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How the Europa League works

ClassicDom said:
Just because it confused the shit out of me yesterday :lol:

We’ve qualified for the League phase (as I understand it).

That means we go straight into the 36 team League along with the other 35 teams who either automatically qualified or who came through the qualifying playoff.

The League phase consists of 4 home and 4 away games for every club in it.

There are 4 pots of teams and we will be drawn against 2 teams from each pot which make up our 8 games.

We can’t be drawn against another English side in the league phase but we can in the knockout phase if we get there.

After 8 games the top 8 in the League go straight to the knockout phase.

Teams from 9th to 24th then go into a two legged playoff to determine the other 8 teams to go to the knockout phase.

Teams finishing 9th to 16th are “seeded” which means they get home advantage in the second leg of their playoff.

Teams finishing 25th to 36th are out of all European football for the season.

Once that’s done, it’s then a straight two legged knockout event until the final.

So we’re guaranteed at least 8 European games next season.

Last season Brann made the playoffs in 24th place on 9 points.

Roma finished 8th on 16 points as a guide.
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Realistically, we should be look at at least 10 games then, would be disappointed if we finish lower than the playoff places.
 

9 points (with goal difference) got you through to the playoffs last year.

10 points (with goal difference) got you through the year before.

Even with a stinker of a draw where you give us the 2 hardest teams from each pot, we should absolutely be capable of hitting double figure points and getting through to the playoffs.

You're looking at 5 wins from 8 to get through automatically in the top 8. That's probably a stretch too far, but I'd be really disappointed if we couldn't emulate the likes of Forest and Celtic to hit the 3 wins it would take to get to the playoffs.

The two games we play from pot 4 alone should be 6 points straight away.
 
Roker Mackem said:
Good point. Why do they bother then?
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to stop the top 8 seeds playing each other and the bottom 8 playing each other.

every club will play 2 from each pot, meaning its completely fair as far competitiveness is concerned.

We'd be playing 2 top seeded clubs, 2 second seeded clubs, 2 third seeds and 2 fourth seeds, regardless of what pot we started in

we just happen to be part of the third seeded clubs, so theoretically theres at least 16 clubs with higher coefficients than us
 
Roker Mackem said:
Good point. Why do they bother then?

Edit.. suppose its so a team isnt unlucky and draws the top 8 best teams
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Just a way to evenly spread the field I guess. Imagine if there was no pots and we got drawn against 8 teams in pot 4 haha. 24 points and through to the next round 😅
 
penno13 said:
Will we not know dates then on draw day?
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No, it's a couple of days later.

First the games are all set , i.e the 8 teams that each of us face , then eufa go away and sort out the particulars to make sure no games clash with other relevant events . Forest fans reckon it took 3 or 4 days to sort out , the actual fixtures dates and kick off times were released on a Saturday night
 
tunstallhill said:
I assume we play one team from Pot A at home , and one team from A away ?

And one Pot B at home, one Pot B away

So on and so forth ?

And we are Pot A meaning we are one of the 8 top seeded teams ?
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We’ve not played in Europe for 53years. We’re gonna be about as far from seeded as it’s possible to be.
Norton said:
Exactly the same format as the Champions League.so why is it a mess of a competition?
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Exactly. It’s the best format of European club football in UEFAs history yet a bunch of wrinklies who are younger than me and even more set in their ways simply repeat what some otherr clueless oldie has spouted to them……rinse n repeat.

If they think it’s a shit format or have slagged it becos they don’t understand it they should be barred from attending. Let the young forward looking over 60s have first dibs at the away tkts is what I say.
 
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riffraff said:
We’ve not played in Europe for 53years. We’re gonna be about as far from seeded as it’s possible to be.

Exactly. It’s the best format of European club football in UEFAs history yet a bunch of wrinklies who are younger than me and even more set in their ways simply repeat what some otherr clueless oldie has spouted to them……rinse n repeat.

If they think it’s a shit format or have slagged it becos they don’t understand it they should be barred from attending. Let the young forward looking over 60s have first dibs at the away tkts is what I say.
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I think the league you’re in gives you some kind of baseline coefficient ranking though. We could be in Pot 3 or Pot 4
 
1st thing our neighbours (visitors) will be doing on 28 August 2026 will be looking at where we are playing in Europe 3 days before either Derby ;). Hopefully by then we've secured top spot in the group and can play our fringe players for this pre-derby game, to then play a strong side vs Visitors the following weekend :lol:
tunstallhill said:
this website is very handy but probably easier to use on a laptop

You must be logged on to see external links

click the airport (or type it in) and it shows all direct routes
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@Tubbs
 
Can anyone explain to me if we are definitely going to be in Pot 3, and more importantly, how do we have any UEFA coefficient points in the first place?

I'm at a complete loss 🤣
 
Is it fair to say we should give the squad a bit of a free pass when it comes to domestic cups next year then?
 
Fred said:
Can anyone explain to me if we are definitely going to be in Pot 3, and more importantly, how do we have any UEFA coefficient points in the first place?

I'm at a complete loss 🤣
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Likely pot 3, any new teams to the competition get a base core equivalent to a certain percentage of their leagues coefficient. Us and Bournemouth should have the same score

Since the Prem is so strong in Europe, we come into it with a reasonably good coefficient score that would put us ahead of champions or regular competitors from weaker leagues.

Should we perform well in Europe and end up qualifying again the season after, we'll have bumped our individual coefficient up and may help get us into pot 2 in the future
Mackem00 said:
Is it fair to say we should give the squad a bit of a free pass when it comes to domestic cups next year then?
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We don't come into the League Cup til a round later now so we've already surpassed ourselves 😅
 
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