| Tourney Name: | UEFA Europa League |
| Year: | 2020–21 |
| Size: | 275 |
| Dates: | Qualifying: 18 August 2020 – 1 October 2020 Competition proper: 22 October 2020 – 26 May 2021 |
| Num Teams: | Competition proper: 48+8 Total: 158+55 |
| Associations: | 55 |
| Champion Other: | Villarreal |
| Count: | 1 |
| Second Other: | Manchester United |
| Matches: | 204 |
| Goals: | 618 |
| Top Scorer: | Pizzi (Benfica) Borja Mayoral (Roma) Gerard Moreno (Villarreal) Yusuf Yazıcı (Lille) 7 goals each |
| Player: | Gerard Moreno (Villarreal)[1] |
| Prevseason: | 2019–20 |
| Nextseason: | 2021–22 |
The 2020–21 UEFA Europa League was the 50th season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 12th season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League.
Villarreal defeated Manchester United in the final, played at the Stadion Gdańsk in Gdańsk, Poland, 11–10 on penalties following a 1–1 draw after extra time, winning the competition for the first time in club history.[2] Villarreal thus automatically qualified for the 2021–22 UEFA Champions League group stage and earned the right to play in the 2021 UEFA Super Cup. The stadium was originally appointed to host the 2020 UEFA Europa League Final, but this was moved due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe in 2020.[3]
As the title holders of the Europa League, Sevilla qualified for the 2020–21 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 Borussia Dortmund in the round of 16.
A total of 213 teams from all 55 UEFA member associations participated in the 2020–21 UEFA Europa League. The association ranking based on the UEFA country coefficients was used to determine the number of participating teams for each association:[4]
For the 2020–21 UEFA Europa League, the associations were allocated places according to their 2019 UEFA country coefficients, which took into account their performance in European competitions from 2014–15 to 2018–19.[6]
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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The following was the access list for this season.[7]
| Teams entering in this round | Teams advancing from previous round | Teams transferred from Champions League | |||
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| Preliminary round (16 teams) |
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| First qualifying round (94 teams) |
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| Second qualifying round | Champions Path (20 teams) |
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| Main Path (72 teams) |
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| Third qualifying round | Champions Path (18 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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Changes were made to the default access list since the Champions League title holders, Bayern Munich, and the Europa League title holders, Sevilla, which were guaranteed berths in the Champions League group stage, already qualified for the Champions League group stage via their domestic leagues, meaning there were fewer teams transferred from the Champions League due to changes in the Champions League access list. However, as a result of schedule delays to both the 2019–20 and 2020–21 European seasons due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020–21 European season started before the conclusion of the 2019–20 European season. Therefore, the changes to the access list that should have been made based on the Champions League and Europa League title holders could not be certain until matches of the earlier qualifying rounds had been played and/or their draws had been made. UEFA used "adaptive re-balancing" to change the access list once the berths for the Champions League and Europa League title holders were determined, and rounds which had already been drawn or played by the time the title holders were determined would not be impacted (Regulations Article 3.07)[4] The following changes were made:
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:
In early April 2020, UEFA announced that due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe, the deadline for entering the tournament had been postponed until further notice.[8] UEFA also sent a letter to all member associations that domestic leagues must be completed in full without ending prematurely in order to qualify for European competitions.[9] After meeting with the 55 UEFA associations on 21 April 2020, UEFA strongly recommended them to finish domestic top league and cup competitions, although in some special cases where it was not possible, UEFA developed guidelines concerning participation in its club competitions in case of a cancelled league or cup.[10] [11] After the UEFA Executive Committee meeting on 23 April 2020, UEFA announced that if a domestic competition was prematurely terminated for legitimate reasons in accordance with conditions related to public health or economic problems, the national associations concerned were required to select their participating teams for the 2020–21 UEFA club competitions based on sporting merit in the 2019–20 domestic competitions, and UEFA reserved the right to refuse their admission if UEFA deemed the termination of the competitions not legitimate, or the selection procedure not objective, transparent and non-discriminatory, or the team was perceived by the public as qualifying unfairly. A suspended domestic competition could also be restarted with a different format from the original one in a manner which would still facilitate qualification on sporting merit.[12] [13] All leagues were initially to communicate to UEFA by 25 May 2020 whether they intended to restart their competitions,[14] but this deadline was later extended. On 17 June 2020, UEFA announced that associations had to enter their teams by 3 August 2020.[3] If a cup was abandoned or not completed by the UEFA registration deadline, the Europa League places were distributed by league positions only.
The labels in the parentheses show how each team qualified for the place of its starting round:
The second qualifying round, third qualifying round and play-off round were divided into Champions Path (CH) and Main Path (MP).
NotesThe schedule of the competition was as follows (all draws were held at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland).[16] The tournament would originally have started in June 2020, but was delayed to August due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe.[17] The new schedule was announced by the UEFA Executive Committee on 17 June 2020.[18] All qualifying matches, including the play-off round, were played as single leg matches, hosted by one of the teams decided by draw.[3] [19]
The group stage draw was originally to be held at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center in Athens, Greece, but UEFA announced on 9 September 2020 that it would be relocated to Nyon.[20]
Note: Matches could also be played on Tuesdays or Wednesdays instead of the regular Thursdays due to scheduling conflicts.
| Phase | Round | Draw date | First leg | Second leg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Qualifying | Preliminary round | 9 August 2020 | 20 August 2020 | |
| First qualifying round | 10 August 2020 | 27 August 2020 | ||
| Second qualifying round | 31 August 2020 | 17 September 2020 | ||
| Third qualifying round | 1 September 2020 | 24 September 2020 | ||
| Play-off | Play-off round | 18 September 2020 | 1 October 2020 | |
| Group stage | Matchday 1 | 2 October 2020 | 22 October 2020 | |
| Matchday 2 | 29 October 2020 | |||
| Matchday 3 | 5 November 2020 | |||
| Matchday 4 | 26 November 2020 | |||
| Matchday 5 | 3 December 2020 | |||
| Matchday 6 | 10 December 2020 | |||
| Knockout phase | Round of 32 | 14 December 2020 | 18 February 2021 | 25 February 2021 |
| Round of 16 | 26 February 2021 | 11 March 2021 | 18 March 2021 | |
| Quarter-finals | 19 March 2021 | 8 April 2021 | 15 April 2021 | |
| Semi-finals | 29 April 2021 | 6 May 2021 | ||
| Final | 26 May 2021 at Stadion Gdańsk, Gdańsk | |||
The original schedule of the competition, as planned before the pandemic, was as follows (all draws were to be held at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, unless stated otherwise).
| Phase | Round | Draw date | First leg | Second leg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Qualifying | Preliminary round | 9 June 2020 | 25 June 2020 | 2 July 2020 |
| First qualifying round | 16 June 2020 | 9 July 2020 | 16 July 2020 | |
| Second qualifying round | 17 June 2020 | 23 July 2020 | 30 July 2020 | |
| Third qualifying round | 20 July 2020 | 6 August 2020 | 13 August 2020 | |
| Play-off | Play-off round | 3 August 2020 | 20 August 2020 | 27 August 2020 |
| Group stage | Matchday 1 | 28 August 2020 (Monaco) | 17 September 2020 | |
| Matchday 2 | 1 October 2020 | |||
| Matchday 3 | 22 October 2020 | |||
| Matchday 4 | 5 November 2020 | |||
| Matchday 5 | 26 November 2020 | |||
| Matchday 6 | 10 December 2020 | |||
| Knockout phase | Round of 32 | 14 December 2020 | 18 February 2021 | 25 February 2021 |
| Round of 16 | 26 February 2021 | 11 March 2021 | 18 March 2021 | |
| Quarter-finals | 19 March 2021 | 8 April 2021 | 15 April 2021 | |
| Semi-finals | 29 April 2021 | 6 May 2021 | ||
| Final | 26 May 2021 at Estadio Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán, Seville | |||
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe, the following special rules were applicable to the competition:[21] [22]
On 24 September 2020, UEFA announced that five substitutions would be permitted from the group stage onward, with a sixth allowed in extra time. However, each team was only given three opportunities to make substitutions during matches, with a fourth opportunity in extra time, excluding substitutions made at half-time, before the start of extra time and at half-time in extra time. Consequently, a maximum of twelve players could be listed on the substitute bench.[23]
All qualifying matches were played behind closed doors.[19] Following the partial return of fans at the 2020 UEFA Super Cup, UEFA announced on 1 October 2020 that matches from the group stage onward could be played at 30% capacity if allowed by the local authorities.[24] Video assistant referees were not introduced for the group stage as planned (now to start in 2021–22), but were still used in the knockout phase.
See main article: 2020–21 UEFA Europa League group stage.
A total of 48 teams played in the group phase: 18 teams which entered in this phase, the 21 winners of the play-off round (eight from Champions Path, thirteen from Main Path), the six losers of the 2020–21 UEFA Champions League play-off round (four from Champions Path, two from League Path), and the three League Path losers of the 2020–21 UEFA Champions League third qualifying round.
The draw for the group phase was held on 2 October 2020, 13:00 CEST.[25] 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 2020 UEFA club coefficients.[26]
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 2020–21 UEFA Champions League group phase.
Antwerp, Granada, Leicester City, Omonia and Sivasspor made their debut appearances in the group stage. Furthermore, Granada qualified for any European competition for the first time in the club's history.
See main article: 2020–21 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.
Statistics exclude qualifying rounds and play-off round.
| Rank[27] | Player | Team | Goals | Minutes played |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pizzi | Benfica | 7 | 385 |
| Yusuf Yazıcı | Lille | 625 | ||
| Borja Mayoral | Roma | 659 | ||
| Gerard Moreno | Villarreal | 879 | ||
| 5 | Edinson Cavani | Manchester United | 6 | 368 |
| Mu'nas Dabbur | 1899 Hoffenheim | 468 | ||
| Carlos Vinícius | Tottenham Hotspur | 499 | ||
| Paco Alcácer | Villarreal | 519 | ||
| Edin Džeko | Roma | 566 | ||
| Nicolas Pépé | Arsenal | 903 | ||
| Mislav Oršić | Dinamo Zagreb | 976 |
| Rank[28] | Player | Team | Assists | Minutes played |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Galeno | Braga | 5 | 571 |
| Samuel Chukwueze | Villarreal | 772 | ||
| Gerard Moreno | Villarreal | 879 | ||
| 4 | Joe Willock | Arsenal | 4 | 344 |
| Lior Refaelov | Antwerp | 636 | ||
| Alfredo Morelos | Rangers | 717 | ||
| Bruno Fernandes | Manchester United | 748 | ||
| Magnus Wolff Eikrem | Molde | 816 | ||
| Nicolas Pépé | Arsenal | 903 | ||
| Lovro Majer | Dinamo Zagreb | 909 |
The UEFA technical study group selected the following 23 players as the squad of the tournament.[29]
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 13 August 2021.[30] The award winner was announced during the 2021–22 UEFA Europa League group stage draw in Turkey on 27 August 2021.
| Rank | Player | Team(s) | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shortlist of top three | |||
| 1 | Gerard Moreno | Villarreal | 289 |
| 2 | Bruno Fernandes | Manchester United | 160 |
| 3 | Edinson Cavani | Manchester United | 44 |
| Players ranked 4–10 | |||
| 4 | Paul Pogba | Manchester United | 36 |
| 5 | Pau Torres | Villarreal | 34 |
| 6 | Raúl Albiol | Villarreal | 19 |
| 7 | Dani Parejo | Villarreal | 18 |
| 8 | Leonardo Spinazzola | Roma | 14 |
| 9 | Étienne Capoue | Villarreal | 8 |
| Nicolas Pépé | Arsenal | ||