The last Europa League campaign took even longer than usual due to Covid-19 but during the most unpredictable season in decades there was a predictable winner in the end.
Sevilla were already the most successful club in the history of the competition but stretched their lead at the top of the standings to three with a win over Inter in Cologne taking them to six titles overall.
Thankfully for the rest of Europe, Sevilla’s latest victory means they will participate in this season’s Champions League, which means another club might have a chance of winning it – that is until the Spanish side inevitably drop back into the competition after Christmas.
As a result of last season being extended into the summer because of coronavirus, the first qualifying round for the 2020-21 Europa League actually took place a few days before the 2019-20 final had even been played.
Due to the condensed fixture schedule, all qualifying matches have been one-legged affairs. However, home and away matches in the group stages as usual are planned, as well as two-legged ties in the knockout rounds.
There has been no use of Video Assistant Referees (VAR) during the qualifying rounds and that will remain the case in the group stages until 2021-22. It will, however, come into play in the knockout stages.
Group Stage draw
The Group Stage draw will take place on Friday 2 October, a day after the final round of qualifying matches has finished, at the House of European Football in Nyon, Switzerland.
Before the draw, teams will be split into four seeding pots determined by Uefa coefficients with one team per pot being selected to go into each group.
Teams from the same nation cannot be drawn against one another.
Of the 18 automatic entrants into the Group Stage, Arsenal have the highest coefficient.
The draw will be shown live on BT Sport and can be streamed via the Uefa website.
British and Irish interest
Despite finishing sixth in the Premier League, Tottenham Hotspur entered the competition in the second qualifying round after north London rivals Arsenal took the second automatic spot allocated to English teams by winning the FA Cup.
Spurs edged past Bulgarian outfit Lokomotiv Plovdiv in that round and will have to beat North Macedonian side Shkendija in the third qualifying round in order to face FC Rostov or Maccabi Haifa in the final qualifier.
There are four Scottish teams still in the competition at the third qualifying round stage with Celtic set to face Riga, Rangers playing against Willem II, Aberdeen in action against Sporting CP and Motherwell taking on Hapoel Be’er Sheva.
Irish champions Dundalk face Moldovan side Sheriff Tiraspol.
Leicester City and Arsenal are two of the 18 teams to have qualified directly into the Group Stage.
Qualified teams
- Arsenal
- Roma
- Napoli
- Benfica
- Bayer Leverkusen
- Villarreal
- CSKA Moscow
- Sporting Braga
- Sparta Prague
- Rapid Wien
- Leicester
- Real Sociedad
- AZ Alkmaar
- Feyenoord
- Hoffenheim
- Zorya Luhansk
- Lille
- Nice
- Royal Antwerp
- Sivasspor
- Wolfsberg
Group Stage Schedule
- Matchday 1: 22 October
- Matchday 2: 29 October
- Matchday 3: 5 November
- Matchday 4: 26 November
- Matchday 5: 3 December
- Matchday 6: 10 December
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