The 2018–19 UEFA Europa League group stage began on 20 September and ended on 13 December 2018.
A total of 48 teams competed in the group stage to decide 24 of the 32 places in the
knockout phase
A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...
of the
2018–19 UEFA Europa League
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 St ...
.
Draw
The draw for the group stage was held on 31 August 2018, 13:00
CEST CEST or cest may refer to:
* Central European Summer Time (UTC+2), daylight saving time observed in the central European time zone
* Cognitive-Experiential Self-Theory
* Chemical Exchange Saturation Transfer, a subset of Magnetization transfer in ...
, at the
Grimaldi Forum
The Grimaldi Forum in Monaco is a conference and congress centre located on the seafront of Monaco's eastern beach quartier, Larvotto. Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo and the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra regularly perform there. This is also the ...
in
Monaco
Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...
.
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 2018
UEFA club coefficients.
On 17 July 2014, the UEFA emergency panel ruled that Ukrainian and Russian clubs would not be drawn against each other "until further notice" due to the
political unrest
Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...
between the countries.
Moreover, the draw was controlled for teams from the same association in order to split the teams evenly into the two sets of six groups (A–F, G–L) for maximum television coverage. On each matchday, one set of six groups played their matches at 18:55 CET/CEST, while the other set of six groups played their matches at 21:00 CET/CEST, with the two sets of groups alternating between each matchday. The following pairings were announced by UEFA after the group stage teams were confirmed:
*Spain: Real Betis and Sevilla
*Germany: Eintracht Frankfurt and RB Leipzig
*England: Chelsea and Arsenal
*Italy: Lazio and Milan
*France: Marseille and Bordeaux
*Russia: Spartak Moscow and Zenit Saint Petersburg
*Ukraine: Dynamo Kyiv and Vorskla Poltava
*Belgium: Standard Liège and Anderlecht
*Turkey: Fenerbahçe and Beşiktaş
*Czech Republic: Slavia Prague and Jablonec
*Greece: PAOK and Olympiacos
*Austria: Red Bull Salzburg and Rapid Wien
*Scotland: Celtic and Rangers
*Cyprus: AEK Larnaca and Apollon Limassol
*Norway: Rosenborg and Sarpsborg 08
The fixtures were decided after the draw, using a computer draw not shown to public, with the following match sequence (Regulations Article 15.02):
''Note: Positions for scheduling do not use the seeding pots, e.g., Team 1 is not necessarily the team from Pot 1 in the draw.''
There were scheduling restrictions: for example, teams from the same city (e.g.,
Arsenal
An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...
and
Chelsea
Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to:
Places Australia
* Chelsea, Victoria
Canada
* Chelsea, Nova Scotia
* Chelsea, Quebec
United Kingdom
* Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames
** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...
) in general were not scheduled to play at home on the same matchday (to avoid them playing at home on the same day, due to logistics and crowd control), and teams from "winter countries" (e.g., Russia) were not scheduled to play at home on the last matchday (due to cold weather).
Teams
Below were the participating teams (with their 2018
UEFA club coefficients),
grouped by their seeding pot. They included:
*17 teams which entered in the group stage
*21 winners of the
play-off round
The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...
(8 from
Champions Path, 13 from
Main Path)
*6 losers of the
Champions League play-off round (4 from
Champions Path, 2 from
League Path)
*4 League Path losers of the
Champions League third qualifying round
;Notes
Format
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
A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...
, where they were joined by the eight third-placed teams of the
Champions League group stage.
Tiebreakers
Teams were ranked according to
points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss), and if tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria were applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Articles 16.01):
#Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
#
Goal difference
Goal difference, goal differential or points difference is a form of tiebreaker used to rank sport teams which finish on equal points in a league competition. Either "goal difference" or "points difference" is used, depending on whether matches ar ...
in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
#Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
#
Away goals
The away goals rule is a method of tiebreaking in association football and other sports when teams play each other twice, once at each team's home ground. Under the away goals rule, if the total goals scored by each team are equal, the team that ...
scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
#If more than two teams were tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams were still tied, all head-to-head criteria above were reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;
#Goal difference in all group matches;
#Goals scored in all group matches;
#Away goals scored in all group matches;
#Wins in all group matches;
#Away wins in all group matches;
#Disciplinary points (red card = 3 points, yellow card = 1 point, expulsion for two yellow cards in one match = 3 points);
#
UEFA club coefficient
In European football, the UEFA coefficients are statistics based in weighted arithmetic means used for ranking and seeding teams in club and international competitions. Introduced in 1979 for men's football tournaments, and after applied in wom ...
.
Groups
The matchdays were 20 September, 4 October, 25 October, 8 November, 29 November, and 13 December 2018. The scheduled kickoff times were 18:55 and 21:00 CET/CEST, except for a few matches whose kickoff times were 16:50 CET/CEST.
Times are
CET
CET or cet may refer to:
Places
* Cet, Albania
* Cet, standard astronomical abbreviation for the constellation Cetus
* Colchester Town railway station (National Rail code CET), in Colchester, England
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Comcast En ...
/
CEST CEST or cest may refer to:
* Central European Summer Time (UTC+2), daylight saving time observed in the central European time zone
* Cognitive-Experiential Self-Theory
* Chemical Exchange Saturation Transfer, a subset of Magnetization transfer in ...
, as listed by UEFA (local times, if different, are in parentheses).
Group A
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Group B
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Group C
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Group D
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Group E
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Group F
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Group G
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Group H
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Group I
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Group J
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Group K
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Group L
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Notes
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Uefa Europa League Group Stage 2018-19
*2
2018-19
September 2018 sports events in Europe
October 2018 sports events in Europe
November 2018 sports events in Europe
December 2018 sports events in Europe