2018–19 UEFA Europa League

The 2018–19 UEFA Europa League will be the 48th season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 10th season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League.

The final was played at the Olympic Stadium in Baku, Azerbaijan, between English sides Chelsea and Arsenal — which was the first Europa League final to feature two teams from one city. As winners, Chelsea will play against the winners of the 2018–19 UEFA Champions League in the 2019 UEFA Super Cup. And they would also have been qualified for the 2019–20 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 2018–19 Ligue 1, the 5th-ranked association according to next season's access list.

Format changes
On 9 December 2016, UEFA confirmed the changing of plans for the UEFA Champions League for the 2018–2021 cycle, which was announced on 26 August 2016. As per new rules, all teams that are eliminated in the UEFA Champions League qualifying rounds will get a second chance in the Europa League.

Round and draw dates
The schedule of the competition is as follows.

PhaseRoundDraw dateFirst legSecond legPreliminaryPreliminary round12 June 201828 June 20185 July 2018QualifyingFirst qualifying round19 June 201812 July 201819 July 2018Second qualifying round26 July 20182 August 2018Third qualifying round23 July 20189 August 201816 August 2018Play-offPlay-off round6 August 201823 August 201830 August 2018Group stageMatchday 131 August 2018(Monaco)20 September 2018Matchday 24 October 2018Matchday 325 October 2018Matchday 48 November 2018Matchday 529 November 2018Matchday 613 December 2018Knockout phaseRound of 3217 December 201814 February 201921 February 2019Round of 1622 February 20197 March 201914 March 2019Quarter-finals15 March 201911 April 201918 April 2019Semi-finals19 April 20192 May 20199 May 2019Final29 May 2019 at Olympic Stadium, Baku

Matches in the qualifying (including preliminary and play-off) and knockout rounds may also be played on Tuesdays or Wednesdays instead of the regular Thursdays due to scheduling conflicts.

Group stage

The draw for the group stage will be held on 31 August 2018 at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco. The 48 teams are 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 are seeded into four pots based on their 2018 UEFA club coefficients.

In each group, teams play against each other home-and-away in a round-robin format. The group winners and runners-up advance to the round of 32, where they are joined by the eight third-placed teams of the 2018–19 UEFA Champions League group stage. The matchdays are 20 September, 4 October, 25 October, 8 November, 29 November, and 13 December 2018.

A total of 48 teams play in the group stage: 17 teams which enter in this stage, the 21 winners of the play-off round (eight from Champions Path, thirteen from Main Path), the six losers of the 2018–19 UEFA Champions League play-off round (four from Champions Path, two from League Path), and the four League Path losers of the 2018–19 UEFA Champions League third qualifying round.

 Arsenal CC: 93.000
 Chelsea CC: 82.000
 Bayer Leverkusen CC: 66.000
 Villarreal CC: 52.000
 Anderlecht CC: 48.000
 Lazio CC: 41.000
 Sporting CP CC: 40.000
 Marseille CC: 32.000
 Milan CC: 28.000
 Krasnodar CC: 23.500
 Real Betis CC: TBD (21.342)
 Eintracht Frankfurt CC: 14.285
 Rennes CC: 11.283
 Vorskla Poltava CC: 8.226
 Slavia Prague CC: 7.500 or third-placed team of 2017–18 Czech First League
 Akhisar Belediyespor CC: 7.160
 Winners of 2017–18 Swiss Cup

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Group E

Group F

Group G

Group H

Group I

Group J

Group K

Group L

Knockout phase

In the knockout phase, teams play against each other over two legs on a home-and-away basis, except for the one-match final.

Bracket

Round of 32
The draw for the round of 32 was held on 17 December 2018. The first legs were played on 12 and 14 February, and the second legs were played on 20 and 21 February 2019.

Round of 16
The draw for the round of 16 was held on 22 February 2019. The first legs were played on 7 March, and the second legs were played on 14 March 2019.

Quarter-finals
The draw for the quarter-finals was held on 15 March 2019. The first legs were played on 11 April, the second legs were played on 18 April 2019.

Semi-finals
The draw for the semi-finals was held on 15 March 2019 (after the quarter-final draw). The first legs were played on 2 May, and the second legs were played on 9 May 2019.

Final

The final was held on 29 May 2019 at the Olympic Stadium in Baku. The "home" team (for administrative purposes) was determined by an additional draw held after the quarter-final and semi-final draws.

References


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