UEFA Europa League
The UEFA Europa League is a club competition played annually between clubs across the European continent. The competition, which has gone through multiple change over the course of over 50 on-going years, is regarded as the second tier of European football competition, behind UEFA Champions League.
This tournament began in 1971-1972 season in its former name the UEFA Cup. After the abolishment of the UEFA Cup Winners Cup in 1999, it became the second most important competition.
In 2009 the competition was merged with the Intertoto Cup, it changed its name and format and became what is known today as the UEFA Europa League. 78 clubs enter the qualification rounds of the Europa League each year (either through their domestic league position or by winning a domestic cup) with a final 48 clubs reaching the group stages.
Starting with the 2015-16 season and on, the Europa League winners has automatically qualified for the following season’s Champions’ League group stage.
The knockout stage includes 24 clubs qualifying from the group stages. An additional 8 clubs who were relegated from the UEFA Champions League join the competition, after reaching 3rd place in their group.
The tournament’s most successful club is Spain’s Sevilla, who has won the Europa League a record six times, most recently in 2020. Juventus, Inter Milan, Liverpool and Atletico Madrid have won the cup three times each.
Spanish clubs have won the Europa Cup a record 13 times, while Italian clubs have won the tournament collectively on 9 occasions, English clubs have won the tournament 9 times. 32 clubs has reached the final match but has failed I win the cup.
The all-time top scorer in the Europa League is Henrik Larsson with 40 goals, scored for Feyenoord, Celtic and Helsingborg. He is followed by Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, who scored 34 goals for PSV Eindhoven, Ajax, AC Milan and Schalke 04. Italian Giuseppe Bergomi is the appearances leader of the tournament, having appeared 96 times for Inter Milan. Frank Rost is 2nd on the list with 90 appearances for German clubs Werder Bremen, Schalke 04 and Hamburg.
Spanish club Atletico Madrid holds the record for most consecutive wins in the tournament with 16 during 2012 and 2013 seasons.
The biggest win came in 1984 when Ajax defeated Red Boys Differdange (From Luxembourg)14-0 while the highest aggregate score over two legs was Feyenoord’s 21 goal aggregate win over Rumelange (Also from Luxembourg) in 1972.
One of the tournament’s most memorable finals was played between Liverpool and Deportivo Alaves in 2001 at Dortmund’s Westfalenstadion. Liverpool won the dramatic match 5-4.
The Europa League will go through some changes due to the establishment of the UEFA Conference League before the 2021-22 season. Teams that will finish the group stage in 3rd place would not cease competing, but rather move over to the Conference League. There, those clubs will then compete against teams that finish the group stage at 2nd place for the right to advance to the round of 16.
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