The 2015–16 UEFA Europa League knockout phase began on 16 February and concluded on 18 May 2016 with the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

St. Jakob-Park St. Jakob-Park () is a Swiss sports stadium in Basel. It is the largest football venue in Switzerland and home to FC Basel. "Joggeli", as the venue is nicknamed by the locals, was originally built with a capacity of 33,433 seats. The capacity w ...

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

, Switzerland, to decide the champions of the

2015–16 UEFA Europa League The 2015–16 UEFA Europa League was the 45th season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the seventh season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League. The final was played between Liverpoo ...

. A total of 32 teams competed in the knockout phase. Times up to 26 March 2016 (round of 32 and round of 16) were

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(

UTC+1 +01:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +01:00. In ISO 8601, the associated time would be written as 2019-02-07T23:28:34+01:00. This time is used in: *Central European Time * West Africa Time * Western European Summer Time **Brit ...

), thereafter (quarter-finals and beyond) times were CEST (

UTC+2 UTC+02:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +02:00. In ISO 8601, the associated time would be written as 2020-11-08T23:41:45+02:00. As standard time (year-round) Principal cities: Pretoria, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban, Por ...

Round and draw dates

All draws were held at UEFA headquarters in

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. Matches may have also been played on Tuesdays or Wednesdays instead of the regular Thursdays due to scheduling conflicts.

Format

The knockout phase involved 32 teams: the 24 teams which qualified as winners and runners-up of each of the twelve groups in the

group stage A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...

, and the eight third-placed teams from the Champions League group stage. Each tie 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 ...

, apart from the final, was played over two legs, with each team playing one leg at home. The team that scored more goals on aggregate over the two legs advanced to the next round. If the aggregate score was level, the

away goals rule 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 ...

would be applied, i.e. the team that scored more goals away from home over the two legs advanced. If away goals were also equal, then thirty minutes of

extra time Overtime (OT) or extra time (ET) is an additional period of play to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played only if the game is required t ...

would be played. The away goals rule would be again applied after extra time, i.e. if there were goals scored during extra time and the aggregate score was still level, the visiting team would advance by virtue of more away goals scored. If no goals were scored during extra time, the tie would be decided by

penalty shoot-out The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

. In the final, which was played as a single match, if scores were level at the end of normal time, extra time would be played, followed by penalty shoot-out if scores remained tied. 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. 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

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between the countries.

Qualified teams

Europa League group stage winners and runners-up

Champions League group stage third-placed teams

Bracket

Round of 32

The draw was held on 14 December 2015. The first legs were played on 16 and 18 February, and the second legs were played on 24 and 25 February 2016.

Summary

Matches

''Valencia won 10–0 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Tottenham Hotspur won 4–1 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Borussia Dortmund won 3–0 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Fenerbahçe won 3–1 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Anderlecht won 3–1 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Manchester United won 6–3 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Liverpool won 1–0 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Sparta Prague won 4–0 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Lazio won 4–2 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Braga won 4–3 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Shakhtar Donetsk won 3–0 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Athletic Bilbao won 2–1 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Sevilla won 3–1 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Bayer Leverkusen won 4–1 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Villarreal won 2–1 on aggregate.'' ---- ''4–4 on aggregate; Basel won on away goals.''

Round of 16

The draw was held on 26 February 2016. The first legs were played on 10 March, and the second legs were played on 17 March 2016.

Summary

Matches

''Shakhtar Donetsk won 4–1 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Sevilla won 3–0 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Villarreal won 2–0 on aggregate.'' ---- ''2–2 on aggregate; Athletic Bilbao won on away goals.'' ---- ''Liverpool won 3–1 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Sparta Prague won 4–1 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Borussia Dortmund won 5–1 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Braga won 4–2 on aggregate.''

Quarter-finals

The draw was held on 18 March 2016. The first legs were played on 7 April, and the second legs were played on 14 April 2016.

Summary

Matches

''Shakhtar Donetsk won 6–1 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Villarreal won 6–3 on aggregate.'' ---- ''3–3 on aggregate; Sevilla won 5–4 on penalties.'' ---- ''Liverpool won 5–4 on aggregate.''

Semi-finals

The draw was held on 15 April 2016. The first legs were played on 28 April, and the second legs were played on 5 May 2016.

Summary

Matches

''Sevilla won 5–3 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Liverpool won 3–1 on aggregate.''

Final

The final was played on 18 May 2016 at the

, Switzerland. The "home" team (for administrative purposes) was determined by an additional draw held after the semi-final draw.

Notes

References

External links

2015–16 UEFA Europa League
{{DEFAULTSORT:2015-16 Uefa Europa League Knockout Phase *3 UEFA Europa League knockout phases