Hello everyone, this is the thread for the UEFA club competition most people don't really care about. It involves a new-and-even-more-bloated qualification process with many ****ty teams from all over Europe. But before we get to that, let's take a look at last season:

2017-18 Winner: Club Atlético de Madrid



Europa League winning and Atlético Madrid, name a more iconic duo (except Europa League winning and Sevilla, of course). Atlético started off in the Champions League, were they were drawn against Roma, Chelsea and Qarabag (Azerbaijan). After a 0-0 draw against Roma, a 1-2 home loss against CHelsea and an embarassing two draws against Qarabag, Atlético was basically out, at least saving third place ahead of Qarabag by winning 2-0 against Roma and earning another point at Stamford Bridge.

Therefore, they dropped down to the Europa League Round of 32, where they met Copenhagen, and convincingly won the away leg 4-1 to lock up the Round of 16 after a 1-0 in the home leg. Next up was Lokomotiv Moscow, who they trashed 8-1 on aggregate (3-0 at home, 5-1 away). Their first real test was Sporting in the quarter-final, an early Koke goal giving them the advantage, taking a 2-0 nto the return leg in Lisbon. A narrow 0-1 loss meant they advanced to the semi-final, in which they were drawn against Arsenal, while Marseille and Salzburg competed for the other final spot. A 1-1 at the Emirates was followed by a classic 1-0 home victory, which sent Atlético to the final.

The final against Marseille was a fairly one-sided affair, with Griezmann scoring the opener in the 21st minute and scoring the second goal shortly after kickoff to the second half, before Gabi finished the game off with the 3-0 in the 89th minute. Atlético won their third title since the inception of the Europa League (now equal with Sevilla, who won three-in a row from 2014-16).

Top scorers: Immobile (Lazio), Aduriz (Bilbao) - 8 goals each.

Now, let's move on to the

2018-19 season:

(Slight) format change: Last season, a total of 190 teams participated in the Europa League, including 33 teams dropping down from the CL at various stages. UEFA decided that 33 drop-outs were not enough, so all domestic champions eliminated in the qualifying rounds of the UEFA Champions League will now transfer to the Europa League, rather than just teams that are eliminated in the third-qualifying and play-off rounds.
All these will be competing in a separate Champions Path(!) and the total number of teams is now 213, half of which you'll probably have never heard of. I made a little graphic to show how the numbers in this cluster**** stack up (draw.io is really nice for this type of flowcharts, fwiw):



As you can see, a team from a small association will have to play up to 5 rounds / 10 matches to qualify for the group stage. Also, we're already right in the middle of qualifying, which started back in June.

Preliminary Round: The most spectacular result was the 3-1 aggregate win by Tre Fiori against Welsh side Bala Town, which marked the first time a Sanmarinese club won a European tie. I just looked up a highlight clip of the 3-0 first leg, and ... I highly recommend it:



1st Qualifying Round: 47 ties. Most were won by the respective favorites, although Northern Irish club Glenavon scared Molde with a 2-1 home win, before getting a 1-5 spanking in the away leg. Vaduz knocked out Levski Sofia, Rangers edged past Macedonian powerhouse FC Shkupi in a 2-0 aggregate win, while Hibernian apparently played two sets of tennis against Icelandic opponent NSI Runavik, winning 6-1, 6-4. And our Sanmarinese heroes... well, they got beaten 0-10 on aggregate by Rudar Velenje from Slovenia.

2nd Qualifying Round (July 26th / August 2nd): This is where the qualifying is getting split up in two parts. In the main path, the 47 winners are joined by 27 teams from higher ranked associations, including Sevilla, Burnley and Leipzig. In the Champions Path (more like "Losers" path), the 19 losers of the first two qualifying rounds will play, one lucky club getting a bye to the 3rd round: Cork City from Ireland! Highlight of the Round from an English/British perspective should be Aberdeen vs. Burnley:



3rd Qualifying Round (August 9th / August 16th):

The two paths continues, with the Main Path being filled up with another 15 teams, including Zenit, and the Losers Champions path getting filled with another 10. The draw for this round will happen on Monday, here's the seeding for the Main Path:



Playoff Round (August 9th / August 16th):

32 winners from the previous round + 10 more CL dropouts play another round to find the 21 teams that will have the honor to play in the Group Stage.

Group Stage

Consists of 17 teams who didn't have to play ****ty qualifying matches to get there: This includes Chelsea, Arsenal and Milan, who just got their European ban lifted by CAS today, as well as last year's finalist Marseille.
Plus the 21 playoff round winners. Plus the 6 losers of the CL playoff round and the 4 losers of the CL 3rd round League Path (I don't even know why these qualify right for the Group stage and not just the play-off round, but UEFA gonna UEFA).

All in all, we get a total of 48 teams, which will be drawn into 12 groups on August 31st. Arsenal, Chelsea and Leverkusen are all guaranteed Pot 1 teams, while the rest is still TBD.

Well, this got a bit longer than expected, so here are some DER MARKT numbers:



Who will advance all the way to the final in Baku, May 29th, 2019? Get your predictions in now!

we're in this for winning league 1 right?

a highlight so far has been these albanians needing to concede a very late goal or they would get killed by whatever group of criminals had rigged the game


https://twitter.com/arturpetrosyan/s...03848504782848

There's some charme to all these crappy qualifiers, reminds me of the UI-Cup games of old.

Funny thing that the 5th of Albania only plays EL because Skenderbeu got a 10 year ban for match fixing and everyone else moved up a spot.

Also, Beitar Jerusalem has apparently changed their name to Beitar Trump Jerusalem because they're racist ****s, and promptly lost to some Georgian club in the first qualifying round. Probably were already #TiredOfWinning

In it to win it

also to have some nice location where we can go to an away game

LÖL Europa League.

LÖL rich teams that buy their domestic league

3rd qualifying Round (Played August 9th and August 16th)

Champions Path

Lots of garbage ties. A potential Georgian-Azebaijani tie 10. Celtic to meet Cork City if they don't beat Rosenborg.



Main Path, Ties 1-13

Burnley/Aberdeen to meet 3rd placed Turkish team Basaksehir. Possible Minsk/Zenit and Sofia/Bucharest ties as well.



Main Path, Ties 14-26

Potential Rangers vs. Maribor - Shame Bandz isn't around anymore. Bratislava-Vienna another potential local derby. Leipzig should really get to the play-off round, but German EL teams and Romanian opponents... Mainz flashbacks intensify oh dear.

Looks like we're gonna have to do it the hard way.

i love how complicated these things get

because the 4th round is drawn before the 3rd round is done, and they're using the coefficient of the highest ranked team in the tie to decide the seedings, i have to hope sparta prague (with a lot of coefficient points) beat the unseeded serbian side in the 2nd round, so the winner of the 3rd round will be seeded in the 4th round.

in for a godawful away trip somewhere hopefully

We literally never had an awful trip ....well Bulgaria was a bit tedious but passed quickly.

Exactly. We've been running good. I want to get some new moneybags club who play in the 12th largest town in Latvia.

So, first leg of Q2 done (Sevilla game still going)

Biggest upsets according to pre-match odds:
Balzan (Malta) - Bratislava 2-1 (ruined my bet as well. )
Santa Coloma (Andorra) - VAlur (Iceland) 1-0
Atalanta - Sarajevo 2-2
Subotica (Serbia) - Sparta Prague 2-0

Also, Aberdeen and Burnley drew 1-1. Leipzig won 4-0 comfortably. Sevilla also on their way to a clear win, currently up 3-0 against Ujpest.

Good result for Stevie G and the Liverpool u23s away from home in Romania!

my city of birth. Didn't even know they were in this and they completely outplayed Sparta Prague...pretty sure they'll get rekt later, but still was a nice little surprise

Wasn't aware they named entire cities after Neven

what the **** is subotica mindfckr? they ruined my prague plans

Haha. I've got no clue how they've managed to qualify let alone KO Sparta Prague. Would be great if they made it in the group stages and got Arsenal. I could travel home for an away game

their stadium is too small apparently, so theyre playing in novi sad. which seems like a decent enough city with a beach and everything, but is not exactly a long weekend in prague

Revisiting these ties after the second leg: Three of the four favourites have turned the tie around. Only Sparta Prague couldn't do their part against Subotica, grats Mindfckr.

Bratislava - Balzan 3-1 (4-3 agg.)
Valur - Santa Coloma 3-0 (3-1 agg.)
Sarajevo - Atalanta 0-8 (2-10 agg.)
Sparta Prague - Subotica 2-1 (2-3 agg.)

Also, Burnley beat Aberdeen in extra time.

Champions Path fixtures for Q3: Latvian-Lithuanian duel!



Main Path fixtures for Q3:



Main Path seeding for playoff round (26 teams): Some prtty tough ties possible with Leipzig/Burnley/Boredaux all unseeded. Draw on Monday.

Lived 5 years. Amazing city.

Kej is definitely a place to visit.


Also Exit festival is held in the Petrovaradin Fortress, which is also a sight to see:



But yea doesnt beat Prague

If Novi Sad is anything like Belgrade but with "a beach and everything" then it sounds even better than a long weekend in Prague

it's too much trouble getting there. swimming in the donau doesnt sound like the best idea anyway