2021–22 Uefa Europa League

2021–22 UEFA Europa League

The Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán Stadium in Seville hosted the final
Tournament details
Dates	Qualifying: 3–26 August 2021 Competition proper: 15 September 2021 – 18 May 2022
Teams	Competition proper: 32+8 Total: 21+37 (from 33 associations)
Final positions
Champions	Eintracht Frankfurt (2nd title)
Runners-up	Rangers
Tournament statistics
Matches played	139
Goals scored	367 (2.64 per match)
Attendance	3,435,542 (24,716 per match)
Top scorer(s)	James Tavernier (Rangers) 7 goals
Best player(s)	Filip Kostić (Eintracht Frankfurt)
← 2020–21 2022–23 →

Eintracht Frankfurt defeated Rangers 5–4 on penalties following a 1–1 draw after extra time in the final played at the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán Stadium in Seville, Spain, winning the competition for the second time in club history, and the first since 1980. The final was originally scheduled to be played at the Puskás Aréna in Budapest, Hungary. However, due to the postponement and relocation of the 2020 final, the final hosts were shifted back a year, with Budapest instead hosting the 2023 final. As winners, Eintracht Frankfurt automatically qualified for the 2022–23 UEFA Champions League group stage, and also earned the right to play against the winners of the 2021–22 UEFA Champions League, Real Madrid, in the 2022 UEFA Super Cup.

This season was the first since 1999–2000 (the first season after the dissolution of the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup) where three major European club competitions (UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, and the newly created UEFA Europa Conference League) take place, and the first outright where the Europa League (then the UEFA Cup) is the secondary competition of the three. As a result, major changes to the format of the Europa League were made. The number of teams in the group stage was reduced from 48 to 32 teams, and the number of teams participating in qualifying was also reduced significantly. The first round of the knockout phase also now involved only the group stage runners-up and the Champions League third-placed teams, with the group winners directly advancing to the round of 16.

As the title holders Villarreal qualified for the 2021–22 UEFA Champions League, they were unable to defend their title as they advanced to the Champions League knockout stage, and were eliminated by Liverpool in the semi-finals.

On 24 June 2021, UEFA approved the proposal to abolish the away goals rule in all UEFA club competitions, which had been used since 1965. Therefore, if in a two-legged tie, two teams scored the same number of aggregate goals, the winner of tie was not decided by the number of away goals scored by each team, but always by 30 minutes of extra time, and if the two teams scored the same number of goals in extra time, the winner was decided by a penalty shoot-out.

A total of 58 teams from 33 of the 55 UEFA member associations participated in the 2021–22 UEFA Europa League. Among them, 16 associations had teams directly qualifying for the Europa League, while for the other 39 associations that did not have any teams directly qualifying, 17 of them had 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:

• Associations 1–5 each had two teams qualify.
• Associations 6–15 each had one team qualify.
  • As the UEFA Europa Conference League title holders' berth was not used this season, association 16 had one of their teams promoted from the Europa Conference League to the Europa League, so they also had one team qualify.
• Moreover, 37 teams eliminated from the 2021–22 UEFA Champions League were transferred to the Europa League.
• In future seasons, the title holders of the UEFA Europa Conference League would be given an additional entry in the Europa League. However, this berth was not used for this season as the first edition of the UEFA Europa Conference League had not been held.

Association ranking

For the 2021–22 UEFA Europa League, the associations were allocated places according to their 2020 UEFA country coefficients, which took into account their performance in European competitions from 2015–16 to 2019–20.

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

Association ranking for 2021–22 UEFA Europa League

Rank Association Coeff. Teams Notes 1   Spain 102.283 2 +2 (UCL) 2   England 90.462 3   Germany 74.784 +2 (UCL) 4   Italy 70.653 +1 (UCL) 5   France 59.248 +1 (UCL) 6   Portugal 49.449 1 +1 (UCL) 7   Russia 45.549 +2 (UCL) 8   Belgium 37.900 +1 (UCL) 9   Ukraine 36.100 10   Netherlands 35.750 +1 (UCL) 11   Turkey 33.600 +1 (UCL) 12   Austria 32.925 +1 (UCL) 13   Denmark 29.250 +2 (UCL) 14   Scotland 27.875 +2 (UCL) 15   Czech Republic 27.300 +2 (UCL) 16   Cyprus 26.750 +1 (UCL) 17   Switzerland 26.400 0 18   Greece 26.300 +1 (UCL) 19   Serbia 25.500 +1 (UCL)

Rank Association Coeff. Teams Notes 20   Croatia 24.875 0 +1 (UCL) 21   Sweden 22.750 22   Norway 21.750 23   Israel 19.625 24   Kazakhstan 19.250 +1 (UCL) 25   Belarus 18.875 26   Azerbaijan 18.750 +1 (UCL) 27   Bulgaria 17.375 +1 (UCL) 28   Romania 16.700 +1 (UCL) 29   Poland 16.625 +1 (UCL) 30   Slovakia 15.875 +1 (UCL) 31   Liechtenstein 13.500 32   Slovenia 13.000 +1 (UCL) 33   Hungary 12.875 +1 (UCL) 34   Luxembourg 8.000 35   Lithuania 7.875 +1 (UCL) 36   Armenia 7.625 +1 (UCL) 37   Latvia 7.625

Rank Association Coeff. Teams Notes 38   Albania 7.375 0 39   North Macedonia 7.375 40   Bosnia and Herzegovina 6.875 41   Moldova 6.750 +1 (UCL) 42   Republic of Ireland 6.700 43   Finland 6.500 +1 (UCL) 44   Georgia 5.750 45   Malta 5.750 46   Iceland 5.375 47   Wales 5.000 48   Northern Ireland 4.875 49   Gibraltar 4.750 +1 (UCL) 50   Montenegro 4.375 51   Estonia 4.375 +1 (UCL) 52   Kosovo 4.000 53   Faroe Islands 3.750 54   Andorra 2.831 55   San Marino 0.666

Distribution

The following is the access list for this season. In the default access list, the title holders of the Europa Conference League qualified for the group stage. However, since this berth was not used for this season, the following changes to the access list were made:

• The cup winners of association 7 (Russia) enter the group stage instead of the play-off round.
• The cup winners of association 13 (Denmark) enter the play-off round instead of the third qualifying round.
• The cup winners of association 16 (Cyprus) enter 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:

• CW: Cup winners
• 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).

CC: 2021 UEFA club coefficients.

Qualified teams for 2021–22 UEFA Europa League

Entry round		Teams
Knockout round play-offs		RB Leipzig (UCL GS)	Porto (UCL GS)	Borussia Dortmund (UCL GS)	Sheriff Tiraspol (UCL GS)
		Barcelona (UCL GS)	Atalanta (UCL GS)	Sevilla (UCL GS)	Zenit Saint Petersburg (UCL GS)
Group stage		Real Sociedad (5th)	Real Betis (6th)	Leicester City (CW)	West Ham United (6th)
		Eintracht Frankfurt (5th)	Bayer Leverkusen (6th)	Napoli (5th)	Lazio (6th)
		Lyon (4th)	Marseille (5th)	Braga (CW)	Lokomotiv Moscow (CW)
		Brøndby (UCL CH PO)	Dinamo Zagreb (UCL CH PO)	Ludogorets Razgrad (UCL CH PO)	Ferencváros (UCL CH PO)
		Monaco (UCL LP PO)	PSV Eindhoven (UCL LP PO)	Spartak Moscow (UCL LP Q3)	Genk (UCL LP Q3)
		Midtjylland (UCL LP Q3)	Sparta Prague (UCL LP Q3)
Play-off round		Antwerp (3rd)	Zorya Luhansk (3rd)	AZ (3rd)	Fenerbahçe (3rd)
		Sturm Graz (3rd)	Randers (CW)	Rangers (UCL CH Q3)	Slavia Prague (UCL CH Q3)
		Olympiacos (UCL CH Q3)	Red Star Belgrade (UCL CH Q3)	CFR Cluj (UCL CH Q3)	Legia Warsaw (UCL CH Q3)
Third qualifying round	CH	Omonia (UCL CH Q2)	Kairat (UCL CH Q2)	Neftçi Baku (UCL CH Q2)	Slovan Bratislava (UCL CH Q2)
		Mura (UCL CH Q2)	Žalgiris (UCL CH Q2)	Alashkert (UCL CH Q2)	HJK (UCL CH Q2)
		Lincoln Red Imps (UCL CH Q2)	Flora (UCL CH Q2)
	MP	St Johnstone (CW)	Jablonec (3rd)	Anorthosis Famagusta (CW)	Galatasaray (UCL LP Q2)
		Rapid Wien (UCL LP Q2)	Celtic (UCL LP Q2)

The schedule of the competition was as follows. 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. Scheduled kick-off times starting from the group stage were 18:45 (instead of 18:55 previously) and 21:00 CEST/CET, though exceptionally could take place at 16:30 due to geographical reasons.

All draws started at 13:00 or 13:30 CEST/CET and were held at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland. On 16 July 2021, UEFA announced that the group stage draw would be held in Istanbul, Turkey.

The draw for the third qualifying round was held on 19 July 2021, 13:00 CEST. The first legs were played on 3 and 5 August, and the second legs were played on 10 and 12 August 2021.

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.

Champions Path

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Omonia	2–2 (5–4 p)	Flora	1–0	1–2 (a.e.t.)
Mura	1–0	Žalgiris	0–0	1–0
Kairat	2–3	Alashkert	0–0	2–3 (a.e.t.)
Lincoln Red Imps	2–4	Slovan Bratislava	1–3	1–1
Neftçi Baku	2–5	HJK	2–2	0–3

Main Path

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Jablonec	2–7	Celtic	2–4	0–3
Rapid Wien	4–2	Anorthosis Famagusta	3–0	1–2
Galatasaray	5–3	St Johnstone	1–1	4–2

The draw for the play-off round was held on 2 August 2021, 13:00 CEST. The first legs were played on 17, 18 and 19 August, and the second legs were played on 26 August 2021.

The winners of the ties advanced to the group stage. The losers were transferred to the Europa Conference League group stage.

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Randers	2–3	Galatasaray	1–1	1–2
Rapid Wien	6–2	Zorya Luhansk	3–0	3–2
Celtic	3–2	AZ	2–0	1–2
Fenerbahçe	6–2	HJK	1–0	5–2
Mura	1–5	Sturm Graz	1–3	0–2
Omonia	4–4 (2–3 p)	Antwerp	4–2	0–2 (a.e.t.)
Olympiacos	5–2	Slovan Bratislava	3–0	2–2
Rangers	1–0	Alashkert	1–0	0–0
Slavia Prague	3–4	Legia Warsaw	2–2	1–2
Red Star Belgrade	6–1	CFR Cluj	4–0	2–1

 

 

Sociedad

 

Betis

 

Leicester

 

West Ham

 

Frankfurt

 

Leverkusen

 

Napoli

 

Lazio

 

Monaco

 

Lyon

 

Marseille

 

Braga

 

Moscow

 

Genk

 

Antwerp

 

PSV

 

Istanbul

 

Rapid

 

Sturm

 

Brøndby

 

Midtjylland

 

Glasgow

 

Sparta

 

Olympiacos

 

Red Star

 

Dinamo

 

Ludogorets

 

Legia

 

Ferencváros

 

Glasgow teams
  Celtic
  Rangers

Istanbul teams
  Fenerbahçe
  Galatasaray

Moscow teams
  Lokomotiv Moscow
  Spartak Moscow

class=notpageimage|

Location of teams of the 2021–22 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 27 August 2021, 12:00 CEST (13:00 TRT), in Istanbul, Turkey. 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 2021 UEFA club coefficients. Teams from the same association could not be drawn into the same group. Prior to the draw, UEFA formed pairings of teams from the same association, including those playing in the Europa Conference League group stage (one pairing for associations with two or three teams, two pairings for associations with four or five teams), based on television audiences, where one team was drawn into Groups A–D and another team was drawn into Groups E–H, so that the two teams would have different kick-off times.

The matches were played on 15–16 September, 30 September, 19–21 October, 4 November, 24–25 November, and 9 December 2021. The winners of each group advanced to the round of 16, while the runners-up advanced to the knockout round play-offs. The third-placed teams were transferred to the Europa Conference League knockout round play-offs, while the fourth-placed teams were eliminated from European competitions for the season.

Brøndby and West Ham United made their debut appearances in the Europa League group stage (although Brøndby had previously appeared in the UEFA Cup group stage).

Group A

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		LYO	RAN	SPP	BRO
1	Lyon	6	5	1	0	16	5	+11	16	Advance to round of 16		—	1–1	3–0	3–0
2	Rangers	6	2	2	2	6	5	+1	8	Advance to knockout round play-offs		0–2	—	2–0	2–0
3	Sparta Prague	6	2	1	3	6	9	−3	7	Transfer to Europa Conference League		3–4	1–0	—	2–0
4	Brøndby	6	0	2	4	2	11	−9	2			1–3	1–1	0–0	—

Group B

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		MON	RSO	PSV	STU
1	Monaco	6	3	3	0	7	4	+3	12	Advance to round of 16		—	2–1	0–0	1–0
2	Real Sociedad	6	2	3	1	9	6	+3	9	Advance to knockout round play-offs		1–1	—	3–0	1–1
3	PSV Eindhoven	6	2	2	2	9	8	+1	8	Transfer to Europa Conference League		1–2	2–2	—	2–0
4	Sturm Graz	6	0	2	4	3	10	−7	2			1–1	0–1	1–4	—

Group C

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		SPM	NAP	LEI	LEG
1	Spartak Moscow	6	3	1	2	10	9	+1	10	Advance to round of 16		—	2–1	3–4	0–1
2	Napoli	6	3	1	2	15	10	+5	10	Advance to knockout round play-offs		2–3	—	3–2	3–0
3	Leicester City	6	2	2	2	12	11	+1	8	Transfer to Europa Conference League		1–1	2–2	—	3–1
4	Legia Warsaw	6	2	0	4	4	11	−7	6			0–1	1–4	1–0	—