2017–18 UEFA Europa League


The 2017–18 UEFA Europa League was 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 final was played at the Parc Olympique Lyonnais in Décines-Charpieu, France. Atlético Madrid defeated Marseille to win their third Europa League title.
As winners, Atlético Madrid earned the right to play against the winners of the 2017–18 UEFA Champions League, Real Madrid, in the 2018 UEFA Super Cup. Moreover, they would also have been automatically qualified for the 2018–19 UEFA Champions League group stage, but since they had already qualified through their league performance, the berth reserved was given to the third-placed team of the 2017–18 Ligue 1, the fifth-ranked association according to next season's access list.
Manchester United qualified for the 2017–18 UEFA Champions League as the title holders of Europa League. They were unable to defend their title as they qualified for the Champions League knockout phase, and were eliminated by Sevilla in the round of 16.

Association team allocation

A total of 190 teams from all 55 UEFA member associations participated in the 2017–18 UEFA Europa League. The association ranking based on the UEFA country coefficients was used to determine the number of participating teams for each association:
Starting from this season, Gibraltar were 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 were allocated places according to their 2016 UEFA country coefficients, which took into account their performance in European competitions from 2011–12 to 2015–16.
Apart from the allocation based on the country coefficients, associations could have additional teams participating in the Europa League, as noted below:
  • – Additional teams transferred from the UEFA Champions League
  • – Vacated berth due to UEFA Europa League title holders playing in UEFA Champions League

Distribution

In the default access list, Manchester United entered the group stage. 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 was vacated, and the following changes to the default allocation system were made:
  • The domestic cup winners of association 13 are promoted from the third qualifying round to the group stage.
  • The domestic cup winners of association 18 are promoted from the second qualifying round to the third qualifying round.
  • The domestic cup winners of associations 25 and 26 are promoted from the first qualifying round to the second qualifying round.
Teams entering in this roundTeams advancing from previous roundTeams transferred from Champions League
First qualifying round

  • 29 domestic cup winners from associations 27–55
  • 36 domestic league runners-up from associations 18–54
  • 35 domestic league third-placed teams from associations 16–51
Second qualifying round
  • 8 domestic cup winners from associations 19–26
  • 2 domestic league runners-up from associations 16–17
  • 6 domestic league fourth-placed teams from associations 10–15
  • 50 winners from first qualifying round
    • Third qualifying round
    • 5 domestic cup winners from associations 14–18
    • 9 domestic league third-placed teams from associations 7–15
    • 5 domestic league fourth-placed teams from associations 5–9
    • 3 domestic league fifth-placed teams from associations 4–6
    • 3 domestic league sixth-placed teams from associations 1–3
  • 33 winners from second qualifying round
    • Play-off round
    • 29 winners from third qualifying round
  • 15 losers from Champions League third qualifying round
    • Group stage
    • 13 domestic cup winners from associations 1–13
    • 1 domestic league fourth-placed team from association 4
    • 2 domestic league fifth-placed teams from associations 1–3
  • 22 winners from play-off round
  • 10 losers from Champions League play-off round
    • Knockout phase
    • 12 group winners from group stage
    • 12 group runners-up from group stage
  • 8 third-placed teams from Champions League group stage

    • 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 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:
    • 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 took part in the competition that were not playing in their national top division, Tirana and Vaduz.
    ;Notes

    Round and draw dates

    The schedule of the competition was as follows.
    Matches in the qualifying, play-off, and knockout rounds could 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.

    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, TSG Hoffenheim, İstanbul Başakşehir, 1. FC Köln, Lugano, Milan, Östersunds FK, Real Sociedad, Red Star Belgrade, Vardar and Vitesse made their debut appearances in the UEFA Europa League group stage. Vardar were the first team from Macedonia to play in either the Champions League or Europa League group stage.
    Tiebreakers

    Group H

    Knockout phase

    In the knockout phase, teams played 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 was 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 were seeded, and the twelve group runners-up and the other four third-placed teams from the Champions League group stage were unseeded. The seeded teams were drawn against the unseeded teams, with the seeded teams hosting the second leg. Teams from the same group or the same association could not be drawn against each other.
    • In the draws for the round of 16 onwards, there were no seedings, and teams from the same group or the same association could be drawn against each other.

    Statistics

    Statistics exclude qualifying rounds and play-off round.

    Squad of the season

    The UEFA technical study group selected the following 18 players as the squad of the tournament.
    PlayerTeam
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    Player of the season

    Votes were cast by coaches of the 48 teams in the group stage, together with 55 journalists selected by the European Sports Media group, representing each of UEFA's member associations. The coaches were not allowed to vote for players from their own teams. Jury members selected their top three players, with the first receiving five points, the second three and the third one. The shortlist of the top three players was announced on 9 August 2018. The award winner was announced during the 2018–19 UEFA Europa League group stage draw in Monaco on 31 August 2018.