New Delhi: Top clubs from around Europe are set to compete in Europa League 2024/25 campaign. Few of the best European teams compete in this competition as this season’s campaign involves few of the most exciting European clubs including the likes of Manchester United, Lyon, Tottenham Hotspur, Ajax and many more. Europa League pots for this season were decided a while back and it suggested that we might get to see a few big fixtures ahead.
The pots are confirmed ✅#UELdraw pic.twitter.com/1mEmoRETrM
— UEFA Europa League (@EuropaLeague) August 30, 2024
Last season we witnessed a few big upsets, big drama, and some shocking results, eventually leading to the final between Atalanta and Bayer Leverkusen. Xabi Alonso’s Leverkusen headed into the final with a hundred percent record, losing zero matches throughout the campaign. Many considered them to be the clear favourites to lift the trophy but the team from Bergamo produced the shock of the season as an Ademola Lookman hattrick helped Gasperini’s side lift the UEL title.
Before the 2024–2025 season, the competition saw a significant makeover, going from 32 to 36 teams and adopting a “Swiss-style” league structure in place of the group stage format that everyone had grown accustomed to. With this expansion, the tournament’s already long 125 games will now total a massive 189 matches.
All 36 teams will play eight games in the league stage of the Europa League against eight distinct opponents that were selected for them in the draw with the aid of artificial intelligence (AI) software, which will also decide whether the games will be played at home or away. Following the league round, the top eight teams move directly to the knockout stages, while the teams that finished between 9 and 24 face off against one another to go to the next round.
Europa League 2024/25: League phase draws
The draw’s rules were pretty much straightforward. The 36 teams are split into four pots of nine each based on their seeding. Every team will play eight different opponents, four home games and four away, and will face two teams from each pot, one at home and one away. Every team is prohibited from playing against domestic rivals and is limited to playing against no more than two clubs from the same nation.
The first pot started off disclosing the fixtures for Rangers as they were the first team that got picked as thw ceremony proceeded further. However, as the draw proceeded further, some interesting fixtures were revealed in the first pot as the Daniele De Rossi’s Roma side will take on the English side Tottenham Hotspurs. Furthermore, there were a few interesting fixtures including the likes of Porto vs Manchester United, Ajax vs Galatasaray and Frankfurt facing Roma.
✅ Home and away opponents for Pot 1 teams 🏡✈️#UELdraw pic.twitter.com/RCjsL46sCn
— UEFA Europa League (@EuropaLeague) August 30, 2024
The second pot produced some further interesting draws as that also included a few great fixtures, where the Laliga side Real Soceidad face two time Europa League finalists Roma which has the potential to be a major clash. Lyon and Frankfurt will also be facing each other in a classic, which has the potential to be a very exciting match. Fenerbahce facing Manchester United will be another clash that could prove out to be a big game.
✅ Home and away opponents for Pot 2 teams 🏡✈️#UELdraw pic.twitter.com/WGblhkICbJ
— UEFA Europa League (@EuropaLeague) August 30, 2024
Galatasaray facing off against Tottenham Hotspurs would certainly light up the draw after it was confirmed in the draw of third pot that the Turkish fans will be welcoming the English side Spurs at RAMS Park. Dinamo Kyiv will have a tough competiton facing two Italian sides Roma and Lazio.
✅ Home and away opponents for Pot 3 teams 🏡✈️#UELdraw pic.twitter.com/8FhxJuwvkp
— UEFA Europa League (@EuropaLeague) August 30, 2024
Besiktas will go on to face Frankfurt after the pot four was revealed. An interesting fixture would involve Hoffenheim going head to head against Tottenham while they also face Porto and Lyon as their future fixtures. OGC Nice were a part of the fourth pot and they will be facing Lazio and Real Soceidad, which suggest that the final pot did produce some great fixtures too.
✅ Home and away opponents for Pot 4 teams 🏡✈️#UELdraw pic.twitter.com/jL6rKGsSGT
— UEFA Europa League (@EuropaLeague) August 30, 2024
The Europa League Draws have been finalised and there have been some good fixtures that have brewed up for this season’s Europa League. Football Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
