The 2017–18 UEFA Europa League group stage began on 14 September and ended on 7 December 2017. A total of 48 teams competed in the group stage to decide 24 of the 32 places in the knockout phase of the 2017–18 UEFA Europa League.
Draw The draw for the group stage was held on 25 August 2017, 13:00 CEST, at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco.
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 2017 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.
Moreover, the draw was controlled for teams from the same association in order to split the teams evenly into the two sets of four groups (A–F, G–L) for maximum television coverage. On each matchday, one set of six groups played their matches at 19:00 CEST/CET, while the other set of six groups played their matches at 21:05 CEST/CET, 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):
MatchdayMatchesMatchday 12 v 3, 4 v 1Matchday 21 v 2, 3 v 4Matchday 33 v 1, 2 v 4Matchday 41 v 3, 4 v 2Matchday 53 v 2, 1 v 4Matchday 62 v 1, 4 v 3
There were certain scheduling restrictions: for example, teams from the same city in general were not scheduled to play at home on the same matchday (to avoid teams from the same city playing at home on the same day, due to logistics and crowd control), and teams in certain countries (e.g., Russia) were not scheduled to play at home on the last matchday (due to cold weather and simultaneous kick-off times).
Teams Below were the participating teams (with their 2017 UEFA club coefficients), grouped by their seeding pot. They included 16 teams which entered in this stage, the 22 winners of the play-off round, and the 10 losers of the Champions League play-off round (5 in Champions Route, 5 in League Route).
Key to coloursGroup winners and runners-up advanced to the round of 32
+Pot 1TeamNotes Arsenal 105.192 Zenit Saint Petersburg 87.106 Lyon 68.833 Dynamo Kyiv 67.526 Villarreal 64.999 Athletic Bilbao 60.999 Lazio 56.666 Milan 47.666 Viktoria Plzeň 40.635 Red Bull Salzburg 40.570 Copenhagen 37.800 Braga 37.366 +Pot 2TeamNotes FCSB 35.370 Ludogorets Razgrad 34.175 BATE Borisov 29.475 Everton 29.192 Young Boys 28.915 Marseille 28.333 Real Sociedad 27.499 Maccabi Tel Aviv 23.375 Lokomotiv Moscow 20.606 Austria Wien 17.070 Hertha BSC 16.899 Nice 16.833 +Pot 3TeamNotes Astana 16.800 Partizan 16.075 TSG Hoffenheim 15.899 1. FC Köln 15.899 Rijeka 15.550 Vitória de Guimarães 14.866 Atalanta 14.666 Zulte Waregem 14.480 Zorya Luhansk 13.526 Rosenborg 12.665 Sheriff Tiraspol 11.150 Hapoel Be'er Sheva 10.875 +Pot 4TeamNotes Apollon Limassol 10.710 İstanbul Başakşehir 10.340 Konyaspor 9.840 Vitesse 9.212 Slavia Prague 8.135 Red Star Belgrade 7.325 Skënderbeu 6.825 Fastav Zlín 6.635 AEK Athens 6.580 Lugano 6.415 Vardar 5.125 Östersunds FK 3.945 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, 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 in head-to-head matches among tied teams; 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); UEFA club coefficient.
Groups The matchdays were 14 September, 28 September, 19 October, 2 November, 23 November, and 7 December 2017. The match kickoff times were 19:00 and 21:05 CEST/CET in general, except for certain matches for geographical reasons.
Times up to 28 October 2017 (matchdays 1–3) were CEST (UTC+2), thereafter (matchdays 4–6) times were CET (UTC+1).
Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Group E
Group F
Group G
Group H
Group I
Group J
Group K
Group L
Notes
References
External links UEFA Europa League (official website) UEFA Europa League history: 2017/18