The UEFA Europa League is UEFA’s second-tier continental competition, with teams all around Europe competing to win the trophy and automatic qualification to the following season’s Champions League.
Our team of betting experts aim to have their Europa League predictions up on-site 24 hours ahead of kick-off. We find that is the perfect time to have as up-to-date betting information as possible including team news, and manager press conferences to build our predictions from. We usually have predictions for matches from the latter qualifying rounds all the way through to the Europa League Final.
Before the tournament starts in earnest, some teams have up to four qualification ties to play in order to get into the UEFA Europa League, while higher-ranked teams are placed straight into the group stage.
The competition then has a group stage of 48 teams, made up of 12 groups. Like the Champions League, each team plays a home and away time against each other. The top two then qualify.
The knockout stage begins with a Knockout Round Play Off, where those who qualified second from the group stage are joined by eight teams that finished 3rd in their Champions League groups. From there, the winners of those ties join the 8 group winners for a Round of 16, Quarter and Semi Final ties before eventually reaching the UEFA Europa League Final.
Similar to the Champions League, the knockout stages have two legs in each fixture, except the final.
The UEFA Europa League group stages kick off in early September 2022, with 6 games to be played between 8th September and 3rd November 2022. All games take place on a Thursday unless pre-approved by UEFA.
Matchday 1: 8 September 2022 Matchday 2: 15 September 2022 Matchday 3: 6 October 2022 Matchday 4: 13 October 2022 Matchday 5: 27 October 2022 Matchday 6: 3 November 2022
Knockout round play-offs: 16 & 23 February Round of 16: 9 & 16 March 2023 Quarter-finals: 13 & 20 April 2023 Semi-finals: 11 & 18 May 2023 Final: 31 May 2023
The 2023 Europa League Final is to be played at the Puskás Aréna in Budapest, Hungary. The ground holds over 65,000 spectators and will allow thousands of fans to watch their team secure a European trophy and qualification to the Champions League.
In 2024, the Europa League Final will move to the Aviva Stadium in Dublin; the second Europa League Final it has held after playing host to the 2011 edition where Porto beat fellow Portuguese side Braga 1-0.
The Final will then be hosted in Spain, as the 2024/25 finalists travel to San Mamés in Bilbao, Spain
Dublin and Bilbao were initially selected to host UEFA EURO 2020 games, but local COVID-19 restrictions meant the matches were reallocated to other venues and so these events were given as an acknowledgement to the investment put in by local authorities.
In the UK, BT Sport holds the television rights to the Europa League, just as they do for the Champions League and Conference League. You’ll require a subscription to watch the games.
Spanish side Sevilla are the most successful club in the tournament, lifting the trophy on 6 occasions. They have dominated the tournament since the mid-2000s, winning all 6 trophies between 2006 and 2020. Four teams have won the trophy 3 times; Inter Milan, Liverpool, Juventus, and Atlético Madrid.
Recent winners: 2021/22: Eintracht Frankfurt 2020/21: Villarreal 2019/20: Sevilla 2018/19: Arsenal 2017/18: Atlético Madrid 2016/17: Manchester United 2015/16: Sevilla 2014/15: Sevilla 2013/14: Sevilla 2012/13: Chelsea
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