The Europa League 2017-2018 is the next edition of the annual club football tournament. The second most important competition after the Champions League will take place for the 47th time. The first matches of the championship will begin in June 2017, and the final match, which will determine the winner of the season, will take place 11 months later. So the fans big football will become eyewitnesses of an almost year-round sports event filled with unparalleled struggle, overwhelming emotions and scoring extravaganza!
When will UEFA Europa League 2017-2018 start?
The next edition of the football competition will begin on June 29, 2017, and end on May 16 next year. Qualifying rounds of the tournament will take place in June and July. The group part of the final part of the competition will start in September 2017.
Two lucky ones, who managed not only to get out of their quartets, but also survive the horrors of the playoffs, will challenge the challenge championship trophy in a head-to-head match. This time, the finalists of the competition will sort things out among themselves in France, within the walls of the Lyon stadium "Park-Olympic-Llonne". This is the third largest sports complex in the Fifth Republic, designed for almost 60,000 spectators. The upcoming LE 2017-2018 final will be the first significant sporting event within this stadium. Prior to this, Parc-Olympique-Llonne was honored to host only two matches in the framework of the European Football Championship 2016.
Competitors
In total, about 200 teams from 55 UEFA associations will take part in the competition. However, most of them will be eliminated during the qualifying stages. As a result, only 48 teams will make it to the group stage of the final stage of the competition. 24 teams will advance to the spring part of the tournament (playoffs). At this stage, they will be joined by 8 more clubs participating in the Champions League, which could not qualify from their groups.
Among those who may be on May 16 at the Parc-Olympic-Lyonn, where the final game of the Europa League 2018 will be held, are domestic teams. Russia in the UEFA coefficients table takes 7th place. This allows our association to put forward more than three clubs for the championship - the third and fourth RFPL team 2016 – 2017 and the current winner of the Russian Cup. Also, 2 Champions League participants can be added to their number, who either flew out of the Cup Winners' Cup at a late stage or took third place in the Champions League group. If we take into account all these conditions, then in the Europa League, theoretically, we can see up to 5 domestic clubs. So far, the following teams are applying for this role:
- "Spartacus";
- CSKA;
- "Zenith";
- "Krasnodar";
- "Locomotive";
- "Ural".
LE-2017/2018 match schedule
The whole competition can be divided into four parts:
- June 29 - August 24, 2017: qualifying round;
- September 14 - December 7: group round;
- February 15 - May 3, 2018: playoffs;
- May 16: final.
At the same time, the qualifying round and the playoffs are divided into separate rounds. Here's what it looks like complete calendar games of the upcoming LE:
Qualifying stage:
- 1st qualifying stage: June 29 - July 6, 2017;
- 2nd qualifying stage: July 13 - 20;
- 3rd qualifying stage: July 27 - August 3;
- Play-offs of the qualifying stage: August 17 - 24.
Group round (6 rounds):
- 1st: September 14, 2017;
- 2nd: September 28;
- 3rd: October 19;
- 4th: November 2;
- 5th: November 23;
- 6th: December 7th.
Elimination games (playoffs):
- 1/16: 15 – 22 February 2018;
- 1/8: March 8 - 15;
- quarter-final: April 5 - 12;
- semi-finals: April 26 - May 3.
- Final: 16 May.
102 clubs will take part in the first qualifying round, 66 and 58 in the second and third, respectively. 44 teams will compete in the playoffs of the qualifying stage. The group round will feature 48 teams, while the knockout stage will feature 32.
Afterword
This is how all the known information about the 47th edition of the tournament looks like. Now the fan knows when the competition starts, what the schedule of matches looks like, where the final will take place and how many teams will take part in the upcoming draw. Fans of the club championship have only to wait for the Europa League draw and starting whistle to see your favorite teams in action!
Europa League online - standings, schedule and results of Europa League matches. Europa League news. Groups, Europa League calendar.The Europa League 2019-20 is one of the most prestigious football club tournaments in the world. It was formed in 2009 by combining the UEFA Cup and the Intertoto Cup into a single tournament.
The new tournament has become the successor of the UEFA Cup, which has its own long and rich history.
UEFA Cup
The tournament was played from 1971 to 2009. It was attended by teams that, following the results of their championships, took high places, but did not qualify for the Champions League (European Champion Clubs' Cup) and the European Cup Winners' Cup (Winner's Cup).
Until 2004, the UEFA Cup was played according to the Olympic system, when the teams played at home and away, followed by the departure of one of them. From the 2004-2005 season was introduced group stage, whose matches were played after qualification and before the playoffs. The first winner of the tournament is the club "Tottenham" (London, England), and the last - "Shakhtar" (Donetsk, Ukraine).
Tournament Winners
In total, the Europa League (together with the UEFA Cup) has been won by 26 different clubs, 11 of which have done so more than once. Moreover, only two clubs have won the tournament twice in a row: Real Madrid (Madrid, Spain) in 1985 and 1986, and Sevilla (Spain) in 2006-2007 and 2014-2015.
The record holder for the number of tournaments won is Sevilla (Spain). Three times the trophy was won by Inter (Milan, Italy), Juventus (Turin, Italy), Liverpool (England). The current winner is Sevilla, who defeated Dnepr (Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine) in the final.
Structure and scheme of conducting
AT this moment it is a complex multi-level tournament with 191 teams representing 54 football associations, including such exotic ones as Gibraltar, Andorra and Luxembourg. Ukraine in the 2015/2016 season in the Europa League is represented by Dnipro, Zorya and Vorskla. The last two teams ended their performances, failing to qualify.
First, the teams in the Olympic system play in a preliminary tournament, which consists of four qualifying rounds and a play-off round, after which 30 teams advance to the group stage. There, they are joined by the reigning winner of the tournament, 7 teams that qualified directly there according to the European odds table, and 10 teams that were knocked out of the Champions League play-off round.
According to the results group tournament 24 the best teams(those who finished first and second in their groups) advance to the play-offs, where they are joined by 8 teams from the Champions League (who finished third in their groups). Then they continue to fight according to the Olympic system, starting from the 1/16th final. In the final two strongest teams play among themselves the championship title and a trophy called the UEFA Cup.
Trophy
The UEFA Cup, which is a large silver bowl (15 kg), is given to the winning team for temporary storage. The club that wins the Europa League (including the UEFA Cup) five times in total, or three times in a row, will keep the original trophy in perpetuity. So far, no team has been able to meet this requirement.
Europa League 2015 at UA-Football
The UA-Football website has been covering the Europa League since its inception. Team football experts creates high-quality content, from announcements of all tours or rounds, to the creation of a symbolic team of the tour/round
Also, a presentation of all rivals of Ukrainian clubs in this tournament and an overview of foreign press after matches involving Ukrainian teams.
The statistics system contains tournament tables all groups of the Europa League and a table of top scorers. The schedule of matches is also presented.
In addition, the archive of previous seasons, starting from the 2011/2012 season, is stored in the statistics system of the section.
The Europa League 2017-2018 will be the 47th edition of the second most important club competition in the Old World. For a long time, the tournament was considered not so important, and the clubs from the Top 4 European championships openly neglected the games of this competition. Now the situation has changed for the better, because the winner of the Europa League receives not only the prestigious cup, but also the opportunity to play in the group stage of the Champions League next season. As a result, the struggle has escalated, and the players spare no effort on the field, realizing that victory in the final match will bring them glory, solid bonuses and new opportunities.
190 clubs from 55 football associations of the Old World will take part in the Europa League 2017-2018, including the qualification. Only 36 teams will reach the group stage of the tournament, some of which are already known. Among them:
- Villarreal (Spain);
- Real Sociedad (Spain);
- "Cologne" (Germany);
- Hertha (Germany);
- Arsenal (England);
- Atalanta (Italy);
- Lazio (Italy);
- Guimarães (Portugal);
- Lyon (France);
- Lokomotiv (Russia);
- Zarya (Ukraine);
- Zulte-Warengem (Belgium);
- "Vitesse" (Holland);
- Konyaspor (Turkey);
- Lugano (Switzerland);
- "Fastav" (Czech Republic).
In the group stage of the Europa League, all qualified teams will be divided into 12 subgroups of 4 football teams. As part of its quartet, each club will have to play 2 matches with opponents - on its own field and at the opponent's stadium. The scoring system remained standard: 3 points are awarded for a win, 1 point for a draw, and the losing squad remains without credit points.
The clubs that take the first two places in the subgroup are entitled to play in the knockout series in the 1/16 finals. This stage will also feature 8 teams from the Champions League, which are in third place in the subgroup. Pairs are formed by drawing lots. To determine the winner at each stage of the playoffs, 2 matches are played (home and away). If after the second match it was not possible to determine the winner, two additional halves of 15 minutes each are assigned, after which a penalty shoot-out. The final match will take place on May 16, 2018 at the Olympique Stadium, which is the home arena for the French club Lyon.
Third qualifying round
In the final third qualifying round, 25 teams from the strongest football associations of the Old World will play, plus 33 football teams that have made their way through the first and second qualifying stages.
The schedule of matches of the 3rd qualifying round of the Europa League 2017-2018 is as follows:
Date of the first match | Match date | Members |
Krasnodar - Slovan / Lyngby |
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– Trenchin/Bnei Yehuda |
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University of Craiova - AC Milan |
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Everton - Ružemberok / Brann |
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PSV - Osijek / Lucerne |
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Norkkoping / Trakai - Shkendia / Helsinki |
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Sturm / Molodist Podgorica - Fenerbahce |
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Panathinaikos - Gabala / Jagiellonia |
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Shamrock/Mlada Boleslav - Kairat/Skendebreu |
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Austria - Progress / AEL |
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Dinamo Zagreb - Vaduz / ODDS |
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Olimpik Donetsk - PAOK |
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Arka Gdynia - Ferencvaros/Midtjylland |
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Ostersund / Galatasaray - Inter Baku / Fola |
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Bordeaux - Niom / Videoton |
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Maccabi / Reykjavik - Panionios / Gorica |
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Valletta / Utrecht - Hogesund / Lech |
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Gent - Altakh / Dynamo Brest |
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"Astra" / "Zire" - "Alexandria" |
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Aberdeen / Shiroki Brieg - Apollo / Zarya Balti |
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Irtysh / Red Star - Sparta Prague |
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Marseille - Ostend |
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Freiburg - Valur Reykjavik / Domzale |
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Cork City / Lornaka - Rabotnichki / Dynamo Minsk |
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Zheleznichar / AIK - Braga |
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Liepaja / Suduva - Sion |
The official start time of the games will be determined no later than a week before they are held.
Contenders for victory
Selecting contenders for victory in the Europa League 2017-2018 at stage 3 of the qualifying round is a thankless task. However, let's try to do it. To begin with, let's put forward the most obvious assumption that the winner of the tournament will be the team playing in the Top 5 championships of the Old World (Italy, England, Spain, Germany, France). Over the past six editions, the hegemony of the English and Spanish teams in the LE could not be interrupted by clubs from minor European championships. Based on this, we highlight the most likely contenders for the title:
- "Arsenal";
- "Milan";
- Lyon.
To win the UEFA Europa League 2017-2018 will be a matter of honor. A team with championship ambitions cannot achieve significant results in European competition for more than 10 years. The last success dates back to 2005/06, when the Gunners lost in the Champions League final to Barcelona. Fans blame the players and the head coach of the club, Arsene Wenger, for everything. If the French specialist wants to stay as a helmsman for the next season, then he simply needs to take at least one prestigious trophy. It will be practically impossible to do this, so the Europa League remains, on which the main forces can be concentrated.
At Milan, Chinese investors have started a major restructuring. This summer, 10 new players have already been bought for a total amount of over 120 million euros, and this is far from the limit. After such an impressive investment, the red-black bosses will want to see at least one trophy. It will be unrealistic to interrupt the hegemony of Juventus, and Paolo Maldini's ward remains to concentrate on the Cup and the Europa League. AC Milan will start playing on the international stage on July 27.
"Lyon" recently there are not enough stars from the sky. A mediocre performance in the French championship and the loss of the main leaders are the main reasons for the frustration of local fans. Top scorer Alexandre Lacazette was sold to London's Arsenal for 60 million euros, while creative midfielder Corentin Tollisso moved to Bayern Munich for 41.5 million euros. The management of the "weavers" has the opportunity to spend this huge amount of money wisely, creating an updated team that is able to fight with dignity both in the domestic championship and at the international level.
Do not forget about the clubs that will get into the LE from the group stage. Surely among them there will be several giants who, annoyed by the failure in the main club competition of the continent, will want to rehabilitate themselves in the eyes of the fans by winning the second most important tournament of the Old World. All this makes the Europa League 2017-2018 even more interesting, spectacular and unpredictable.
The best goals of the Europa League of the season 2016-2017, see the following video: