| Tourney Name: | UEFA Europa League |
| Year: | 2013–14 |
| Size: | 285px |
| Dates: | 2 July – 29 August 2013 (qualifying) 19 September 2013 – 14 May 2014 (competition proper) |
| Num Teams: | 48+8 (competition proper) 161+33 (total) |
| Associations: | 53 |
| Champion Other: | Sevilla |
| Count: | 3 |
| Second Other: | Benfica |
| Matches: | 205 |
| Goals: | 475 |
| Top Scorer: | Jonathan Soriano (Red Bull Salzburg) 8 goals |
| Prevseason: | 2012–13 |
| Nextseason: | 2014–15 |
The 2013–14 UEFA Europa League was the 43rd season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the fifth season under its current title.
The 2014 UEFA Europa League Final was played between Sevilla and Benfica at the Juventus Stadium in Turin, Italy,[1] which was won by Sevilla on penalties, giving them a record-equalling third UEFA Cup/Europa League title.[2] Chelsea could not defend their title as they automatically qualified for the 2013–14 UEFA Champions League and also reached the knockout stage.
A total of 194 teams from 53 of the 54 UEFA member associations participated in the 2013–14 UEFA Europa League (the exception being Gibraltar, which started participating in the 2014–15 season after being admitted as a UEFA member in May 2013).[3] [4] The association ranking based on the UEFA country coefficients was used to determine the number of participating teams for each association:[5]
The winners of the 2012–13 UEFA Europa League were given an additional entry as title holders if they did not qualify for the 2013–14 UEFA Champions League or Europa League through their domestic performance. However, this additional entry was not necessary for this season, because the title holders qualified for European competitions through their domestic performance.
For the 2013–14 UEFA Europa League, the associations were allocated places according to their 2012 UEFA country coefficients, which took into account their performance in European competitions from 2007–08 to 2011–12.[6] [7]
Apart from the allocation based on the country coefficients, associations may have additional teams participating in the Europa League, as noted below:
| Rank | Association | Coeff. | Teams | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | England | 84.410 | align=center rowspan=6 | 3 | |
| 2 | Spain | 84.186 | |||
| 3 | Germany | 75.186 | |||
| 4 | Italy | 59.981 | |||
| 5 | Portugal | 55.346 | |||
| 6 | France | 54.178 | |||
| 7 | Russia | 47.832 | align=center rowspan=3 | 4 | |
| 8 | Netherlands | 45.515 | |||
| 9 | Ukraine | 45.133 | |||
| 10 | Greece | 37.100 | align=center rowspan=9 | 3 | |
| 11 | Turkey | 34.050 | |||
| 12 | Belgium | 32.400 | |||
| 13 | Denmark | 27.525 | |||
| 14 | Switzerland | 26.800 | |||
| 15 | Austria | 26.325 | |||
| 16 | Cyprus | 25.499 | |||
| 17 | Israel | 22.000 | |||
| 18 | Scotland | 21.141 |
| Rank | Association | Coeff. | Teams | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19 | Czech Republic | 20.350 | align=center rowspan=18 | 3 | |
| 20 | Poland | 19.916 | |||
| 21 | Croatia | 18.874 | |||
| 22 | Romania | 18.824 | |||
| 23 | Belarus | 18.208 | |||
| 24 | Sweden | 15.900 | |||
| 25 | Slovakia | 14.874 | |||
| 26 | Norway | 14.675 | |||
| 27 | Serbia | 14.250 | |||
| 28 | Bulgaria | 14.250 | |||
| 29 | Hungary | 9.750 | |||
| 30 | Finland | 9.133 | |||
| 31 | Georgia | 8.666 | |||
| 32 | Bosnia and Herzegovina | 8.416 | |||
| 33 | Republic of Ireland | 7.375 | |||
| 34 | Slovenia | 7.124 | |||
| 35 | Lithuania | 6.875 | |||
| 36 | Moldova | 6.749 |
| Rank | Association | Coeff. | Teams | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 37 | Azerbaijan | 6.207 | align=center rowspan=6 | 3 | |
| 38 | Latvia | 5.874 | |||
| 39 | Macedonia | 5.666 | |||
| 40 | Kazakhstan | 5.333 | |||
| 41 | Iceland | 5.332 | |||
| 42 | Montenegro | 4.375 | |||
| 43 | Liechtenstein | 4.000 | 1 | ||
| 44 | Albania | 3.916 | align=center rowspan=8 | 3 | |
| 45 | Malta | 3.083 | |||
| 46 | Wales | 2.749 | |||
| 47 | Estonia | 2.666 | |||
| 48 | Northern Ireland | 2.583 | |||
| 49 | Luxembourg | 2.333 | |||
| 50 | Armenia | 2.208 | |||
| 51 | Faroe Islands | 1.416 | |||
| 52 | Andorra | 1.000 | align=center rowspan=2 | 2 | |
| 53 | San Marino | 0.916 | |||
| 54 | Gibraltar | 0.000 | 0 |
Since the title holders (Chelsea) qualified for the Champions League through their domestic performance, the group stage spot reserved for the title holders was vacated, and the following changes to the default allocation system were made:[9] [10]
| Teams entering in this round | Teams advancing from previous round | Teams transferred from Champions League | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First qualifying round (76 teams) |
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| Second qualifying round (80 teams) |
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| Third qualifying round (58 teams) |
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| Play-off round (62 teams) |
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| Group stage (48 teams) |
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| Knockout phase (32 teams) |
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A Europa League place was vacated when a team qualified for both the Champions League and the Europa League, or qualified for the Europa League by more than one method. When a place was vacated, it was redistributed within the national association by the following rules:[5]
The labels in the parentheses show how each team qualified for the place of its starting round:[11] [12]
| Round of 32 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Group stage | ||||
| | ||||
| Play-off round | ||||
| | | |||
| Third qualifying round | ||||
| Second qualifying round | ||||
| First qualifying round | ||||
| Gefle [13] | ||||
| Tromsø [14] | ||||
| Mariehamn [15] | ||||
Notably six teams that did not play in their national top-division took part in the competition. They were: Hapoel Ramat Gan (2nd tier), Hødd (2nd), Pasching (3rd), Teteks (2nd), Vaduz (2nd) and Wigan Athletic (2nd).
The schedule of the competition was as follows (all draws held at UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, unless stated otherwise).[9]
| Phase | Round | Draw date | First leg | Second leg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Qualifying | First qualifying round | 24 June 2013 | 4 July 2013 | 11 July 2013 |
| Second qualifying round | 18 July 2013 | 25 July 2013 | ||
| Third qualifying round | 19 July 2013 | 1 August 2013 | 8 August 2013 | |
| Play-off | Play-off round | 9 August 2013 | 22 August 2013 | 29 August 2013 |
| Group stage | Matchday 1 | 30 August 2013 (Monaco) | 19 September 2013 | |
| Matchday 2 | 3 October 2013 | |||
| Matchday 3 | 24 October 2013 | |||
| Matchday 4 | 7 November 2013 | |||
| Matchday 5 | 28 November 2013 | |||
| Matchday 6 | 12 December 2013 | |||
| Knockout phase | Round of 32 | 16 December 2013 | 20 February 2014 | 27 February 2014 |
| Round of 16 | 13 March 2014 | 20 March 2014 | ||
| Quarter-finals | 21 March 2014 | 3 April 2014 | 10 April 2014 | |
| Semi-finals | 11 April 2014 | 24 April 2014 | 1 May 2014 | |
| Final | 14 May 2014 at Juventus Stadium, Turin | |||
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.
See main article: 2013–14 UEFA Europa League qualifying phase.
In the qualifying rounds and the play-off round, teams were divided into seeded and unseeded teams based on their 2013 UEFA club coefficients,[16] [17] [18] and then drawn into two-legged home-and-away ties. Teams from the same association could not be drawn against each other.
The draws for the first and second qualifying rounds were held on 24 June 2013.[19] The first legs were played on 2, 3 and 4 July, and the second legs were played on 9, 10 and 11 July 2013.
Inter Turku lodged a protest after losing the second leg to Víkingur Gøta,[20] [21] and two match officials were later banned for life by UEFA for attempted match-fixing.[22]
The first legs were played on 16 and 18 July, and the second legs were played on 25 July 2013.
The draw for the third qualifying round was held on 19 July 2013.[23] The first legs were played on 1 August, and the second legs were played on 8 August 2013.
See main article: 2013–14 UEFA Europa League play-off round.
The draw for the play-off round was held on 9 August 2013.[24] The first legs were played on 22 August, and the second legs were played on 29 August 2013.
See main article: 2013–14 UEFA Europa League group stage.
The draw for the group stage was held in Monaco on 30 August 2013.[25] Prior to the draw, the Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld UEFA's ban on Fenerbahce (which lost in the Champions League play-off round) and Beşiktaş, meaning the two clubs were banned from the 2013–14 UEFA Europa League. UEFA decided to replace Beşiktaş in the Europa League group stage with Tromsø, who were eliminated by Beşiktaş in the play-off round, while a draw was held to select a team to replace Fenerbahçe among the teams eliminated in the play-off round, and was won by APOEL.
The 48 teams were allocated into four pots based on their 2013 UEFA club coefficients.[16] [17] [18] [26] 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 19 September, 3 October, 24 October, 7 November, 28 November, and 12 December 2013. The group winners and runners-up advanced to the round of 32, where they were joined by the 8 third-placed teams from the 2013–14 UEFA Champions League group stage.
A total of 27 associations were represented in the group stage. This was also the first time team from Kazakhstan qualified for group stage. Swansea City, Kuban Krasnodar, Sankt Gallen, Ludogorets, Chornomorets Odesa, Esbjerg, Elfsborg, Zulte Waregem, Wigan Athletic, Paços de Ferreira, Pandurii Târgu Jiu, Eintracht Frankfurt, APOEL, Thun, Slovan Liberec, SC Freiburg, Estoril, Real Betis, Vitória de Guimarães, Rijeka, Trabzonspor, Apollon Limassol, Tromsø and Shakhter Karagandy all made their debut in UEFA Europa League group stage (although Elfsborg, Zulte Waregem, Eintracht Frankfurt, Slovan Liberec, Vitória de Guimarães and Tromsø played already in UEFA Cup as well as Thun, Real Betis, Trabzonspor already disputed the UEFA Cup/UEFA Europa League knockout stage).
See main article: 2013–14 UEFA Europa League 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:
The draw for the round of 32 and round of 16 was held on 16 December 2013.[27] The first legs were played on 20 February, and the second legs were played on 27 February 2014.
The first legs were played on 13 March, and the second legs were played on 20 March 2014.
The draw for the quarter-finals was held on 21 March 2014.[28] The first legs were played on 3 April, and the second legs were played on 10 April 2014.
The draw for the semi-finals and final (to determine the "home" team for administrative purposes) was held on 11 April 2014.[29] The first legs were played on 24 April, and the second legs were played on 1 May 2014.
See main article: 2014 UEFA Europa League Final.
Statistics exclude qualifying rounds and play-off round.
| Rank | Player | Team | Goals | Minutes played |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jonathan Soriano | Red Bull Salzburg | 8 | 565 |
| 2 | Paco Alcácer | Valencia | 7 | 716 |
| 3 | Roman Bezjak | Ludogorets Razgrad | 6 | 576 |
| 4 | Jermain Defoe | Tottenham Hotspur | 5 | 360 |
| Kevin Gameiro | Sevilla | 646 | ||
| Olcan Adın | Trabzonspor | 720 | ||
| 7 | Alexander Meier | Eintracht Frankfurt | 4 | 348 |
| Sergio Floccari | Lazio | 382 | ||
| Lima | Benfica | 401 | ||
| Terrence Boyd | Rapid Wien | 477 | ||
| Andriy Yarmolenko | Dynamo Kyiv | 610 | ||
| Yevhen Konoplyanka | Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk | 625 | ||
| Alan | Red Bull Salzburg | 682 | ||
| Sadio Mané | Red Bull Salzburg | 712 | ||
| Carlos Bacca | Sevilla | 897 |
| Rank | Player | Team | Assists | Minutes played |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bibras Natcho | Rubin Kazan | 5 | 450 |
| Kevin Kampl | Red Bull Salzburg | 5 | 768 | |
| 3 | Christian Eriksen | Tottenham Hotspur | 4 | 454 |
| Fabien Camus | Genk | 4 | 462 | |
| Tranquillo Barnetta | Eintracht Frankfurt | 4 | 497 | |
| Alan | Red Bull Salzburg | 4 | 682 |
The UEFA technical study group selected the following 18 players as the squad of the tournament:[30]