Sporting CP Archives

Europa League – Best of the Rest – Round of 32 (Leg 1)

February 15, 2019February 11, 2019 by Robert

With 16 matchups in the Europa League’s Round of 32, we simply couldn’t write about them all. We did write about eight of the most compelling matchups, either because one of the clubs is a favorite to make it all the way to Baku, or because both clubs have about an equal chance to reach the next round and a small chance to make it all the way themselves.

Here’s the list with links to previews of those eight matchups:

As for the other eight matchups, here’s a brief look at each of those matches, including the favored club for the Round of 32 (according to FiveThirtyEight). Depending on how the first match goes this week, we may cover these eight matches a little more in depth next week.

Europa League – Round of 32 Draw

December 19, 2018 by Robert

Europa League is taking a break until February now that the group stage is complete. But before it does, they needed to determine the pairings for the next round of matches.

The draw took place on 17 December at UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland. The knockout phase in Europa features 16 more clubs than Champions League, and another round, so they’ll be playing (nearly) weekly matches once play resumes on 14 February.

As a reminder, here’s how the twelve groups were settled during group play:

Group	Winners (seeded in draw)	Runners-up (unseeded in draw)
A	Bayer Leverkusen (GER)	Zürich (SUI)
B	Red Bull Salzburg (AUT)	Celtic (SCO)
C	Zenit Saint Petersburg (RUS)	Slavia Prague (CZE)
D	Dinamo Zagreb (CRO)	Fenerbahçe (TUR)
E	Arsenal (ENG)	Sporting CP (POR)
F	Real Betis (ESP)	Olympiacos (GRE)
G	Villarreal (ESP)	Rapid Wien (AUT)
H	Eintracht Frankfurt (GER)	Lazio (ITA)
I	Genk (BEL)	Malmö FF (SWE)
J	Sevilla (ESP)	Krasnodar (RUS)
K	Dynamo Kyiv (UKR)	Rennes (FRA)
L	Chelsea (ENG)	BATE Borisov (BLR)

Europa League – Matchday 6 Scenarios (Part 1)

December 13, 2018December 13, 2018 by Robert

The final day of the Europa League group stage is here, and we have five of the 12 groups unsettled at the top, with three groups that are still looking for both participants in the knockout phase. 23 clubs enter Matchday 6 playing for 11 remaining spots, attempting to join the 13 clubs – Arsenal, Chelsea, Zenit Saint Petersburg, Dynamo Kyiv, Red Bull Salzburg, Lazio, Sporting CP, Fenerbahce, Real Betis, Dinamo Zagreb, Eintracht Frankfurt, and Zurich – that have already clinched advancement.

Why Winning the Group Matters

For the groups still left to be completely decided, it is in the clubs’ best interest to finish in first place if possible. As a refresher, the knockout phase of Europa League features the first and second place clubs from each of the 12 groups – plus the eight third-place teams from Champions League. Clubs are drawn against each other for two legs (with clubs from the same association unable to face each other), with the group winners and the top four third-place teams seeded for the draw.