| Tourney Name: | UEFA Europa League |
| Year: | 2018–19 |
| Size: | 275px |
| Dates: | Qualifying: 26 June – 30 August 2018 Competition proper: 20 September 2018 – 29 May 2019 |
| Num Teams: | Competition proper: 48+8 Total: 158+55 |
| Associations: | 55 |
| Champion Other: | Chelsea |
| Count: | 2 |
| Second Other: | Arsenal |
| Matches: | 205 |
| Goals: | 565 |
| Top Scorer: | Olivier Giroud (Chelsea) 11 goals |
| Player: | Eden Hazard (Chelsea)[1] |
| Prevseason: | 2017–18 |
| Nextseason: | 2019–20 |
The 2018–19 UEFA Europa League was the 48th season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 10th season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League.
The final was played at the Olympic Stadium in Baku, Azerbaijan,[2] between English sides Chelsea and Arsenal – which was the first Europa League final to feature two teams from one city and was also the first time that 4 Premier League representatives (teams) were in both European finals. Chelsea defeated Arsenal 4–1 and earned the right to play against Liverpool, the winners of the 2018–19 UEFA Champions League, in the 2019 UEFA Super Cup. As winners, Chelsea would also have been qualified for the 2019–20 UEFA Champions League group stage; however, since they had already qualified after finishing third in the Premier League, the berth reserved was given to the third-placed team of the 2018–19 Ligue 1 (Lyon) – the 5th-ranked association according to next season's access list.[3]
For the first time, the video assistant referee (VAR) system was used in the competition, where it was implemented in the final.[4]
As the title holders of the Europa League, Atlético Madrid qualified for the 2018–19 UEFA Champions League, although they had already qualified before the final through their league performance. They were unable to defend their title as they advanced to the Champions League knockout stage, and were eliminated by Juventus in the round of 16.
On 9 December 2016, UEFA confirmed the reforming plan for the UEFA Champions League for the 2018–2021 cycle, which was announced on 26 August 2016.[5] [6] As per the new regulations, all teams that are eliminated in the UEFA Champions League qualifying rounds will get a second chance in the Europa League.
213 teams from all 55 UEFA member associations participated in the 2018–19 UEFA Europa League. The association ranking based on the UEFA country coefficients was used to determine the number of participating teams for each association:[7]
For the 2018–19 UEFA Europa League, the associations were allocated places according to their 2017 UEFA country coefficients, which took into account their performance in European competitions from 2012–13 to 2016–17.[9]
Apart from the allocation based on the country coefficients, associations could have additional teams participating in the Champions League, as noted below:
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In the default access list, originally 17 losers from the Champions League first qualifying round were transferred to the Europa League second qualifying round (Champions Path).[10] [11] However, one fewer loser would be transferred since the Champions League title holders already qualified for the group stage via their domestic league. Therefore, only 19 teams entered the Champions Path second qualifying round (one of the losers from the Champions League first qualifying round would be drawn to receive a bye to the third qualifying round).[12]
In addition, originally three losers from the Champions League second qualifying round (League Path) were transferred to the Europa League third qualifying round (Main Path).[10] However, one fewer loser would be transferred since the Europa League title holders already qualified for the group stage via their domestic league. As a result, the following changes to the access list was made:[12]
| Teams entering in this round | Teams advancing from previous round | Teams transferred from Champions League | |||
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| Preliminary round (14 teams) |
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| First qualifying round (94 teams) |
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| Second qualifying round | Champions Path (18 teams) |
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| Main Path (74 teams) |
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| Third qualifying round | Champions Path (20 teams) |
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| Main Path (52 teams) |
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| Play-off round | Champions Path (16 teams) |
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| Main Path (26 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:[7]
The labels in the parentheses show how each team qualified for the place of its starting round:[13]
Notably one team that was not playing a national top division took part in the competition; Vaduz (representing Liechtenstein) played in 2017–18 Swiss Challenge League, which is Switzerland's second tier.
The schedule of the competition was as follows (all draws were held at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, unless stated otherwise).[14]
| Phase | Round | Draw date | First leg | Second leg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Qualifying | Preliminary round | 12 June 2018 | 28 June 2018 | 5 July 2018 |
| First qualifying round | 19 June 2018 (Champions Path) 20 June 2018 (Main Path) | 12 July 2018 | 19 July 2018 | |
| Second qualifying round | 26 July 2018 | 2 August 2018 | ||
| Third qualifying round | 23 July 2018 | 9 August 2018 | 16 August 2018 | |
| Play-off | Play-off round | 6 August 2018 | 23 August 2018 | 30 August 2018 |
| Group stage | Matchday 1 | 31 August 2018 (Monaco) | 20 September 2018 | |
| Matchday 2 | 4 October 2018 | |||
| Matchday 3 | 25 October 2018 | |||
| Matchday 4 | 8 November 2018 | |||
| Matchday 5 | 29 November 2018 | |||
| Matchday 6 | 13 December 2018 | |||
| Knockout phase | Round of 32 | 17 December 2018 | 14 February 2019 | 21 February 2019 |
| Round of 16 | 22 February 2019 | 7 March 2019 | 14 March 2019 | |
| Quarter-finals | 15 March 2019 | 11 April 2019 | 18 April 2019 | |
| Semi-finals | 2 May 2019 | 9 May 2019 | ||
| Final | 29 May 2019 at Olympic Stadium, Baku | |||
Matches in the qualifying (including preliminary and play-off) and knockout rounds could also be played on Tuesdays or Wednesdays instead of the regular Thursdays due to scheduling conflicts.
From this season, the kick-off times starting from the group stage were slightly changed to 18:55 CET and 21:00 CET. Kick-off times starting from the quarter-finals were 21:00 CEST.[10]
In the qualifying and play-off rounds, teams were divided into seeded and unseeded teams based on their 2018 UEFA club coefficients (for Main Path), or based on which round they qualified from (for Champions Path), and then drawn into two-legged home-and-away ties.
In the preliminary round, teams were divided into seeded and unseeded teams based on their 2018 UEFA club coefficients,[15] and then drawn into two-legged home-and-away ties. Teams from the same association could not be drawn against each other. The draw for the preliminary round was held on 12 June 2018.[16] The first legs were played on 26 and 28 June, and the second legs were played on 5 July 2018.
The draw for the first qualifying round was held on 20 June 2018.[17] The first legs were played on 10, 11 and 12 July, and the second legs were played on 17, 18 and 19 July 2018.
The second qualifying round was split into two separate sections: Champions Path (for league champions) and Main Path (for cup winners and league non-champions). The draw for the second qualifying round (Champions Path) was held on 19 June,[18] and the draw for the second qualifying round (Main Path) was held on 20 June 2018.[17] The first legs were played on 26 July, and the second legs were played on 31 July, 1 and 2 August 2018.
The third qualifying round was split into two separate sections: Champions Path (for league champions) and Main Path (for cup winners and league non-champions). The draw for the third qualifying round was held on 23 July 2018.[19] The first legs were played on 7 and 9 August, and the second legs were played on 16 August 2018.
The play-off round was split into two separate sections: Champions Path (for league champions) and Main Path (for cup winners and league non-champions). The draw for the play-off round was held on 6 August 2018.[20] The first legs were played on 23 August, and the second legs were played on 30 August 2018.
See main article: 2018–19 UEFA Europa League group stage.
The draw for the group stage was held on 31 August 2018 at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco.[21] 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 are seeded into four pots based on their 2018 UEFA club coefficients.[15]
In each group, teams played against each other home-and-away in a round-robin format. The group winners and runners-up advance to the round of 32 where they are joined by the eight third-placed teams of the 2018–19 UEFA Champions League group stage. The matchdays are 20 September, 4 October, 25 October, 8 November, 29 November, and 13 December 2018.
A total of 27 national associations were represented in the group stage. Akhisarspor, Chelsea, F91 Dudelange, Jablonec, Rangers, RB Leipzig, Sarpsborg 08, Spartak Moscow and Spartak Trnava made their debut appearances in the UEFA Europa League group stage (although Chelsea, Rangers, RB Leipzig and Spartak Moscow had already competed in the UEFA Europa League knockout phase after a third place in the UEFA Champions League group stage, while Rangers and Spartak Moscow had appeared in the UEFA Cup group stage). Akhisarspor and Sarpsborg 08 made their debuts in any European football. F91 Dudelange were the first team from Luxembourg to play in either the Champions League or Europa League group stage.[22]
See main article: 2018–19 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 draw for the round of 32 was held on 17 December 2018.[23] The first legs were played on 12 and 14 February, and the second legs were played on 20 and 21 February 2019.
The draw for the round of 16 was held on 22 February 2019.[24] The first legs were played on 7 March, and the second legs were played on 14 March 2019.
The draw for the quarter-finals was held on 15 March 2019.[25] The first legs were played on 11 April, the second legs were played on 18 April 2019.
The draw for the semi-finals was held on 15 March 2019 (after the quarter-final draw).[25] The first legs were played on 2 May, and the second legs were played on 9 May 2019.
See main article: 2019 UEFA Europa League Final.
The final was held on 29 May 2019 at the Olympic Stadium in Baku. The "home" team (for administrative purposes) was determined by an additional draw held after the quarter-final and semi-final draws.[25]
Statistics exclude qualifying rounds and play-off round.
| Rank[26] | Player | Team | Goals | Minutes played |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Olivier Giroud | Chelsea | 11 | 1124 |
| 2 | Luka Jović | Eintracht Frankfurt | 10 | 953 |
| 3 | Wissam Ben Yedder | Sevilla | 8 | 621 |
| Mu'nas Dabbur | Red Bull Salzburg | 856 | ||
| Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang | Arsenal | 934 | ||
| 6 | Fredrik Gulbrandsen | Red Bull Salzburg | 5 | 429 |
| Giovani Lo Celso | Real Betis | 563 | ||
| Alexandre Lacazette | Arsenal | 651 | ||
| Sébastien Haller | Eintracht Frankfurt | 770 | ||
| Pedro | Chelsea | 944 |
| Rank | Player | Team | Assists | Minutes played | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ihar Stasevich | BATE Borisov | 7 | 704 | |
| Willian | Chelsea | 899 | |||
| 3 | Mijat Gaćinović | Eintracht Frankfurt | 6 | 1126 | |
| 4 | Andreas Ulmer | Red Bull Salzburg | 5 | 900 | |
| Olivier Giroud | Chelsea | 1124 | |||
| 6 | Viktor Tsyhankov | Dynamo Kyiv | 4 | 804 | |
| Pedro | Chelsea | 944 | |||
| 8 | 24 players | 3 | |||
The UEFA technical study group selected the following 18 players as the squad of the tournament.[27]
Votes were cast by coaches of the 48 teams in the group stage, together with 55 journalists selected by the European Sports Media (ESM) 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 8 August 2019.[28] The award winner was announced during the 2019–20 UEFA Europa League group stage draw in Monaco on 30 August 2019.
| Rank | Player | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shortlist of top three | |||
| 1 | Eden Hazard | Chelsea | 340 |
| 2 | Olivier Giroud | Chelsea | 119 |
| 3 | Luka Jović | Eintracht Frankfurt | 94 |
| Players ranked 4–10 | |||
| 4 | Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang | Arsenal | 65 |
| 5 | Alexandre Lacazette | Arsenal | 19 |
| 6 | N'Golo Kanté | Chelsea | 16 |
| 7 | João Félix | Benfica | 12 |
| 8 | Willian | Chelsea | 11 |
| 9 | Sébastien Haller | Eintracht Frankfurt | 9 |
| Pedro | Chelsea | ||