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The Europa League format will be drastically different this season as Manchester United aim to win the tournament for only the second time in their history.
After an eighth place finish last year in the Premier League, United fans were trying to come to terms with the fact no European football would be on offer at Old Trafford for the first time since the 2014/2015 season.
Thankfully, this never came to pass as an incredible performance in the FA Cup final against Manchester City saw the side win 2-1 and not only grab the famous old trophy for a 13th time but also qualify for this year’s edition of the Europa League.
The club’s official website has laid out some of the key changes to the format of the competition that fans will need to be aware of during the coming season.
The biggest difference is that the group stages will no longer exist. In the past each team was put in a group of four teams and the objective was to finish in the top two spots to seal qualification to the next round.
There will now be a league format of an expanded 36 teams instead of 32.
“Clubs will still be allocated to four seeding pots, based on their coefficient, and drawn to play two opponents from each pot. They will then play one match against a team from each pot at home, and one away, for a total of eight fixtures,” the club explains.
Therefore, for the first time, group games will not be all done and dusted before Christmas, with the final matchday taking place on the 30th January.
The Red Devils are already secured a spot in pot one this time around but unlike other years, teams will need to play sides who are in the same pot.
They will be joined by clubs such as Eintracht Frankfurt, Lazio, Porto, Roma and Tottenham Hotspur.
Another big change is that “teams finishing in the top eight of the league phase will qualify automatically for the round of 16, while those placed between ninth and 24th will compete in a two-legged play-off for the right to join them.”
This means that should United finish between ninth and 24th but then go on to reach the final, they would need to play a whopping seventeen games to do so (eight group games, one two-legged play off, three more two-legged rounds (R16, QF, SF) and the final). Given the possibility of extra time in the knockout stages, they could end up playing half as many minutes in Europe as they do in the Premier League. A strong and deep squad will be needed more than ever.
Moreover, “all UEFA tournaments are now self-contained after the qualifying rounds, which means the teams finishing 25th and below will be eliminated from European competition.”
In other words, United’s primary objective will be to finish inside the top eight teams in the league format.
United have had a mixed record of late in the Europa League as they won the competition in 2017 under Jose Mourinho beating Andre Onana’s Ajax 2-0 in the final.
Disappointment has since followed as they suffered bitter defeat in the final in 2021 when they lost 11-10 on penalties against Villarreal after a 1-1 draw after extra-time.
Their most recent appearance was in the 2022/23 season where they impressively despatched of Barcelona but would end up exiting 5-2 on a aggregate at the hands of old nemesis Sevilla in the quarter-finals, who fortunately won’t be in the competition this year to end United’s European hopes.
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