2017–18 UEFA Europa League group stage

The 2017–18 UEFA Europa League group stage began on 14 September and ended on 7 December 2017.[1] A total of 48 teams competed in the group stage to decide 24 of the 32 places in the knockout phase of the 2017–18 UEFA Europa League.[2]

Draw

The draw for the group stage was held on 25 August 2017, 13:00 CEST, at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco.[3]

The 48 teams were drawn into twelve groups of four, with the restriction that teams from the same association could not be drawn against each other. For the draw, the teams were seeded into four pots based on their 2017 UEFA club coefficients.[4]

On 17 July 2014, the UEFA emergency panel ruled that Ukrainian and Russian clubs would not be drawn against each other "until further notice" due to the political unrest between the countries.[5]

Moreover, the draw was controlled for teams from the same association in order to split the teams evenly into the two sets of four groups (A–F, G–L) for maximum television coverage. On each matchday, one set of six groups played their matches at 19:00 CEST/CET, while the other set of six groups played their matches at 21:05 CEST/CET, with the two sets of groups alternating between each matchday.

The fixtures were decided after the draw, using a computer draw not shown to public, with the following match sequence (Regulations Article 15.02):[2]

Note: Positions for scheduling did not use the seeding pots, e.g., Team 1 was not necessarily the team from Pot 1 in the draw.

Matchday	Matches
Matchday 1	2 v 3, 4 v 1
Matchday 2	1 v 2, 3 v 4
Matchday 3	3 v 1, 2 v 4

Matchday	Matches
Matchday 4	1 v 3, 4 v 2
Matchday 5	3 v 2, 1 v 4
Matchday 6	2 v 1, 4 v 3

There were certain scheduling restrictions: for example, teams from the same city in general were not scheduled to play at home on the same matchday (to avoid teams from the same city playing at home on the same day, due to logistics and crowd control), and teams in certain countries (e.g., Russia) were not scheduled to play at home on the last matchday (due to cold weather and simultaneous kick-off times).

Teams

Below were the participating teams (with their 2017 UEFA club coefficients),[4] grouped by their seeding pot. They included 16 teams which entered in this stage, the 22 winners of the play-off round, and the 10 losers of the Champions League play-off round (5 in Champions Route, 5 in League Route).

Key to colours
Group winners and runners-up advance to the round of 32

Pot 1
Team	Coeff.[4]
Arsenal	105.192
Zenit Saint Petersburg^[†]	87.106
Lyon	68.833
Dynamo Kyiv^[†]	67.526
Villarreal	64.999
Athletic Bilbao^[†]	60.999
Lazio	56.666
Milan^[†]	47.666
Viktoria Plzeň^[†]	40.635
Red Bull Salzburg^[†]	40.570
Copenhagen^[CL-CR]	37.800
Braga^[†]	37.366

Pot 2
Team	Coeff.[4]
FCSB^[CL-LR]	35.370
Ludogorets Razgrad^[†]	34.175
BATE Borisov^[†]	29.475
Everton^[†]	29.192
Young Boys^[CL-LR]	28.915
Marseille^[†]	28.333
Real Sociedad	27.499
Maccabi Tel Aviv^[†]	23.375
Lokomotiv Moscow	20.606
Austria Wien^[†]	17.070
Hertha BSC	16.899
Nice^[CL-LR]	16.833

Pot 3
Team	Coeff.[4]
Astana^[CL-CR]	16.800
Partizan^[†]	16.075
1899 Hoffenheim^[CL-LR]	15.899
1. FC Köln	15.899
Rijeka^[CL-CR]	15.550
Vitória de Guimarães	14.866
Atalanta	14.666
Zulte Waregem	14.480
Zorya Luhansk	13.526
Rosenborg^[†]	12.665
FC Sheriff Tiraspol^[†]	11.150
Hapoel Be'er Sheva^[CL-CR]	10.875

Pot 4
Team	Coeff.[4]
Apollon Limassol^[†]	10.710
İstanbul Başakşehir^[CL-LR]	10.340
Konyaspor	9.840
Vitesse	9.212
Slavia Prague^[CL-CR]	8.135
Red Star Belgrade^[†]	7.325
Skënderbeu Korçë^[†]	6.825
Fastav Zlín	6.635
AEK Athens^[†]	6.580
Lugano	6.415
Vardar^[†]	5.125
Östersund^[†]	3.945

Notes

^† Winners of the play-off round.
^CL-CR Losers of the Champions League play-off round (Champions Route).
^CL-LR Losers of the Champions League play-off round (League Route).

Format

In each group, teams played against each other home-and-away in a round-robin format. The group winners and runners-up advanced to the round of 32, where they were joined by the eight third-placed teams of the Champions League group stage.

Tiebreakers

Teams were ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss), and if tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria were applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Articles 16.01):[2]

Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Away goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
If more than two teams were tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams were still tied, all head-to-head criteria above were reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;
Goal difference in all group matches;
Goals scored in all group matches;
Away goals scored in all group matches;
Wins in all group matches;
Away wins in all group matches;
Disciplinary points (red card = 3 points, yellow card = 1 point, expulsion for two yellow cards in one match = 3 points);
UEFA club coefficient.

Groups

The matchdays were 14 September, 28 September, 19 October, 2 November, 23 November, and 7 December 2017.[1] The match kickoff times were 19:00 and 21:05 CEST/CET in general, except for certain matches for geographical reasons.[6]

Times up to 28 October 2017 (matchdays 1–3) were CEST (UTC+2), thereafter (matchdays 4–6) times were CET (UTC+1).

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Villarreal	6	3	2	1	10	6	+4	11	Advance to knockout phase
2	Astana	6	3	1	2	10	7	+3	10	Advance to knockout phase
3	Slavia Prague	6	2	2	2	6	6	0	8
4	Maccabi Tel Aviv	6	1	1	4	1	8	−7	4

Source: UEFA
Rules for classification: Group stage tiebreakers

14 September 2017

19:00

Villarreal	3–1	Astana
Sansone 16' Bakambu 75' Cheryshev 77'	Report	Logvinenko 68'

Estadio de la Cerámica, Villarreal

Attendance: 14,670[7]

Referee: Srđan Jovanović (Serbia)

14 September 2017