UEFA Europa League 2020-21 Champions, matches and facts

UEFA Europa League 2020-21 was the 50th season of Europe’s secondary club football tournament organized by UEFA, and the 12th season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League.
Villarreal triumphed over Manchester United in the final held at Stadion Gdańsk in Gdańsk, Poland, with a 1–1 draw after extra time and an 11–10 victory on penalties, marking their first win in the competition’s history. This victory secured Villarreal a place in the 2021–22 UEFA Champions League group stage and a spot in the 2021 UEFA Super Cup. Originally, the stadium was set to host the 2020 UEFA Europa League Final, but the event was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
As the Europa League champions, Sevilla earned a spot in the 2020–21 UEFA Champions League, though they had already qualified based on their league performance. They couldn’t defend their title as they progressed to the Champions League knockout stage but were eliminated by Borussia Dortmund in the round of 16.

Champions: Villarreal (1st title)
Runners-Up: Manchester United
Player of the Season: Gerard Moreno

UEFA Europa League 2020-21 Group stage
Group A

Position	Team	Played	Win	Draw	Loss	GF	GA	GD	Points
1. Qualified	Roma	6	4	1	1	13	5	+8	13
2. Qualified	Young Boys	6	3	1	2	9	7	+2	10
3	CFR Cluj	6	1	2	3	4	10	−6	5
4	CSKA Sofia	6	1	2	3	3	7	−4	5

Note: Head-to-head points: CFR Cluj 4, CSKA Sofia 1.
Group B

Position	Team	Played	Win	Draw	Loss	GF	GA	GD	Points
1. Qualified	Arsenal	6	6	0	0	20	5	+15	18
2. Qualified	Molde	6	3	1	2	9	11	−2	10
3	Rapid Wien	6	2	1	3	11	13	−2	7
4	Dundalk	6	0	0	6	8	19	−11	0

Group C

Position	Team	Played	Win	Draw	Loss	GF	GA	GD	Points
1. Qualified	Bayer Leverkusen	6	5	0	1	21	8	+13	15
2. Qualified	Slavia Prague	6	4	0	2	11	10	+1	12
3	Hapoel Be'er Sheva	6	2	0	4	7	13	−6	6
4	Nice	6	1	0	5	8	16	−8	3

Group D

Position	Team	Played	Win	Draw	Loss	GF	GA	GD	Points
1. Qualified	Rangers	6	4	2	0	13	7	+6	14
2. Qualified	Benfica	6	3	3	0	18	9	+9	12
3	Standard Liège	6	1	1	4	7	14	−7	4
4	Lech Poznań	6	1	0	5	6	14	−8	3

Group E

Position	Team	Played	Win	Draw	Loss	GF	GA	GD	Points
1. Qualified	PSV Eindhoven	6	4	0	2	12	9	+3	12
2. Qualified	Granada	6	3	2	1	6	3	+3	11
3	PAOK	6	1	3	2	8	7	+1	6
4	Omonia	6	1	1	4	5	12	−7	4

Group F

Position	Team	Played	Win	Draw	Loss	GF	GA	GD	Points
1. Qualified	Napoli	6	3	2	1	7	4	+3	11
2. Qualified	Real Sociedad	6	2	3	1	5	4	+1	9
3	AZ	6	2	2	2	7	5	+2	8
4	Rijeka	6	1	1	4	6	12	−6	4

Group G

Position	Team	Played	Win	Draw	Loss	GF	GA	GD	Points
1. Qualified	Leicester City	6	4	1	1	14	5	+9	13
2. Qualified	Braga	6	4	1	1	14	10	+4	13
3	Zorya Luhansk	6	2	0	4	6	11	−5	6
4	AEK Athens	6	1	0	5	7	15	−8	3

Note: Head-to-head points: Leicester City 4, Braga 1.
Group H

Position	Team	Played	Win	Draw	Loss	GF	GA	GD	Points
1. Qualified	AC Milan	6	4	1	1	12	7	+5	13
2. Qualified	Lille	6	3	2	1	14	8	+6	11
3	Sparta Prague	6	2	0	4	10	12	−2	6
4	Celtic	6	1	1	4	10	19	−9	4

Group I

Position	Team	Played	Win	Draw	Loss	GF	GA	GD	Points
1. Qualified	Villarreal	6	5	1	0	17	5	+12	16
2. Qualified	Maccabi Tel Aviv	6	3	2	1	6	7	−1	11
3	Sivasspor	6	2	0	4	9	11	−2	6
4	Qarabağ	6	0	1	5	4	13	−9	1

Note: The Villarreal v Qarabağ match was awarded as a 3–0 win to Villarreal after being cancelled as several players of the Qarabağ squad tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2.
Group J

Position	Team	Played	Win	Draw	Loss	GF	GA	GD	Points
1. Qualified	Tottenham Hotspur	6	4	1	1	15	5	+10	13
2. Qualified	Antwerp	6	4	0	2	8	5	+3	12
3	LASK	6	3	1	2	11	12	−1	10
4	Ludogorets Razgrad	6	0	0	6	7	19	−12	0

Group K

Position	Team	Played	Win	Draw	Loss	GF	GA	GD	Points
1. Qualified	Dinamo Zagreb	6	4	2	0	9	1	+8	14
2. Qualified	Wolfsberger AC	6	3	1	2	7	6	+1	10
3	Feyenoord	6	1	2	3	4	8	−4	5
4	CSKA Moscow	6	0	3	3	3	8	−5	3

Group L

Position	Team	Played	Win	Draw	Loss	GF	GA	GD	Points
1. Qualified	1899 Hoffenheim	6	5	1	0	17	2	+15	16
2. Qualified	Red Star Belgrade	6	3	2	1	9	4	+5	11
3	Slovan Liberec	6	2	1	3	4	13	−9	7
4	Gent	6	0	0	6	4	15	−11	0

UEFA Europa League 2020-21 Round of 32

Team 1	Aggregate	Team 2	1st Leg	2nd Leg
Wolfsberger AC	1–8	Tottenham Hotspur	1–4	0–4
Dynamo Kyiv	2–1	Club Brugge	1–1	1–0
Real Sociedad	0–4	Manchester United	0–4	0–0
Benfica	3–4	Arsenal	1–1	2–3
Red Star Belgrade	3–3 (away goal)	AC Milan	2–2	1–1
Antwerp	5–9	Rangers	3–4	2–5
Slavia Prague	2–0	Leicester City	0–0	2–0
Red Bull Salzburg	1–4	Villarreal	0–2	1–2
Braga	1–5	AS Roma	0–2	1–3
Krasnodar	2–4	Dinamo Zagreb	2–3	0–1
Young Boys	6–3	Bayer Leverkusen	4–3	2–0
Molde	5–3	1899 Hoffenheim	3–3	2–0
Granada	3–2	Napoli	2–0	1–2
Maccabi Tel Aviv	0–3	Shakhtar Donetsk	0–2	0–1
Lille	2–4	Ajax	1–2	1–2
Olympiacos	5–4	PSV Eindhoven	4–2	1–2

UEFA Europa League 2020-21 Round of 16

Team 1	Aggregate	Team 2	1st Leg	2nd Leg
Ajax	5–0	Young Boys	3–0	2–0
Dynamo Kyiv	0–4	Villarreal	0–2	0–2
AS Roma	5–1	Shakhtar Donetsk	3–0	2–1
Olympiacos	2–3	Arsenal	1–3	1–0
Tottenham Hotspur	2–3	Dinamo Zagreb	2–0	0–3 (a.e.t.)
Manchester United	2–1	AC Milan	1–1	1–0
Slavia Prague	3–1	Rangers	1–1	2–0
Granada	3–2	Molde	2–0	1–2

Note: Order of legs between Tottenham Hotspur and Dinamo Zagreb were reversed after original draw, in order to avoid a scheduling conflict with the Arsenal v Olympiacos second leg in the same city on 18 March, as Arsenal were the domestic cup winners and given higher priority over Tottenham Hotspur.

UEFA Europa League 2020-21 Quarter finals

Team 1	Aggregate	Team 2	1st Leg	2nd Leg
Granada	0–4	Manchester United	0–2	0–2
Arsenal	5–1	Slavia Prague	1–1	4–0
Ajax	2–3	AS Roma	1–2	1–1
Dinamo Zagreb	1–3	Villarreal	0–1	1–2

UEFA Europa League 2020-21 Semi finals

Team 1	Aggregate	Team 2	1st Leg	2nd Leg
Manchester United	8–5	AS Roma	6–2	2–3
Villarreal	2–1	Arsenal	2–1	0–0

UEFA Europa League 2020-21 Final match
26 May 2021 21:00 CEST, Gdańsk Stadium, Gdańsk

Villarreal	1 – 1 (a.e.t.)	Manchester United
Gerard Moreno 29′		Edinson Cavani 55′
G. Moreno Raba Alcácer A. Moreno Parejo Gómez Albiol Coquelin Gaspar Torres Rulli	Penalties 11 – 10	Mata Telles Fernandes Rashford Cavani Fred James Shaw Tuanzebe Lindelöf De Gea

UEFA Europa League 2020-21 top goal scorers

Rank	Player	Team	Goals
1	Pizzi	Benfica	7
2	Yusuf Yazıcı	Lille	7
3	Borja Mayoral	AS Roma	7
4	Gerard Moreno	Villarreal	7
5	Edinson Cavani	Manchester United	6
6	Mu'nas Dabbur	1899 Hoffenheim	6
7	Carlos Vinícius	Tottenham Hotspur	6
8	Paco Alcácer	Villarreal	6
9	Edin Džeko	AS Roma	6
10	Nicolas Pépé	Arsenal	6
11	Mislav Oršić	Dinamo Zagreb	6

UEFA Europa League 2020-21 most assist provider list

Rank	Player	Club	Assist
1	Galeno	Braga	5
2	Samuel Chukwueze	Villarreal	5
3	Gerard Moreno	Villarreal	5
4	Joe Willock	Arsenal	4
5	Lior Refaelov	Antwerp	4
6	Alfredo Morelos	Rangers	4
7	Bruno Fernandes	Manchester United	4
8	Magnus Wolff Eikrem	Molde	4
9	Nicolas Pépé	Arsenal	4
10	Lovro Majer	Dinamo Zagreb	4

UEFA Europa League 2020-21 squad of the season
The UEFA technical study group selected the following 23 players as the squad of the tournament.

Position	Player	Club
Goalkeeper	Dominik Livaković	Dinamo Zagreb
Goalkeeper	Pau López	AS Roma
Goalkeeper	Gerónimo Rulli	Villarreal
Defender	Raúl Albiol	Villarreal
Defender	Harry Maguire	Manchester United
Defender	Aaron Wan-Bissaka	Manchester United
Defender	Gianluca Mancini	AS Roma
Defender	Leonardo Spinazzola	AS Roma
Defender	Alfonso Pedraza	Villarreal
Defender	Pau Torres	Villarreal
Midfielder	Bruno Fernandes	Manchester United
Midfielder	Dani Parejo	Villarreal
Midfielder	Lorenzo Pellegrini	AS Roma
Midfielder	Paul Pogba	Manchester United
Midfielder	Étienne Capoue	Villarreal
Midfielder	Mislav Oršić	Dinamo Zagreb
Midfielder	Lukáš Provod	Slavia Prague
Midfielder	Scott McTominay	Manchester United
Forward	Gerard Moreno	Villarreal
Forward	Edinson Cavani	Manchester United
Forward	Dušan Tadić	Ajax
Forward	Edin Džeko	AS Roma
Forward	Nicolas Pépé	Arsenal

Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe, the following special rules were applicable to the competition
– If there were travel restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic that prevented the away team from entering the home team’s country or returning to their own country, the match could be played at a neutral country or the away team’s country that allowed the match to take place.
– If a team refused to play or was considered responsible for a match not taking place, they were considered to have forfeited the match. If both teams refused to play or were considered responsible for a match not taking place, both teams were disqualified.
– If a team had players and/or officials tested positive for SARS-2 coronavirus preventing them from playing the match before the deadline set by UEFA, they were considered to have forfeited the match.

On 24 September 2020, UEFA announced that starting from the group stage, teams would be allowed five substitutions per match, with a sixth substitution permitted during extra time. However, teams could only stop the game three times to make substitutions, with a fourth opportunity in extra time. This rule did not count substitutions made at half-time, before extra time, or at half-time in extra time. Consequently, a maximum of twelve players could be listed on the substitute bench.
All qualifying matches were played without spectators. However, following the partial return of fans at the 2020 UEFA Super Cup, UEFA announced on 1 October 2020 that matches from the group stage onward could be played at 30% capacity if local authorities permitted. Although video assistant referees (VAR) were planned to be introduced for the group stage, their use was postponed to the 2021–22 season; they were still used in the knockout phase.