European club football competition
International football competition
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 final was played at Aviva Stadium in Dublin, Republic of Ireland, with Italian club Atalanta defeating German club Bayer Leverkusen 3–0 to win their first European title. Atalanta became the first Italian team to win the competition since Parma in 1999. Their win also denied Leverkusen’s bid to win a continental treble and complete the entire season unbeaten across all competitions. As winners of the tournament, Atalanta automatically qualified for the 2024–25 UEFA Champions League league stage and also earned the right to play against Real Madrid, the winners of the 2023–24 UEFA Champions League, in the 2024 UEFA Super Cup, as well as the winners of the 2023 Copa Sudamericana in the 2024 UEFA–CONMEBOL Club Challenge.
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
Distribution
The following is the access list for this season.[7]
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] - ^
Ukraine (UKR): Organization of the
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.
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.
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.
Group stage
Location of teams of the
2023–24 UEFA Europa League group stage
Brown: Group A;
Red: Group B;
Orange: Group C;
Yellow: Group D;
Green: Group E;
Blue: Group F;
Purple: Group G;
Pink: Group H
The draw for the group stage was held on 1 September 2023, 13:00 CEST, in Monaco. The 32 teams were drawn into eight groups of four. For the draw, the teams were seeded into four pots each of eight teams, based on their club coefficients. As the winners of the 2022–23 UEFA Europa Conference League, West Ham United entered Pot 1 regardless of their club coefficient (CC).[13] Teams from the same association could not be drawn into the same group.
Aris Limassol, Brighton & Hove Albion, BK Häcken, Raków Częstochowa, Servette and TSC made their debut appearances in the group stage and their debut appearances in a UEFA competition group stage. Furthermore, Brighton & Hove Albion qualified for European football for the first time in their history.
A total of 21 national associations were represented in the group stage.
Group A
Source: UEFA
Group B
Source: UEFA
Group C
Source: UEFA
Group D
Source: UEFA
Notes:
- ^ a b Tied on head-to-head results. Overall goal difference used as a tiebreaker.
Group E
Source: UEFA
Group F
Source: UEFA
Group G
Source: UEFA
Group H
Source: UEFA
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 knockout round play-offs, the eight group runners-up were seeded, and the eight Champions League group third-placed teams were unseeded. The seeded teams were drawn against the unseeded teams, with the seeded teams hosting the second leg. Teams from the same association could not be drawn against each other.
- In the draw for the round of 16, the eight group winners were seeded, and the eight winners of the knockout round play-offs were unseeded. Again, the seeded teams were drawn against the unseeded teams, with the seeded teams hosting the second leg. Teams from the same association could not be drawn against each other.
- In the draws for the quarter-finals onwards, there were no seedings, and teams from the same association could be drawn against each other. As the draws for the quarter-finals and semi-finals were held together before the quarter-finals were played, the identity of the quarter-final winners was not known at the time of the semi-final draw. A draw was also held to determine which semi-final winner would be designated as the "home" team for the final (for administrative purposes as it was played at a neutral venue).
Bracket
Knockout round play-offs
The draw for the knockout round play-offs was held on 18 December 2023, 13:00 CET.[14]The first legs were played on 15 February, and the second legs were played on 22 February 2024.
Round of 16
The draw for the round of 16 was held on 23 February 2024, 12:00 CET.[15]The first legs were played on 6 and 7 March, and the second legs were played on 14 March 2024.
Quarter-finals
The draw for the quarter-finals was held on 15 March 2024, 13:00 CET.[16]The first legs were played on 11 April, and the second legs were played on 18 April 2024.
Semi-finals
The draw for the semi-finals was held on 15 March 2024, 13:00 CET, after the quarter-final draw.[16]The first legs were played on 2 May, and the second legs were played on 9 May 2024.
Final
The final was played on 22 May 2024 at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. A draw was held on 15 March 2024, after the quarter-final and semi-final draw, to determine the "home" team for administrative purposes.[16]
Statistics
Statistics exclude qualifying rounds and play-off round.
Top goalscorers
Team of the Season
The UEFA technical study group selected the following players as the team of the tournament.[19]
Player of the Season
Young Player of the Season
See also
References
- ^ a b "Aubameyang named 2023/24 UEFA Europa League Player of the Season". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 24 May 2024. Retrieved 24 May 2024.
- ^ a b "Florian Wirtz named 2023/24 UEFA Europa League Young Player of the Season". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 24 May 2024. Retrieved 24 May 2024.
- ^ "UEFA approves final format and access list for its club competitions as of the 2024/25 season". UEFA.com. 10 May 2022. Retrieved 8 March 2023.
- ^ Wilson, Jonathan (13 March 2021). "New-look Champions League is a pointless waste of time that will destroy the drama". The Observer. ISSN 0029-7712. Retrieved 3 June 2023.
- ^ "Regulations of the UEFA Europa League, 2023/24 Season". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 2023. Retrieved 4 March 2023.
- ^ "Association coefficients 2021/22". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 27 July 2022. Retrieved 27 July 2022.
- ^ "Access list 2021–24" (PDF). UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. Archived (PDF) from the original on 4 December 2018. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
- ^ "Ukraine crisis: Fifa and Uefa suspend all Russian clubs and national teams". BBC Sport. British Broadcasting Corporation. 28 February 2022. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
- ^ "UEFA decisions for upcoming competitions relating to the ongoing suspension of Russian national teams and clubs" (Press release). Nyon: UEFA. 2 May 2022. Retrieved 2 May 2022.
- ^ "2023/24 UEFA Europa League: Matches, final, key dates". UEFA. 12 October 2022. Retrieved 1 January 2023.
- ^ "International match calendar and access list for the 2023/24 season". UEFA Circular Letter. No. 65/2022. Union of European Football Associations. 26 September 2022. Retrieved 27 September 2022.
- ^ "2023 European football calendar: Match and draw dates for all UEFA competitions". UEFA. 20 December 2022. Retrieved 1 January 2023.
- ^ "UEFA 5-year Club Ranking 2023". kassiesa.net. Retrieved 1 September 2023.
- ^ UEFA.com (18 December 2023). "UEFA Europa League knockout round play-off draw: Feyenoord vs Roma, Milan vs Rennes, Galatasaray vs Sparta Praha | UEFA Europa League". UEFA.com. Retrieved 18 March 2024.
- ^ UEFA.com (23 February 2024). "UEFA Europa League round of 16 draw: Liverpool face Sparta, Brighton meet Roma | UEFA Europa League". UEFA.com. Retrieved 19 March 2024.
- ^ a b c UEFA.com (15 March 2024). "UEFA Europa League quarter-final draw: Liverpool vs Atalanta, Milan vs Roma | UEFA Europa League". UEFA.com. Retrieved 1 April 2024.
- ^ "Full Time Report Final – Atalanta v Bayer Leverkusen" (PDF). UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 22 May 2024. Retrieved 22 May 2024.
- ^ "UEFA Europa League – Top Scorers". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. Retrieved 22 May 2024.
- ^ "2023/24 UEFA Europa League Team of the Season". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 24 May 2024. Retrieved 24 May 2024.
External links
Yellow: Group D;
Blue: Group F; 
Pink: Group H
