| Tourney Name: | UEFA Europa League |
| Year: | 2012–13 |
| Size: | 285px |
| Dates: | 3 July – 30 August 2012 (qualifying) 20 September 2012 – 15 May 2013 (competition proper) |
| Num Teams: | 48+8 (competition proper) 161+32 (total) |
| Associations: | 53 |
| Champion Other: | Chelsea |
| Count: | 1 |
| Second Other: | Benfica |
| Matches: | 205 |
| Goals: | 521 |
| Top Scorer: | Libor Kozák (Lazio) 8 goals |
| Prevseason: | 2011–12 |
| Nextseason: | 2013–14 |
The 2012–13 UEFA Europa League was the 42nd season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 4th season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League.
The final was played at the Amsterdam Arena in Amsterdam, Netherlands.[1] It was contested on 15 May 2013 between Portuguese club Benfica and English club Chelsea, who entered the competition at the Round of 32 after they finished in third place in the group stage of the 2012–13 Champions League. Chelsea won the final 2–1 for their first Europa League title, making them the fourth club – after Juventus, Ajax and Bayern Munich – and the first English club to have won all three major European trophies (UEFA Champions League, Europa League, and the Cup Winners' Cup).[2]
For the 2012–13 edition, the following changes were made from the 2011–12 edition:
Atlético Madrid were the defending champions, but were eliminated by Rubin Kazan in the Round of 32.
A total of 193 teams from 53 UEFA member associations participate in the 2012–13 UEFA Europa League. The association ranking based on the UEFA country coefficients is used to determine the number of participating teams for each association:[6]
The winners of the 2011–12 UEFA Europa League are given an additional entry as title holders if they do not qualify for the 2012–13 UEFA Champions League or Europa League through their domestic performance. However, this additional entry is not necessary for this season since the title holders qualified for European competitions through their domestic performance.
For the 2012–13 UEFA Europa League, the associations are allocated places according to their 2011 UEFA country coefficients, which takes into account their performance in European competitions from 2006–07 to 2010–11.[7] [8]
| Rank | Association | Teams | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | England | 85.785 | align=center rowspan=6 | 3 | |
| 2 | Spain | 82.329 | |||
| 3 | Germany | 69.436 | |||
| 4 | Italy | 60.552 | |||
| 5 | France | 53.678 | |||
| 6 | Portugal | 51.596 | |||
| 7 | Russia | 44.707 | align=center rowspan=3 | 4 | |
| 8 | Ukraine | 43.883 | |||
| 9 | Netherlands | 40.129 | |||
| 10 | Turkey | 35.050 | align=center rowspan=9 | 3 | |
| 11 | Greece | 34.166 | |||
| 12 | Denmark | 30.550 | |||
| 13 | Belgium | 27.000 | |||
| 14 | Romania | 25.824 | |||
| 15 | Scotland | 25.141 | |||
| 16 | Switzerland | 24.900 | |||
| 17 | Israel | 22.000 | |||
| 18 | Czech Republic | 20.850 |
| Rank | Association | Teams | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19 | Austria | 20.700 | align=center rowspan=18 | 3 | |
| 20 | Cyprus | 18.124 | |||
| 21 | Bulgaria | 17.875 | |||
| 22 | Croatia | 16.124 | |||
| 23 | Belarus | 16.083 | |||
| 24 | Poland | 15.916 | |||
| 25 | Slovakia | 14.499 | |||
| 26 | Norway | 14.375 | |||
| 27 | Serbia | 14.250 | |||
| 28 | Sweden | 14.125 | |||
| 29 | Bosnia and Herzegovina | 9.124 | |||
| 30 | Finland | 8.966 | |||
| 31 | Republic of Ireland | 8.708 | |||
| 32 | Hungary | 8.500 | |||
| 33 | Moldova | 7.749 | |||
| 34 | Lithuania | 7.708 | |||
| 35 | Latvia | 7.415 | |||
| 36 | Georgia | 6.957 |
| Rank | Association | Teams | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 37 | Azerbaijan | 6.165 | align=center rowspan=5 | 3 | |
| 38 | Slovenia | 6.124 | |||
| 39 | Macedonia | 5.207 | |||
| 40 | Iceland | 4.957 | |||
| 41 | Kazakhstan | 4.374 | |||
| 42 | Liechtenstein | 4.000 | 1 | ||
| 43 | Montenegro | 3.875 | align=center rowspan=9 | 3 | |
| 44 | Albania | 3.874 | |||
| 45 | Estonia | 3.791 | |||
| 46 | Wales | 2.790 | |||
| 47 | Armenia | 2.583 | |||
| 48 | Malta | 2.416 | |||
| 49 | Northern Ireland | 2.249 | |||
| 50 | Faroe Islands | 1.416 | |||
| 51 | Luxembourg | 1.374 | |||
| 52 | Andorra | 1.000 | align=center rowspan=2 | 2 | |
| 53 | San Marino | 0.916 |
Due to the following reasons, changes to the default allocation system had to be made:
The following changes to the default allocation system were made to compensate for these vacated spots:[10] [11] [12]
| Teams entering in this round | Teams advancing from previous round | Teams transferred from Champions League | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First qualifying round (74 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 is vacated when a team qualifies for both the Champions League and the Europa League, or qualifies for the Europa League by more than one method. When a place is vacated, it is redistributed within the national association by the following rules:[6]
The labels in the parentheses show how each team qualified for the place of its starting round:[13] [14]
| Round of 32 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Group stage | |||
| Atlético MadridTH | |||
| Play-off round | |||
| Third qualifying round | |||
| Second qualifying round | |||
| First qualifying round | |||
| Stabæk [15] | |||
| MYPA [16] | |||
| Twente [17] | |||
All draws are held at UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland unless stated otherwise.[18]
| Phase | Round | Draw date | First leg | Second leg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Qualifying | First qualifying round | 25 June 2012 | 5 July 2012 | 12 July 2012 |
| Second qualifying round | 19 July 2012 | 26 July 2012 | ||
| Third qualifying round | 20 July 2012 | 2 August 2012 | 9 August 2012 | |
| Play-off | Play-off round | 10 August 2012 | 23 August 2012 | 30 August 2012 |
| Group stage | Matchday 1 | 31 August 2012 (Monaco) | 20 September 2012 | |
| Matchday 2 | 4 October 2012 | |||
| Matchday 3 | 25 October 2012 | |||
| Matchday 4 | 8 November 2012 | |||
| Matchday 5 | 22 November 2012 | |||
| Matchday 6 | 6 December 2012 | |||
| Knockout phase | Round of 32 | 20 December 2012 | 14 February 2013 | 21 February 2013 |
| Round of 16 | 7 March 2013 | 14 March 2013 | ||
| Quarter-finals | 15 March 2013 | 4 April 2013 | 11 April 2013 | |
| Semi-finals | 12 April 2013 | 25 April 2013 | 2 May 2013 | |
| Final | 15 May 2013 at Amsterdam Arena, Amsterdam | |||
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: 2012–13 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 2012 UEFA club coefficients,[19] [20] [21] 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 25 June 2012.[22] The first legs were played on 3 and 5 July, and the second legs were played on 10 and 12 July 2012.
The first legs were played on 19 July, and the second legs were played on 26 July 2012.
The draw for the third qualifying rounds was held on 20 July 2012.[23] The first legs were played on 2 August, and the second legs were played on 9 August 2012.
See main article: 2012–13 UEFA Europa League play-off round.
The draw for the play-off round was held on 10 August 2012.[26] The first legs were played on 22 and 23 August, and the second legs were played on 28 and 30 August 2012.
See main article: 2012–13 UEFA Europa League group stage.
The draw for the group stage was held in Monaco on 31 August 2012.[27] The 48 teams were allocated into four pots based on their 2012 UEFA club coefficients,[19] [20] [21] with the title holders, Atlético Madrid, being placed in Pot 1 automatically. 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 20 September, 4 October, 25 October, 8 November, 22 November, and 6 December 2012. The group winners and runners-up advanced to the round of 32, where they were joined by the eight third-placed teams from the 2012–13 UEFA Champions League group stage.
A total of 25 national associations were represented in the group stage.[28] This was the first time a team from Azerbaijan qualified for the group stage of a UEFA competition. AEL, Anzhi, Kiryat Shmona, Levante, Marítimo, Neftçi and Videoton all appeared in the group stage of a UEFA competition for the first time.
See here for tiebreakers if two or more teams are equal on points.
See main article: 2012–13 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 is as follows:
The draws for the round of 32 and round of 16 were held on 20 December 2012.[29] The first legs were played on 14 February, and the second legs were played on 21 February 2013.
The first legs were played on 7 March, and the second legs were played on 14 March 2013.
The draw for the quarter-finals was held on 15 March 2013.[30] The first legs were played on 4 April, and the second legs were played on 11 April 2013.
The draw for the semi-finals and final (to determine the "home" team for administrative purposes) was held on 12 April 2013.[31] The first legs were played on 25 April, and the second legs were played on 2 May 2013.
See main article: 2013 UEFA Europa League Final.
The final was played on 15 May 2013 at the Amsterdam Arena in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Statistics exclude qualifying rounds and play-off round.
| Rank | Player | Team | Goals | Minutes played |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Libor Kozák | Lazio | 8 | 613 |
| 2 | Edinson Cavani | Napoli | 7 | 462 |
| Óscar Cardozo | Benfica | 585 | ||
| 4 | Rodrigo Palacio | Internazionale | 6 | 436 |
| Fernando Torres | Chelsea | 810 | ||
| 6 | Raúl Bobadilla | Young Boys | 5 | 535 |
| Salomón Rondón | Rubin Kazan | 976 | ||
| 8 | Marko Livaja | Internazionale | 4 | 416 |
| Victor Moses | Chelsea | 426 | ||
| Jonjo Shelvey | Liverpool | 481 | ||
| Cheick Diabaté | Bordeaux | 509 | ||
| Nikola Đurđić | Helsingborg | 540 | ||
| Sergio Floccari | Lazio | 562 | ||
| Jermain Defoe | Tottenham Hotspur | 614 | ||
| Cleiton Xavier | Metalist Kharkiv | 630 | ||
| Raul Rusescu | Steaua București | 661 | ||
| Papiss Cissé | Newcastle United | 676 | ||
| Samuel Eto'o | Anzhi Makhachkala | 900 | ||
| Marco Streller | Basel | 949 | ||
| Gökdeniz Karadeniz | Rubin Kazan | 1066 | ||
| Dirk Kuyt | Fenerbahçe | 1105 | ||
| Fabian Schär | Basel | 1147 |
| Rank | Player | Team | Assists | Minutes played |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | José Barkero | Levante | 6 | 477' |
| Juan Mata | Chelsea | 6 | 491' | |
| 3 | Fredy Guarín | Internazionale | 4 | 568' |
| Frank Lampard | Chelsea | 4 | 619' | |
| Mohamed Salah | Basel | 4 | 948' | |
| 6 | Clément Grenier | Lyon | 3 | 331' |
| Jan Kovařík | Viktoria Plzeň | 3 | 360' | |
| Lars Stindl | Hannover 96 | 3 | 398' | |
| Lacina Traoré | Anzhi Makhachkala | 3 | 411' | |
| Yevhen Seleznyov | Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk | 3 | 443' | |
| Emre Belözoğlu | Atlético Madrid | 3 | 467' | |
| Julien Gorius | Genk | 3 | 556' | |
| Antonio Cassano | Internazionale | 3 | 574' | |
| Szabolcs Huszti | Hannover 96 | 3 | 683' | |
| Mbark Boussoufa | Anzhi Makhachkala | 3 | 696' | |
| Stewart Downing | Liverpool | 3 | 701' | |
| Antonio Candreva | Lazio | 3 | 705' | |
| Gareth Bale | Tottenham Hotspur | 3 | 716' | |
| Roman Eremenko | Rubin Kazan | 3 | 768' | |
| Ștefan Radu | Lazio | 3 | 776' | |
| Gōtoku Sakai | Stuttgart | 3 | 784' | |
| Radim Řezník | Viktoria Plzeň | 3 | 900' | |
| Hernanes | Lazio | 3 | 908' | |
| Bibras Natcho | Rubin Kazan | 3 | 1018' | |
| Cristian | Fenerbahçe | 3 | 1074' |