2012–13 UEFA Europa League


The 2012–13 UEFA Europa League was the 42nd season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 4th season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League.
The final was played at the Amsterdam Arena in Amsterdam, Netherlands. It was contested on 15 May 2013 between Portuguese club Benfica and English club Chelsea, who entered the competition at the Round of 32 after they finished in third place in the group stage of the 2012–13 Champions League. Chelsea won the final 2–1 for their first Europa League title, making them the fourth club – after Juventus, Ajax and Bayern Munich – and the first English club to have won all three major European trophies.
For the 2012–13 edition, the following changes were made from the 2011–12 edition:
Atlético Madrid were the defending champions, but were eliminated by Rubin Kazan in the Round of 32.

Association team allocation

A total of 193 teams from 53 UEFA member associations participate in the 2012–13 UEFA Europa League. The association ranking based on the UEFA country coefficients is used to determine the number of participating teams for each association:
The winners of the 2011–12 UEFA Europa League are given an additional entry as title holders if they do not qualify for the 2012–13 UEFA Champions League or Europa League through their domestic performance. However, this additional entry is not necessary for this season since the title holders qualified for European competitions through their domestic performance.

Association ranking

For the 2012–13 UEFA Europa League, the associations are allocated places according to their 2011 UEFA country coefficients, which takes into account their performance in European competitions from 2006–07 to 2010–11.
RankAssociationTeamsNotes
1 England85.7853+1
2 Spain82.3293
3 Germany69.4363+1
4 Italy60.5523+1
5 France53.6783
6 Portugal51.5963+1
7 Russia44.7074+1
8 Ukraine43.8834+1
9 Netherlands40.1294+1
+2
10 Turkey35.0503+1
11 Greece34.1663+2
12 Denmark30.5503+1
13 Belgium27.0003+1
14 Romania25.8243+2
15 Scotland25.1413+1
16 Switzerland24.9003+1
17 Israel22.0003+1
18 Czech Republic20.8503+1

RankAssociationTeamsNotes
37 Azerbaijan6.1653+1
38 Slovenia6.1243+1
39 Macedonia5.2073
40 Iceland4.9573
41 Kazakhstan4.3743
42 Liechtenstein4.0001
43 Montenegro3.8753
44 Albania3.8743
45 Estonia3.7913
46 Wales2.7903
47 Armenia2.5833
48 Malta2.4163
49 Northern Ireland2.2493
50 Faroe Islands1.4163
51 Luxembourg1.3743+1
52 Andorra1.0002
53 San Marino0.9162

;Notes
Due to the following reasons, changes to the default allocation system had to be made:
The following changes to the default allocation system were made to compensate for these vacated spots:
Teams entering in this roundTeams advancing from previous roundTeams transferred from Champions League
First qualifying round

  • 17 domestic cup winners from associations 37–53
  • 25 domestic league runners-up from associations 28–53
  • 29 domestic league third-placed teams from associations 22–51
  • 3 teams which qualified via Fair Play ranking
Second qualifying round
  • 16 domestic cup winners from associations 21–36
  • 12 domestic league runners-up from associations 16–27
  • 6 domestic league third-placed teams from associations 16–21
  • 6 domestic league fourth-placed teams from associations 10–15
  • 3 domestic league fifth-placed teams from associations 7–9
  • 37 winners from the first qualifying round
    • Third qualifying round
    • 3 domestic cup winners from associations 18–20
    • 6 domestic league third-placed teams from associations 10–15
    • 3 domestic league fourth-placed teams from associations 7–9
    • 3 domestic league fifth-placed teams from associations 4–6
    • 3 domestic league sixth-placed teams from associations 1–3
  • 40 winners from the second qualifying round
    • Play-off round
    • 10 domestic cup winners from associations 8–17
    • 3 domestic league third-placed teams from associations 7–9
    • 3 domestic league fourth-placed teams from associations 4–6
    • 3 domestic league fifth-placed teams from associations 1–3
  • 29 winners from the third qualifying round
  • 14 losers from the Champions League third qualifying round
    • Group stage
    • Title holders
    • 6 domestic cup winners from associations 1–7

    • 31 winners from the play-off round
  • 10 losers from the Champions League play-off round
    • Knockout phase
    • 12 group winners from the group stage
    • 12 group runners-up from the group stage
  • 8 third-placed teams from the Champions League group stage

    • Redistribution rules

    A Europa League place is vacated when a team qualifies for both the Champions League and the Europa League, or qualifies for the Europa League by more than one method. When a place is vacated, it is redistributed within the national association by the following rules:
    The labels in the parentheses show how each team qualified for the place of its starting round:
    ;Notes

    Round and draw dates

    All draws are held at UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland unless stated otherwise.
    Matches in the qualifying, play-off, and knockout rounds may also be played on Tuesdays or Wednesdays instead of the regular Thursdays due to scheduling conflicts.

    Qualifying rounds

    In the qualifying rounds and the play-off round, teams were divided into seeded and unseeded teams based on their 2012 UEFA club coefficients, and then drawn into two-legged home-and-away ties. Teams from the same association could not be drawn against each other.

    First qualifying round

    The draws for the first and second qualifying rounds were held on 25 June 2012. The first legs were played on 3 and 5 July, and the second legs were played on 10 and 12 July 2012.
    ;Notes
    The first legs were played on 19 July, and the second legs were played on 26 July 2012.
    ;Notes
    The draw for the third qualifying rounds was held on 20 July 2012. The first legs were played on 2 August, and the second legs were played on 9 August 2012.
    ;Notes
    The draw for the play-off round was held on 10 August 2012. The first legs were played on 22 and 23 August, and the second legs were played on 28 and 30 August 2012.
    ;Notes
    The draw for the group stage was held in Monaco on 31 August 2012. The 48 teams were allocated into four pots based on their 2012 UEFA club coefficients, with the title holders, Atlético Madrid, being placed in Pot 1 automatically. They were drawn into twelve groups of four, with the restriction that teams from the same association could not be drawn against each other.
    In each group, teams played against each other home-and-away in a round-robin format. The matchdays were 20 September, 4 October, 25 October, 8 November, 22 November, and 6 December 2012. The group winners and runners-up advanced to the [|round of 32], where they were joined by the eight third-placed teams from the 2012–13 UEFA Champions League group stage.
    A total of 25 national associations were represented in the group stage.
    See here for tiebreakers if two or more teams are equal on points.

    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 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 is as follows:

    Round of 32

    The draws for the round of 32 and round of 16 were held on 20 December 2012. The first legs were played on 14 February, and the second legs were played on 21 February 2013.

    Round of 16

    The first legs were played on 7 March, and the second legs were played on 14 March 2013.

    Quarter-finals

    The draw for the quarter-finals was held on 15 March 2013. The first legs were played on 4 April, and the second legs were played on 11 April 2013.

    Semi-finals

    The draw for the semi-finals and final was held on 12 April 2013. The first legs were played on 25 April, and the second legs were played on 2 May 2013.

    Final

    The final was played on 15 May 2013 at the Amsterdam Arena in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

    Statistics

    Statistics exclude qualifying rounds and play-off round.

    Top goalscorers

    Top assists