2014–15 UEFA Europa League
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The 2014–15 UEFA Europa League was the 44th season of
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's secondary club
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tournament organised by
UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...
, and the sixth season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the
UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...
. The
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was played at the
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in
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, Poland, with Spanish side and title holders
Sevilla Seville ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula. Seville ...
defeating Ukrainian side Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk 3–2 to win a record-breaking fourth title. This season was the first where clubs must comply with
UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations The UEFA Financial Sustainability Regulations are a set of regulations established by UEFA to prevent professional football clubs spending more than they earn in the pursuit of success, and in doing so not getting into financial problems which m ...
in order to participate. Moreover, this season was the first where a club from
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competed in the tournament, after the
Gibraltar Football Association The Gibraltar Football Association or also Gibraltar FA (GFA) is the governing body for Gibraltarian football and futsal. It was formed as the ''Gibraltar Civilian Football Association'' in 1895, changing to its current name in later years. It is ...
was accepted as the 54th UEFA member at the
UEFA Congress The UEFA Congress (, ) is the supreme controlling organ of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). UEFA is the administrative body for association football and futsal in Europe, and is one of six continental confederations of world fo ...
in May 2013. They were granted one spot in the Europa League, which was taken by College Europa, the runners-up of the 2014 Rock Cup. Starting from this edition, the UEFA Europa League winners automatically qualify for the subsequent
UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...
season even if they do not qualify for the Champions League through their domestic performance. Therefore, the winners of this tournament qualify for the
2015–16 UEFA Champions League The 2015–16 UEFA Champions League was the 61st season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 24th season since it was renamed from the European Champion Clubs' Cup to the UEFA Champions League. Barcelona were th ...
. They are guaranteed to enter at least the play-off round, and since the group stage berth reserved for the Champions League title holders will not be used (the winners of the
2014–15 UEFA Champions League The 2014–15 UEFA Champions League was the 60th season of Europe's premier club association football, football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 23rd season since it was renamed from the European Champion Clubs' Cup to the UEFA Champions Lea ...
are guaranteed to qualify for the group stage through domestic performance), they will be elevated to enter the group stage via this berth. 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 between the countries. Another ruling centred in regional instability was also made where Israeli teams were prohibited from hosting any UEFA competitions due to the
2014 Israel–Gaza conflict The 2014 Gaza War, also known as Operation Protective Edge (, ), and Battle of the Withered Grain (), was a military operation launched by Israel on 8 July 2014 in the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian territory that has been governed by Hamas since ...
(whilst the ruling ended a short time after the war, all the country's sides were eliminated before it ended). The rules regarding suspension due to yellow card accumulation were also changed such that all bookings expired on completion of the quarter-finals and were not carried forward to the semi-finals. Moreover, this was the first season in which
vanishing spray Vanishing spray, also known as vanishing foam, is a substance applied to an association football pitch in order to provide a temporary visual marker. It is most often used by the referee to indicate the minimum distance that the defending team ...
was used.


Association team allocation

A total of 195 teams from all 54
UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...
member associations participate in the 2014–15 UEFA Europa League. The association ranking based on the
UEFA country 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 (country rankings only), ...
s is used to determine the number of participating teams for each association: *Associations 1–6 each have three teams qualify. *Associations 7–9 each have four teams qualify. *Associations 10–51 (except Liechtenstein) each have three teams qualify. *Associations 52–53 each have two teams qualify. *
Liechtenstein Liechtenstein (, ; ; ), officially the Principality of Liechtenstein ( ), is a Landlocked country#Doubly landlocked, doubly landlocked Swiss Standard German, German-speaking microstate in the Central European Alps, between Austria in the east ...
and
Gibraltar Gibraltar ( , ) is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory and British overseas cities, city located at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Bay of Gibraltar, near the exit of the Mediterranean Sea into the A ...
each have one team qualify (Liechtenstein organises only a domestic cup and no domestic league; Gibraltar as per decision by the UEFA Executive Committee). *The top three associations of the 2013–14
UEFA Respect Fair Play ranking The UEFA Respect Fair Play ranking was used by UEFA from 1995 to the 2015–16 season to grant three berths for the first qualifying round of the UEFA Europa League. Since that time it has granted a monetary prize to winning associations. Qualific ...
each gain an additional berth. *Moreover, 33 teams eliminated from the
2014–15 UEFA Champions League The 2014–15 UEFA Champions League was the 60th season of Europe's premier club association football, football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 23rd season since it was renamed from the European Champion Clubs' Cup to the UEFA Champions Lea ...
are transferred to the Europa League. The winners of the
2013–14 UEFA Europa League The 2013–14 UEFA Europa League was the 43rd season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the fifth season under its current title. The final was played between Sevilla and Benfica at the Juventus Stadium in Tu ...
are given an additional entry as title holders if they do not qualify for the 2014–15 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.


Association ranking

For the 2014–15 UEFA Europa League, the associations are allocated places according to their 2013
UEFA country 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 (country rankings only), ...
s, which takes into account their performance in European competitions from 2008–09 to 2012–13. Apart from the allocation based on the country coefficients, associations may have additional teams participating in the Europa League, as noted below: * – Additional berth via Fair Play ranking (Norway, Sweden, Finland) * – Additional teams transferred from the Champions League


Distribution

Since title holders
Sevilla Seville ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula. Seville ...
qualified for the Europa League through their domestic performance, the spot which they qualified for in the group stage (as the fifth-placed team of the 2013–14 La Liga) is vacated, and the following changes to the default allocation system were made: *The domestic cup winners of association 7 (Ukraine) were promoted from the play-off round to the group stage. *The domestic cup winners of association 16 (Austria) were promoted from the third qualifying round to the play-off round. *The domestic cup winners of association 19 (Israel) were promoted from the second qualifying round to the third qualifying round. *The domestic cup winners of associations 33 and 34 (Finland and Bosnia and Herzegovina) were promoted from the first qualifying round to the second qualifying round.


Redistribution rules

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: *When the domestic cup winners (considered as the "highest-placed" qualifier within the national association with the latest starting round) also qualify for the Champions League, their Europa League place is vacated. As a result, either of the following teams qualify for the Europa League: **The domestic cup runners-up, provided they have not yet qualified for European competitions, qualify for the Europa League as the "lowest-placed" qualifier (with the earliest starting round), with the other Europa League qualifiers moved up one "place" (the 2014–15 season is the last with this particular arrangement). **Otherwise, the highest-placed team in the league which have not yet qualified for European competitions qualify for the Europa League, with the Europa League qualifiers which finish above them in the league moved up one "place". *When the domestic cup winners also qualify for the Europa League through league position, their place through the league position is vacated. As a result, the highest-placed team in the league which have not yet qualified for European competitions qualify for the Europa League, with the Europa League qualifiers which finish above them in the league moved up one "place" if possible. *For associations where a Europa League place is reserved for the League Cup winners, they always qualify for the Europa League as the "lowest-placed" qualifier (or as the second "lowest-placed" qualifier in cases where the cup runners-up qualify as stated above). If the League Cup winners have already qualified for European competitions through other methods, this reserved Europa League place is taken by the highest-placed team in the league which have not yet qualified for European competitions. *A Fair Play place is taken by the highest-ranked team in the domestic Fair Play table which have not yet qualified for European competitions.


Teams

The labels in the parentheses show how each team qualified for the place of its starting round: *TH: Title holders *CW: Cup winners *CR: Cup runners-up *LC: League Cup winners *2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, etc.: League position *P-W: End-of-season European competition play-offs winners *FP: Fair Play *UCL: Transferred from the Champions League **GS: Third-placed teams from the group stage **PO: Losers from the play-off round **Q3: Losers from the third qualifying round Notably three teams take part in the competition that do not currently play in their national top-division. They are Santos Tartu ( 3rd tier), St. Pölten (
2nd A second is the base unit of time in the International System of Units (SI). Second, Seconds, The Second, or (The) 2nd may also refer to: Mathematics * 2 (number), as an ordinal (also written as ''2nd'' or ''2d'') * Minute and second of arc, ...
) and
Tromsø Tromsø is a List of towns and cities in Norway, city in Tromsø Municipality in Troms county, Norway. The city is the administrative centre of the municipality as well as the administrative centre of Troms county. The city is located on the is ...
(
2nd A second is the base unit of time in the International System of Units (SI). Second, Seconds, The Second, or (The) 2nd may also refer to: Mathematics * 2 (number), as an ordinal (also written as ''2nd'' or ''2d'') * Minute and second of arc, ...
). ;Notes


Round and draw dates

The schedule of the competition is as follows (all draws held at UEFA headquarters in
Nyon Nyon (; historically German language, German: or and Italian language, Italian: , ) is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in Nyon District in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Vaud in Switzerland. It is located some 25 kilometer ...
, Switzerland, unless stated otherwise). 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.


Qualifying rounds

In the qualifying rounds and the play-off round, teams were divided into seeded and unseeded teams based on their 2014 UEFA club coefficients, and then drawn into two-legged home-and-away ties. Teams from the same association could not be drawn against each other.


First qualifying round

The draw for the first and second qualifying rounds was held on 23 June 2014.


Second qualifying round


Third qualifying round

The draw for the third qualifying round was held on 18 July 2014.


Play-off round

The draw for the play-off round was held on 8 August 2014.


Group stage

The draw for the group stage was held in
Monaco Monaco, officially the Principality of Monaco, is a Sovereign state, sovereign city-state and European microstates, microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Regions of Italy, Italian region of Liguria, in Western Europe, ...
on 29 August 2014. The 48 teams were allocated into four pots based on their 2014 UEFA club coefficients, with the title holders 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 18 September, 2 October, 23 October (one home match of Metalist Kharkiv played on 22 October), 6 November, 27 November, and 11 December 2014. A total of 26 national associations were represented in the group stage.
VfL Wolfsburg Verein für Leibesübungen Wolfsburg e. V., commonly known as VfL Wolfsburg (), is a German professional sports club based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony. The club grew out of a multi-sports club for Volkswagen workers in the city of Wolfsburg. I ...
,
Torino Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...
,
Feyenoord Feyenoord Rotterdam () is a Netherlands, Dutch professional association football, football club based in Rotterdam, which plays in the Eredivisie, the top tier in Dutch football league system, Dutch football. Founded as Wilhelmina in 1908, the ...
,
Guingamp Guingamp (; ) is a commune in the Côtes-d'Armor department in Brittany in northwestern France. With a population of 7,115 as of 2020, Guingamp is one of the smallest towns in Europe to have a top-tier professional football team: En Avant Guin ...
,
Saint-Étienne Saint-Étienne (; Franco-Provençal: ''Sant-Etiève''), also written St. Etienne, is a city and the prefecture of the Loire département, in eastern-central France, in the Massif Central, southwest of Lyon, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regi ...
, Rio Ave,
Dynamo Moscow MGO VFSO "Dynamo" (), commonly known as Dynamo Moscow (), is a Russian sports club based in Moscow. Founded by Felix Dzerzhinsky on 18 April 1923, Dynamo Moscow was the first institution created from the All-Union Dynamo Sports Club. Dynamo Mosco ...
,
Krasnodar Krasnodar, formerly Yekaterinodar (until 1920), is the largest city and the administrative centre of Krasnodar Krai, Russia. The city stands on the Kuban River in southern Russia, with a population of 1,154,885 residents, and up to 1.263 millio ...
,
Lokeren Lokeren () is a City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality located in the Belgian Provinces of Belgium, province of East Flanders, and belongs to the Waasland, also called ''Land van Waas'', of which it is the second ...
, Asteras Tripolis, Qarabağ, HJK,
Astra Giurgiu Asociația Fotbal Club Astra Giurgiu (), commonly known as Astra Giurgiu or simply Astra, was a Romanian football club last based in the city of Giurgiu, Giurgiu County. Founded in 1921 in Ploiești as ''Clubul Sportiv Astra-Română'', it spe ...
, Dinamo Minsk and AaB made their debut appearances in the UEFA Europa League group stage (not counting UEFA Cup group stage appearances), although VfL Wolfsburg had already competed in the 2009–10 UEFA Europa League knockout phase after a third place in the
2009–10 UEFA Champions League group stage The 2009–10 UEFA Champions League group stage matches took place between 15 September and 9 December 2009. The draw for the eight groups took place on 27 August 2009, at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco. The group stage featured the 22 automatic ...
. 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 a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, w ...
, where they were joined by the eight third-placed teams of the 2014–15 UEFA Champions League group stage. See 2014–15 UEFA Europa League group stage#Tiebreakers for tiebreakers if two or more teams are equal on points. Red Bull Salzburg's 21 goals scored set a new Europa League group stage record.


Group A


Group B


Group C


Group D


Group E


Group F


Group G


Group H


Group I


Group J


Group K


Group L


Knockout phase

In the
knockout phase A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, w ...
, 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 was as follows: *In the draw for the round of 32, the twelve group winners and the four third-placed teams from the Champions League group stage with the better group records were seeded, and the twelve group runners-up and the other four third-placed teams from the Champions League group stage were unseeded. The seeded teams were drawn against the unseeded teams, with the seeded teams hosting the second leg. Teams from the same group or the same association could not be drawn against each other. *In the draws for the round of 16 onwards, there were no seedings, and teams from the same group or the same association could be drawn against each other.


Bracket


Round of 32


Round of 16


Quarter-finals


Semi-finals


Final


Statistics

Statistics exclude qualifying rounds and play-off round.


Top goalscorers


Top assists


Squad of the Season

The UEFA technical study group selected the following 18 players as the squad of the tournament:


See also

*
2014–15 UEFA Champions League The 2014–15 UEFA Champions League was the 60th season of Europe's premier club association football, football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 23rd season since it was renamed from the European Champion Clubs' Cup to the UEFA Champions Lea ...
* 2015 UEFA Super Cup


References


External links


2014–15 UEFA Europa League2014/15 UEFA Europa League season review
{{DEFAULTSORT:Uefa Europa League 2014-15 2 2
2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...