The 2023–24 UEFA Europa League was the 53rd season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 15th season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League.
The final was played at Aviva Stadium in Dublin, Republic of Ireland, with Italian club Atalanta defeating German club Bayer Leverkusen 3–0 to win their first European title. Atalanta became the first Italian team to win the competition since Parma in 1999. Their win also denied Leverkusen's bid to win a treble and complete the entire season unbeaten across all competitions. As winners of the tournament, Atalanta automatically qualified for the 2024–25 UEFA Champions League league stage and also earned the right to play against Real Madrid, the winners of the 2023–24 UEFA Champions League, in the 2024 UEFA Super Cup.
This edition was the final season with the format of 32 teams participating in the group stage, after UEFA announced that a brand new format would be introduced for the following edition. Due to the format change, no clubs can be transferred from the Champions League group stage to the UEFA Europa League under the Swiss format, and this edition's winners onwards will no longer be able to defend the title.
Sevilla were the defending champions, but could not defend their title after being eliminated in the group stage of the 2023–24 UEFA Champions League.
Association team allocation A total of 57 teams from 34 of the 55 UEFA member associations participated in the 2023–24 UEFA Europa League. Among them, 15 associations had teams directly qualifying for the Europa League, while for the other 40 associations that did not have any teams directly qualifying, 19 of them have 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: The title holders of the UEFA Europa Conference League were given an entry in the Europa League (if they did not qualify for the Champions League through league performance). Associations 1–5 each had two teams qualify. Associations 6–16 (except Russia) each had one team qualify. 36 teams eliminated from the 2023–24 UEFA Champions League were transferred to the Europa League.
Association ranking For the 2023–24 UEFA Europa League, the associations were allocated places according to their 2022 UEFA country coefficients, which took into account their performance in European competitions from 2017–18 to 2021–22.
Apart from the allocation based on the country coefficients, associations could have additional teams participating in the Europa League, as noted below: – Additional teams transferred from the UEFA Champions League – Additional berth for UEFA Europa Conference League title holders
+Association ranking for 2023–24 UEFA Europa LeagueRankAssociationCoeff.TeamsNotes1106.6412296.141376.902475.213560.081653.3821749.300838.850936.9001034.48201133.37511231.8001330.6001429.6751528.2001627.8001727.25001827.1751927.150RankAssociationCoeff.TeamsNotes2027.10002126.3752224.3752322.8752419.5002517.1502617.0002716.3752815.8752915.7503015.6253115.0003212.5003311.2503410.000359.125368.875378.750388.625RankAssociationCoeff.TeamsNotes398.1660408.125418.125428.083438.000447.250457.041467.000477.000487.000496.500505.500515.416525.375534.875544.665551.332
Distribution The following is the access list for this season.
+Access list for 2023–24 UEFA Europa LeagueTeams entering in this roundTeams advancing from previous roundTeams transferred from Champions LeagueThird qualifying round(14 teams)Champions Path(10 teams)10 teams eliminated from Champions League second qualifying round (Champions Path)Main Path(4 teams)2 domestic cup winners from associations 15–162 teams eliminated from Champions League second qualifying round (League Path)Play-off round(20 teams)7 domestic cup winners from associations 7–14 (except Russia)5 winners from the third qualifying round (Champions Path) 2 winners from the third qualifying round (Main Path)6 teams eliminated from Champions League third qualifying round (Champions Path)Group stage(32 teams)Europa Conference League title holder 6 domestic cup winners from associations 1–6 1 domestic league fourth-placed team from association 5 4 domestic league fifth-placed teams from associations 1–410 winners from the play-off round4 teams eliminated from Champions League play-off round (Champions Path) 2 teams eliminated from Champions League play-off round (League Path) 4 teams eliminated from Champions League third qualifying round (League Path)Preliminary knockout round(16 teams)8 group runners-up from the group stage8 group third-placed teams from Champions League group stageKnockout phase(16 teams) 8 group winners from the group stage 8 winners from the preliminary knockout round
Due to the suspension of Russia for the 2023–24 European season, the following changes to the access list were made: The cup winners of associations 13 (Belgium) and 14 (Switzerland) entered the play-off round instead of the third qualifying round. The cup winners of association 16 (Czech Republic) entered 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: ECL: Europa Conference League title holders CW: Cup winners 3rd, 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).
+Qualified teams for 2023–24 UEFA Europa LeagueEntry roundTeamsKnockout round play-offs Galatasaray Lens Braga Benfica Feyenoord Milan Young Boys Shakhtar Donetsk Group stage West Ham United Liverpool Brighton & Hove Albion Villarreal Real Betis Atalanta Roma SC Freiburg Bayer Leverkusen Toulouse Rennes Sporting CP Rangers AEK Athens Panathinaikos Molde Maccabi Haifa Raków Częstochowa Marseille Sturm Graz TSC Servette Play-off round Ajax LASK Aberdeen Čukarički Zorya Luhansk Union Saint-Gilloise Lugano Sparta Prague Dinamo Zagreb Aris Limassol Slovan Bratislava Olimpija Ljubljana KÍ Third qualifying round BK Häcken Ludogorets Razgrad Qarabağ Astana BATE Borisov Sheriff Tiraspol Žalgiris Zrinjski Mostar HJK Breiðablik Olympiacos Slavia Prague Dnipro-1 Genk
Notes
Schedule 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.
+Schedule for 2023–24 UEFA Europa LeaguePhaseRoundDraw dateFirst legSecond legQualifyingThird qualifying round24 July 202310 August 202317 August 2023Play-offsPlay-off round7 August 202324 August 202331 August 2023Group stageMatchday 11 September 202321 September 2023Matchday 25 October 2023Matchday 326 October 2023Matchday 49 November 2023Matchday 530 November 2023Matchday 614 December 2023Knockout phaseKnockout round play-offs18 December 202315 February 202422 February 2024Round of 1623 February 20247 March 202414 March 2024Quarter-finals15 March 202411 April 202418 April 2024Semi-finals2 May 20249 May 2024Final22 May 2024 at Aviva Stadium, Dublin
Third qualifying round
Play-off round
Group stage
The draw for the group stage was held on 1 September 2023, 13:00 CEST, in Monaco. 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 club coefficients. As the winners of the 2022–23 UEFA Europa Conference League, West Ham United entered Pot 1 regardless of their club coefficient (CC). Teams from the same association could not be drawn into the same group.
Brighton & Hove Albion made their debut appearance in European football. Aris Limassol, BK Häcken, Raków Częstochowa, Servette and TSC made their debut appearances in the group stage and their debut appearances in a UEFA competition group stage.
A total of 21 national associations were represented in the group stage.
Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Group E
Group F
Group G
Group H
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.
Bracket
Knockout round play-offs
Round of 16
Quarter-finals
Semi-finals
Final
Statistics Statistics exclude qualifying rounds and play-off round.
Top goalscorers RankPlayerTeamGoalsMinutes played1 Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang Marseille1010302 Romelu Lukaku Roma710823 Gianluca Scamacca Atalanta6697 João Pedro Brighton & Hove Albion4365 Juninho Qarabağ5794 Mohammed Kudus West Ham United771 Ademola Lookman Atalanta720 Viktor Gyökeres Sporting CP622 Darwin Núñez Liverpool459 Fotis Ioannidis Panathinaikos435 Mohamed Salah Liverpool399 Victor Boniface Bayer Leverkusen379 Michael Gregoritsch SC Freiburg345 Patrik Schick Bayer Leverkusen301
Team of the Season The UEFA technical study group selected the following players as the team of the tournament.
PlayerTeam Mile Svilar Roma Gianluca Mancini Roma Jonathan Tah Bayer Leverkusen Berat Djimsiti Atalanta Jeremie Frimpong Bayer Leverkusen Teun Koopmeiners Atalanta Granit Xhaka Bayer Leverkusen Matteo Ruggeri Atalanta Florian Wirtz Bayer Leverkusen Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang Marseille Ademola Lookman Atalanta
Player of the Season Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang ( Marseille)
Young Player of the Season Florian Wirtz ( Bayer Leverkusen)
See also 2023–24 UEFA Champions League 2023–24 UEFA Europa Conference League 2024 UEFA Super Cup 2023–24 UEFA Women's Champions League 2023–24 UEFA Youth League
References
External links