The Europa League is a relatively new football tournament involving European clubs. Its first edition took place in the 2009/2010 season after the merger of the previous competitions - the UEFA Cup and Intertoto.

The competition is held with the participation of teams that finished from 5th to 7th place in their local championship and those that have dropped out of the qualifications for the Champions League. The preliminary rounds are held in four phases, in which low-ranked clubs play on an exchange visit.

After screening the best, the group phase begins. 48 teams are divided into 12 groups consisting of six rounds. To teams from each group reach out the elimination phase, which takes place in the spring of next year.

Clubs are paired for each round of the knockout stage, except the finals. Each knockout phase consist of two games at each team's stadium. A game also known as a 'leg', with the group winners hosting the second leg in the Round of 32. The club that has more goals after the two legs advances to the next round.

If the aggregate is even after both games, the rule for away goals is applied. The team that scores more away goals in the two games qualifies for the next round. If goals away from home are also even, there is extra time (an additional 30 minutes).

If the winner is not decided in the extra time, there is a penalty shootout. The club that scores more penalties wins. If still tied after five attempts for each team, they continue until one of the teams scoreс a penalty and the other fails.

The leader with most titles won in the Europa League (i.e. - including the UEFA Cup) is Sevilla. The Spanish club has a total of 5 awards, all of which were won in the new century. After that in the rankings are Liverpool, Inter and Juventus, each of them have 3 trophies and 1 lost final. Atletico Madrid also has 3 cups, but the "colchoneros".

The total number of winners in the European tournament is 28, but all of them are from 11 countries over the years. After the renaming of the competition, there was hegemony from the English and Spanish clubs. Three times representatives from the Island reached the trophy (2 times Chelsea and 1 time Manchester United), while Atletico and Sevilla won the competition three times each. In the 2010/2011 season, an all-Portuguese final took place, which was won by Porto 1-0 against Braga.

Interesting facts:

• Giovanni Trapattoni and Unai Emery have won the tournament 3 times as managers;
• Jose Antonio Reyes has triumphed in the Europa League 5 times (2010, 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2016) with Atletico and Sevilla;
• A total of 17 German clubs have participated in the Europa League era (since 2009);
• Sporting Lisbon has the most seasons in the tournament - a total of 33 (until 2019/2020);
• Club Brugge played 20 times in a row in the period 1996 - 2016;
• Benfica and Espanyol are the only teams to finish the season without a loss, but still do not win the title;
• The undefeated winners of the trophy are Tottenham, Gothenburg, Borussia M’Gladbach, Galatasaray, Feyenoord, Ajax and Chelsea.

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