Goals scored 521 | Dates 20 Sep 2012 – 15 May 2013 Attendance 4,174,756 Matches played 205 | |
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Teams 48+8 (competition proper)161+32 (total) (from 53 associations) Similar |
The 2012–13 UEFA Europa League was the 42nd season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 4th season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League.
Contents
- Association team allocation
- Association ranking
- Distribution
- Redistribution rules
- Teams
- Round and draw dates
- Qualifying rounds
- First qualifying round
- Second qualifying round
- Third qualifying round
- Play off round
- Group stage
- Knockout phase
- Round of 32
- Round of 16
- Quarter finals
- Semi finals
- Final
- Statistics
- References
The final was played at the Amsterdam Arena in Amsterdam, Netherlands. It was contested on 15 May 2013 between Portuguese club Benfica and English club Chelsea, who entered the competition at the Round of 32 after they finished in third place in the group stage of the 2012–13 Champions League. Chelsea won the final 2–1 for their first Europa League title, making them the fourth club – after Juventus, Ajax and Bayern Munich – to have won the three major UEFA club titles (Champions League, Europa League and Cup Winners' Cup).
For the 2012–13 edition, the following changes were made from the 2011–12 edition:
Atlético Madrid were the defending champions, but were eliminated by Rubin Kazan in the Round of 32.
Association team allocation
A total of 193 teams from 53 UEFA member associations participate in the 2012–13 UEFA Europa League. The association ranking based on the UEFA country coefficients is used to determine the number of participating teams for each association:
The winners of the 2011–12 UEFA Europa League are given an additional entry as title holders if they do not qualify for the 2012–13 UEFA Champions League or Europa League through their domestic performance. However, this additional entry is not necessary for this season since the title holders qualified for European competitions through their domestic performance.
Association ranking
For the 2012–13 UEFA Europa League, the associations are allocated places according to their 2011 UEFA country coefficients, which takes into account their performance in European competitions from 2006–07 to 2010–11.
Distribution
Due to the following reasons, changes to the default allocation system had to be made:
The following changes to the default allocation system were made to compensate for these vacated spots:
Redistribution rules
A Europa League place is vacated when a team qualifies for both the Champions League and the Europa League, or qualifies for the Europa League by more than one method. When a place is vacated, it is redistributed within the national association by the following rules:
Teams
The labels in the parentheses show how each team qualified for the place of its starting round:
Round and draw dates
All draws are held at UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland unless stated otherwise.
Matches in the qualifying, play-off, and knockout rounds may also be played on Tuesdays or Wednesdays instead of the regular Thursdays due to scheduling conflicts.
Qualifying rounds
In the qualifying rounds and the play-off round, teams were divided into seeded and unseeded teams based on their 2012 UEFA club coefficients, and then drawn into two-legged home-and-away ties. Teams from the same association could not be drawn against each other.
First qualifying round
The draws for the first and second qualifying rounds were held on 25 June 2012. The first legs were played on 3 and 5 July, and the second legs were played on 10 and 12 July 2012.
Second qualifying round
The first legs were played on 19 July, and the second legs were played on 26 July 2012.
Third qualifying round
The draw for the third qualifying rounds was held on 20 July 2012. The first legs were played on 2 August, and the second legs were played on 9 August 2012.
Play-off round
The draw for the play-off round was held on 10 August 2012. The first legs were played on 22 and 23 August, and the second legs were played on 28 and 30 August 2012.
Group stage
The draw for the group stage was held in Monaco on 31 August 2012. The 48 teams were allocated into four pots based on their 2012 UEFA club coefficients, with the title holders, Atlético Madrid, being placed in Pot 1 automatically. They were drawn into twelve groups of four, with the restriction that teams from the same association could not be drawn against each other.
In each group, teams played against each other home-and-away in a round-robin format. The matchdays were 20 September, 4 October, 25 October, 8 November, 22 November, and 6 December 2012. The group winners and runners-up advanced to the round of 32, where they were joined by the eight third-placed teams from the 2012–13 UEFA Champions League group stage.
A total of 25 national associations were represented in the group stage.
See here for tiebreakers if two or more teams are equal on points.
Knockout phase
In the knockout phase, teams played against each other over two legs on a home-and-away basis, except for the one-match final. The mechanism of the draws for each round is as follows:
Round of 32
The draws for the round of 32 and round of 16 were held on 20 December 2012. The first legs were played on 14 February, and the second legs were played on 21 February 2013.
Round of 16
The first legs were played on 7 March, and the second legs were played on 14 March 2013.
Quarter-finals
The draw for the quarter-finals was held on 15 March 2013. The first legs were played on 4 April, and the second legs were played on 11 April 2013.
Semi-finals
The draw for the semi-finals and final (to determine the "home" team for administrative purposes) was held on 12 April 2013. The first legs were played on 25 April, and the second legs were played on 2 May 2013.
Final
The final was played on 15 May 2013 at the Amsterdam Arena in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Statistics
Statistics exclude qualifying rounds and play-off round.