams) |
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Play-off round (20 teams) |
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Group stage (32 teams) |
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Preliminary knockout round (16 teams) |
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Knockout phase (16 teams) |
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Due to the suspension of Russia for the 2023–24 European season, the following changes to the access list were made:
- The cup winners of associations 13 (Belgium) and 14 (Switzerland) entered the play-off round instead of the third qualifying round.
- The cup winners of association 16 (Czech Republic) entered the third qualifying round instead of the Europa Conference League second qualifying round.
Teams
The labels in the parentheses show how each team qualified for the place of its starting round:
- ECL: Europa Conference League title holders
- CW: Cup winners
- 3rd, 4th, 5th, etc.: League position of the previous season
- UCL: Transferred from the Champions League
- GS: Third-placed teams from the group stage
- CH/LP PO: Losers from the play-off round (Champions/League Path)
- CH/LP Q3: Losers from the third qualifying round (Champions/League Path)
- CH/LP Q2: Losers from the second qualifying round (Champions/League Path)
The third qualifying round was divided into Champions Path (CH) and Main Path (MP).
Notes
- ^ Russia (RUS): On 28 February 2022, Russian football clubs and national teams were suspended from FIFA and UEFA competitions due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.[8] The tables reflect Russia's ongoing suspension from UEFA competitions.[9]
- 2022–23 Ukrainian Cup was aborted and scratched due to the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. The berth reserved for the cup winners was transferred to the third-placed team in the league, Zorya Luhansk.
Schedule
The schedule of the competition was as follows.[10][11][12] Matches were scheduled for Thursdays apart from the final, which took place on a Wednesday, though exceptionally could take place on Tuesdays or Wednesdays due to scheduling conflicts.
Phase | Round | Draw date | First leg | Second leg |
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Qualifying | Third qualifying round | 24 July 2023 | 10 August 2023 | 17 August 2023 |
Play-offs | Play-off round | 7 August 2023 | 24 August 2023 | 31 August 2023 |
Group stage | Matchday 1 | 1 September 2023 | 21 September 2023 | |
Matchday 2 | 5 October 2023 | |||
Matchday 3 | 26 October 2023 | |||
Matchday 4 | 9 November 2023 | |||
Matchday 5 | 30 November 2023 | |||
Matchday 6 | 14 December 2023 | |||
Knockout phase | Knockout round play-offs | 18 December 2023 | 15 February 2024 | 22 February 2024 |
Round of 16 | 23 February 2024 | 7 March 2024 | 14 March 2024 | |
Quarter-finals | 15 March 2024 | 11 April 2024 | 18 April 2024 | |
Semi-finals | 2 May 2024 | 9 May 2024 | ||
Final | 22 May 2024 at Aviva Stadium, Dublin |
Third qualifying round
The draw for the third qualifying round was held on 24 July 2023. The first legs were played on 8 and 10 August, and the second legs were played on 17 August 2023.
The winners of the ties advanced to the play-off round. The losers were transferred to the Europa Conference League play-off round of their respective path.
Team 1 | Agg.
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Team 2 | 1st leg | 2nd leg |
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Žalgiris ![]() |
1–8 | ![]() |
1–3 | 0–5 |
Qarabağ ![]() |
4–2 | ![]() |
2–1 | 2–1 |
Zrinjski Mostar ![]() |
6–3 | ![]() |
6–2 | 0–1 |
Sheriff Tiraspol ![]() |
7–3 | ![]() |
5–1 | 2–2 |
Astana ![]() |
3–6 | ![]() |
2–1 | 1–5 |
Team 1 | Agg.
|
Team 2 | 1st leg | 2nd leg |
---|---|---|---|---|
Olympiacos ![]() |
2–1 | ![]() |
1–0 | 1–1 |
Slavia Prague ![]() |
4–1 | ![]() |
3–0 | 1–1 |
Play-off round
The draw for the play-off round was held on 7 August 2023. The first legs were played on 24 August and the second legs were played on 31 August 2023.
The winners of the ties advanced to the group stage. The losers were transferred to the Europa Conference League group stage.
Team 1 | Agg.
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Team 2 | 1st leg | 2nd leg |
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Slavia Prague ![]() |
3–2 | ![]() |
2–0 | 1–2 |
Olympiacos ![]() |
6–1 | ![]() |
3–1 | 3–0 |
Union Saint-Gilloise ![]() |
3–0 | ![]() |
2–0 | 1–0 |
Ludogorets Razgrad ![]() |
2–4 | ![]() |
1–4 | 1–0 |
BK Häcken ![]() |
5–3 | ![]() |
2–2 | 3–1 |
LASK ![]() |
3–2 | ![]() |
2–1 | 1–1 |
KÍ ![]() |
2–3 | ![]() |
1–1 | 1–2 |
Olimpija Ljubljana ![]() |
1–3 | ![]() |
0–2 | 1–1 |
Slovan Bratislava ![]() |
4–7 | ![]() |
2–1 | 2–6 |
Dinamo Zagreb ![]() |
4–5 | ![]() |
3–1 | 1–4 |
Group stage
![Athens teams AEK Olympiacos Panathinaikos Prague teams Slavia Sparta](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3a/TransparentPlaceholder.png/1px-TransparentPlaceholder.png)