A total of 190 teams from all 55 UEFA member associations participate in the 2017–18 UEFA Europa League. The association ranking based on the UEFA country coefficients is used to determine the number of participating teams for each association:
Associations 1–51 each have three teams qualify.
*As the winners of the 2016–17 UEFA Europa League, Manchester United qualified for the 2017–18 UEFA Champions League; the 2017–18 UEFA Europa League berth they would otherwise have earned for finishing 6th in the 2016–17 Premier League was vacated and not passed to another English team.
Associations 52–54 each have two teams qualify.
Liechtenstein and Kosovo each have one team qualify.
Moreover, 33 teams eliminated from the 2017–18 UEFA Champions League are transferred to the Europa League.
Starting from this season, Gibraltar are granted two spots instead of one in the Europa League. Kosovo, who became a UEFA member on 3 May 2016, made their debut in the UEFA Europa League.
Association ranking
For the 2017–18 UEFA Europa League, the associations are allocated places according to their 2016 UEFA country coefficients, which takes into account their performance in European competitions from 2011–12 to 2015–16. Apart from the allocation based on the country coefficients, associations may have additional teams participating in the Europa League, as noted below:
– Additional teams transferred from the UEFA Champions League
– Vacated berth due to UEFA Europa League title holders playing in UEFA Champions League
Distribution
In the default access list, Manchester United enter the group stage. However, since they qualified for the Champions League as the Europa League title holders, the spot which they qualified for in the Europa League group stage is vacated, and the following changes to the default allocation system are made:
The domestic cup winners of association 13 are promoted from the third qualifying round to the group stage.
The domestic cup winners of association 18 are promoted from the second qualifying round to the third qualifying round.
The domestic cup winners of associations 25 and 26 are promoted from the first qualifying round to the second qualifying round.
Teams entering in this round
Teams advancing from previous round
Teams transferred from Champions League
First qualifying round
29 domestic cup winners from associations 27–55
36 domestic league runners-up from associations 18–54
35 domestic league third-placed teams from associations 16–51
Second qualifying round
8 domestic cup winners from associations 19–26
2 domestic league runners-up from associations 16–17
6 domestic league fourth-placed teams from associations 10–15
50 winners from first qualifying round
Third qualifying round
5 domestic cup winners from associations 14–18
9 domestic league third-placed teams from associations 7–15
5 domestic league fourth-placed teams from associations 5–9
3 domestic league fifth-placed teams from associations 4–6
3 domestic league sixth-placed teams from associations 1–3
33 winners from second qualifying round
Play-off round
29 winners from third qualifying round
15 losers from Champions League third qualifying round
Group stage
13 domestic cup winners from associations 1–13
1 domestic league fourth-placed team from association 4
3 domestic league fifth-placed teams from associations 1–3
−1 Europa League title holders
22 winners from play-off round
10 losers from Champions League play-off round
Knockout phase
12 group winners from group stage
12 group runners-up from group stage
8 third-placed teams from 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 :
When the domestic cup winners also qualify for the Champions League, their Europa League place is vacated. As a result, the highest-placed team in the league which have not yet qualified for European competitions qualify for the Europa League, with the Europa League qualifiers which finish above them in the league moved up one "place".
When the domestic cup winners also qualify for the Europa League through league position, their place through the league position is vacated. As a result, the highest-placed team in the league which have not yet qualified for European competitions qualify for the Europa League, with the Europa League qualifiers which finish above them in the league moved up one "place" if possible.
For associations where a Europa League place is reserved for either the League Cup or end-of-season European competition play-offs winners, they always qualify for the Europa League as the "lowest-placed" qualifier. If the League Cup winners have already qualified for European competitions through other methods, this reserved Europa League place is taken by the highest-placed team in the league which have not yet qualified for European competitions.
Teams
The labels in the parentheses show how each team qualified for the place of its starting round:
CW: Cup winners
2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, etc.: League position
LC: League Cup winners
RW: Regular season winners
PW: End-of-season European competition play-offs winners
UCL: Transferred from the Champions League
*GS: Third-placed teams from the group stage
*PO: Losers from the play-off round
*Q3: Losers from the third qualifying round
Notably two teams take part in the competition that are not playing in their national top division, Tirana and Vaduz. ;Notes
Round and draw dates
The schedule of the competition is as follows. 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 are divided into seeded and unseeded teams based on their 2017 UEFA club coefficients, and then drawn into two-legged home-and-away ties. Teams from the same association cannot be drawn against each other.
First qualifying round
Second qualifying round
Third qualifying round
Play-off round
Group stage
The draw for the group stage was held on 25 August 2017, 13:00 CEST, at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco. The 48 teams were 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 were seeded into four pots based on their 2017 UEFA club coefficients. In each group, teams played against each other home-and-away in a round-robin format. The group winners and runners-up advanced to the [|round of 32], where they were joined by the eight third-placed teams of the 2017–18 UEFA Champions League group stage. The matchdays were 14 September, 28 September, 19 October, 2 November, 23 November, and 7 December 2017. A total of 29 national associations were represented in the group stage. Arsenal, Atalanta, Fastav Zlín, 1899 Hoffenheim, İstanbul Başakşehir, 1. FC Köln, Lugano, Milan, Östersund, Real Sociedad, Red Star Belgrade, Vardar and Vitesse made their debut appearances in the UEFA Europa League group stage. Vardar were the first team from Macedonia to play in either the Champions League or Europa League group stage.
Tiebreakers
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 was as follows:
In the draw for the round of 32, the twelve group winners and the four third-placed teams from the Champions League group stage with the better group records were seeded, and the twelve group runners-up and the other four third-placed teams from the Champions League group stage were unseeded. The seeded teams were drawn against the unseeded teams, with the seeded teams hosting the second leg. Teams from the same group or the same association could not be drawn against each other.
In the draws for the round of 16 onwards, there were no seedings, and teams from the same group or the same association could be drawn against each other.
Bracket
Round of 32
Round of 16
Quarter-finals
Semi-finals
Final
Statistics
Statistics exclude qualifying rounds and play-off round.
Top goalscorers
Top assists
Squad of the Season
The UEFA technical study group selected the following 18 players as the squad of the tournament.
Player
Team
Jan Oblak
Atlético Madrid
Rui Patrício
Sporting CP
Leonardo Bonucci
Milan
Diego Godín
Atlético Madrid
Stefan Lainer
Red Bull Salzburg
Luiz Gustavo
Marseille
Bouna Sarr
Marseille
Bruno Fernandes
Sporting CP
Naby Keïta
RB Leipzig
Koke
Atlético Madrid
Saúl Ñíguez
Atlético Madrid
Gabi
Atlético Madrid
Diadie Samassékou
Red Bull Salzburg
Gelson Martins
Sporting CP
Antoine Griezmann
Atlético Madrid
Ciro Immobile
Lazio
Dimitri Payet
Marseille
Timo Werner
RB Leipzig
Player of the Season
Votes were cast by coaches of the 48 teams in the group stage, together with 55 journalists selected by the European Sports Media group, representing each of UEFA's member associations. The coaches were not allowed to vote for players from their own teams. Jury members selected their top three players, with the first receiving five points, the second three and the third one. The shortlist of the top three players was announced on 9 August 2018. The award winner was announced during the 2018–19 UEFA Europa League group stage draw in Monaco on 31 August 2018.
Jan Oblak
Atlético Madrid
Rui Patrício
Leonardo Bonucci
Diego Godín
Stefan Lainer
Luiz Gustavo
Marseille
Naby Keïta
RB Leipzig
Diadie Samassékou