2017–18 UEFA Europa League group stage


The 2017–18 UEFA Europa League group stage began on 14 September and ended on 7 December 2017. A total of 48 teams competed in the group stage to decide 24 of the 32 places in the knockout phase of the 2017–18 UEFA Europa League.

Draw

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 could not be drawn against each other. For the draw, the teams were seeded into four pots based on their 2017 UEFA club coefficients.
On 17 July 2014, the UEFA emergency panel ruled that Ukrainian and Russian clubs would not be drawn against each other "until further notice" due to the political unrest between the countries.
Moreover, the draw was controlled for teams from the same association in order to split the teams evenly into the two sets of four groups for maximum television coverage. On each matchday, one set of six groups played their matches at 19:00 CEST/CET, while the other set of six groups played their matches at 21:05 CEST/CET, with the two sets of groups alternating between each matchday.
The fixtures were decided after the draw, using a computer draw not shown to public, with the following match sequence :
Note: Positions for scheduling did not use the seeding pots, e.g., Team 1 was not necessarily the team from Pot 1 in the draw.
MatchdayMatches
Matchday 12 v 3, 4 v 1
Matchday 21 v 2, 3 v 4
Matchday 33 v 1, 2 v 4

MatchdayMatches
Matchday 41 v 3, 4 v 2
Matchday 53 v 2, 1 v 4
Matchday 62 v 1, 4 v 3

There were certain scheduling restrictions: for example, teams from the same city in general were not scheduled to play at home on the same matchday, and teams in certain countries were not scheduled to play at home on the last matchday.

Teams

Below were the participating teams, grouped by their seeding pot. They included 16 teams which entered in this stage, the 22 winners of the play-off round, and the 10 losers of the Champions League play-off round.
Key to colours
Group winners and runners-up advance to the round of 32

Team
Arsenal105.192
Zenit Saint Petersburg87.106
Lyon68.833
Dynamo Kyiv67.526
Villarreal64.999
Athletic Bilbao60.999
Lazio56.666
Milan47.666
Viktoria Plzeň40.635
Red Bull Salzburg40.570
Copenhagen37.800
Braga37.366

Team
Astana16.800
Partizan16.075
1899 Hoffenheim15.899
1. FC Köln15.899
Rijeka15.550
Vitória de Guimarães14.866
Atalanta14.666
Zulte Waregem14.480
Zorya Luhansk13.526
Rosenborg12.665
FC Sheriff Tiraspol11.150
Hapoel Be'er Sheva10.875

;Notes

Format

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 Champions League group stage.

Tiebreakers


Teams were ranked according to points, and if tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria were applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings :
  1. Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
  2. Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
  3. Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
  4. Away goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
  5. If more than two teams are tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams are still tied, all head-to-head criteria above are reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;
  6. Goal difference in all group matches;
  7. Goals scored in all group matches;
  8. Away goals scored in all group matches;
  9. Wins in all group matches;
  10. Away wins in all group matches;
  11. Disciplinary points ;
  12. UEFA club coefficient.

    Groups

The matchdays were 14 September, 28 September, 19 October, 2 November, 23 November, and 7 December 2017. The match kickoff times were 19:00 and 21:05 CEST/CET in general, except for certain matches for geographical reasons.
Times up to 28 October 2017 were CEST, thereafter times were CET.

Group A


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Group B


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Group C


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Group D


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Group E


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Group F


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Group G


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Group H


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Group I


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Group J


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Group K


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Group L


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