The 2019–20 UEFA Europa League group stage began on 19 September and ended on 12 December 2019.[1] A total of 48 teams competed in the group stage to decide 24 of the 32 places in the knockout phase of the 2019–20 UEFA Europa League.[2]
Draw
The draw for the group stage was held on 30 August 2019, 13:00 CEST, at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco.[3]
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 2019 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 between the countries.[4]
Moreover, for associations with two or more teams, teams were paired in order to split them into two sets of six groups (A–F, G–L) for maximum television coverage. The following pairings were announced by UEFA after the group stage teams were confirmed:[5]
Spain: Sevilla and Espanyol
England: Arsenal and Manchester United
Italy: Roma and Lazio
Germany: Borussia Mönchengladbach and Eintracht Frankfurt
France: Saint-Étienne and Rennes
Russia: CSKA Moscow and Krasnodar
Portugal: Porto and Sporting CP; Braga and Vitória de Guimarães
Ukraine: Dynamo Kyiv and Oleksandriya
Belgium: KAA Gent and Standard Liège
Turkey: Beşiktaş and Trabzonspor
Netherlands: PSV Eindhoven and Feyenoord
Austria: LASK and Wolfsberger AC
Switzerland: Basel and Young Boys
Scotland: Celtic and Rangers
On each matchday, one set of six groups play their matches at 18:55 CET/CEST, while the other set of six groups play their matches at 21:00 CET/CEST, with the two sets of groups alternating between each matchday. The fixtures were decided after the draw, using a computer draw not shown to public, with the following match sequence (Regulations Article 15.02):[2]
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.
Group stage schedule
Matchday
Date
Matches
Matchday 1
19 September 2019
2 v 3, 4 v 1
Matchday 2
3 October 2019
1 v 2, 3 v 4
Matchday 3
24 October 2019
3 v 1, 2 v 4
Matchday 4
6–7 November 2019
1 v 3, 4 v 2
Matchday 5
28 November 2019
3 v 2, 1 v 4
Matchday 6
12 December 2019
2 v 1, 4 v 3
There were scheduling restrictions: for example, teams from the same city (e.g. Lazio and Roma) 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 2019 UEFA club coefficients),[6] grouped by their seeding pot. They included:
CL-CP Losers of Champions League play-off round (Champions Path).
CL-LP Losers of Champions League play-off round (League Path).
CL-LQ Losers of Champions League third qualifying round (League Path).
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, 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):[2]
Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Away goals 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);
The matchdays were 19 September, 3 October, 24 October, 7 November, 28 November, and 12 December 2019.[1] The scheduled kickoff times were 18:55 and 21:00 CET/CEST, with possible exceptions at 16:50 CET/CEST due to geographical reasons.
Times are CET/CEST,[note 1] as listed by UEFA (local times, if different, are in parentheses).
^CEST (UTC+2) for dates up to 26 October 2019 (matchdays 1–3), and CET (UTC+1) for dates thereafter (matchdays 4–6).
^ abcQarabağ played their home matches at Tofiq Bahramov Republican Stadium, Baku, instead of their regular stadium Azersun Arena, Baku.
^ abcF91 Dudelange played their home matches at Stade Josy Barthel, Luxembourg City, instead of their regular stadium Stade Jos Nosbaum, Dudelange.
^ abcLugano played their home matches at Kybunpark, St. Gallen, instead of their regular stadium Cornaredo Stadium, Lugano, which did not meet UEFA requirements.[21]
^ abcLASK played their home matches at Linzer Stadion, Linz, instead of their regular stadium Waldstadion, Pasching.
^ abcVitória de Guimarães' home matches were initially scheduled on Wednesdays at 16:50 CET/CEST, pending confirmation, due to security concerns related to scheduling conflicts with Braga's home matches. On 4 September 2019, the Vitória de Guimarães v Eintracht Frankfurt match was rescheduled to 3 October 2019, 21:00 CEST, after a "risk reassessment by the security forces".[70] On 11 September 2019, the Vitória de Guimarães v Arsenal match was refused rescheduling to 7 November 2019, 18:55 CET, in order to avoid a scheduling conflict with the Braga v Beşiktaş match.[71]
^ abcOleksandriya played their home matches at Arena Lviv, Lviv, instead of their regular stadium CSC Nika Stadium, Oleksandriia, which did not meet UEFA requirements.[108]
^ abcWolfsberger AC played their home matches at Liebenauer Stadium, Graz, instead of their regular stadium Lavanttal-Arena, Wolfsberg.
^ abThe match was supposed to play behind closed doors due to UEFA punishment, but Slovan Bratislava used the UEFA regulation, which allows children under 14 years old to visit.
^ abPartizan was supposed to play two matches behind closed doors, for the racist behaviour of its supporters against Yeni Malatyaspor at the third qualifying round.[144] However, new regulations allowed little fans in their match against AZ.[145] Apparently the sanction was not imposed either in the match against Manchester United.
^ abcAZ played their home matches at Cars Jeans Stadion, The Hague, instead of their regular stadium AFAS Stadion, Alkmaar due to its roof collapse.[148]
Note: Between the 1999–2000 and 2008–09 seasons, the competition was still known as the UEFA Cup. All seasons are included following the competition's absorption of the Cup Winners' Cup.
