X-Nico

unusual facts about UEFA Europa League


Hannes Schäfer

On 14 May 2011 Schäfer played one more Fury concert at the AWD-Arena in front of more than 40,000 spectators when Fury in the Slaughterhouse re-unified celebrating Hannover 96s qualification for the UEFA Europa League.


1985–86 Oxford United F.C. season

Unfortunately, due to the ban on English teams competing in English competition as a result of the Heysel disaster, Oxford were unable to compete in the UEFA Cup the following season.

2004 UEFA Champions League Final

Before 2004, Porto's last triumph in the competition had been in 1987 – although they had won the UEFA Cup the previous season – while Monaco were playing in their first ever Champions League final.

2013 Coupe de France Final

The winner of the Coupe de France was guaranteed a place in the group stage of the UEFA Europa League with the club's appearance being dependent on whether it qualifies for the 2013–14 UEFA Champions League.

Aktobe Central Stadium

For five years, from October 2, 2004 to August 27, 2009 (1790 days, a record of Kazakhstan) FC Aktobe did not suffer a single loss at the home field in all tournaments (Kazakhstan Premier League, Kazakhstan Cup, Champions League and Europa League).

Álvaro Peña Herrero

On 28 November 2012 Peña made his debut with the main squad, starting in a 0–2 away win against Hapoel Ironi Kiryat Shmona F.C. for the campaign's UEFA Europa League.

André Leone

He also managed to score in the 3–0 home win against Standard Liège for the campaign's UEFA Cup round-of-16 (4–1 on aggregate).

Bernardo Romeo

In the following season, he was only a backup or third-string, ending up playing in as much games in the league and in the UEFA Cup, netting against Odense Boldklub in a 3–1 home win with his team eventually reaching the last-four in the latter competition.

Betegy

In the summer of 2013, the amount of leagues were extended to 12; as they introduced a few more: UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, FIFA World Cup, Eredivisie (Holland), Campeonato Brasileiro Serie A (Brazil), Major League Soccer (United States), Tippeligaen (Norway), Primera A (Argentina), Allsvenskan (Sweden), J-league (Japan), K League (South Korea), Primeira Liga (Potugal), Superliga Denmark, Ukrainian Premier League.

Bruno Patacas

In 2007 a transfer was almost arranged with PFC CSKA Sofia, but Patacas ultimately stayed at Nacional, amassing a further 55 league appearances in the following two seasons combined for the Madeirans and qualifying to the UEFA Europa League in the second.

Chiquinho Conde

In January 1998 he returned to Portugal and a former club, Vitória Setúbal (for his third spell); in his first full season upon his return to the team, he netted a career-best 14 goals, as the sadinos qualified for the UEFA Cup as fifth.

Chris Herd

On 17 December 2008, he was selected on the bench for Villa's UEFA Cup match against Hamburger SV in Germany.

Dirk Marcellis

On 30 July 2009, Marcellis scored a last-minute goal against Bulgarian side PFC Cherno More Varna to help his team to a 1:0 home win in a third qualifying round game of the UEFA Europa League.

Donovan Maury

He plays the game of the 1st turn qualification for the UEFA Europa League against Milsami Orhei.

Enrique de Lucas

His only goal for the English was a well executed chip in the campaign's UEFA Cup against Viking FK, in a 2–1 home win (4–5 loss on aggregate).

Fernando Meira

He missed two UEFA Cup matches, including the home defeat against Celtic in the fourth round's first leg, and found the net in the second round's 2–0 home win against Ferencvárosi TC.

Ibon Begoña

He spent a total of eight years with the club in two separate spells and, during the 2000–01 campaign, contributed with ten appearances in the team's runner-up run in the UEFA Cup, scoring in the 3–1 away win against Lillestrøm SK for the second round.

Iker Undabarrena

On 28 November 2012, at only 17, Undabarrena made his official debut with the main squad, coming on as a substitute for Igor Martínez in the 77th minute of a 2–0 away win against Hapoel Ironi Kiryat Shmona F.C. for the campaign's UEFA Europa League.

Jô also featured in Manchester City's 3–1 win away to West Ham before Christmas and scored City's only goal in a 1–1 draw with Juventus in the UEFA Europa League.

João Aurélio

Additionally, he also started and scored in the UEFA Europa League 4–3 home triumph over FC Zenit Saint Petersburg (eventually 5–4 aggregate win).

Joaquín Sánchez

In the following campaign's UEFA Champions League, Joaquín appeared in all six group stage games for Betis, including the 1–0 triumph over Chelsea and a 0–0 draw against Liverpool, at Anfield (third-place finish, UEFA Cup "demotion").

Jon Flanagan

On 19 September, Flanagan was one of the clutch of teenagers to travel to Switzerland to play Young Boys in a Europa League group game.

Jon Xabier Vidal

On 28 November 2012 he made his debut with the first team, coming on as a substitute for fellow youth graduate Álvaro Peña in the 85th minute of a 0–2 away win against Hapoel Ironi Kiryat Shmona F.C. for the season's UEFA Europa League.

José Rafael

Afterwards, he played three seasons with Boavista FC, appearing in two UEFA Cup editions: on 19 September 1985, he scored twice in a 4–3 home win against Club Brugge KV, albeit in a 5–6 aggregate loss.

Kostas Mendrinos

Until the end of 2013 Mendrinos has 11 international appearances with Olympiakos and Aris in UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League.

Liédson

On 21 October 2010, Liédson entered Sporting's history books as he scored the club's 200th goal in European competitions, netting twice in a 5–1 home win against K.A.A. Gent for the season's UEFA Europa League.

Lucas Leiva

On 16 September 2010, Lucas scored his sixth goal for Liverpool shortly after replacing Ryan Babel in Liverpool's first Europa League group stage match against Steaua Bucureşti.

Maikel Verkoelen

Maikel Verkoelen joined PSV at the age of eight, eleven years later, Verkoelen signed a professional contract at the age of 19 and he played against SV Ried in the Europa League qualifying round on 18 August 2011, he only played one minute after coming on the 90th minute for Marcelo.

Manu del Moral

The following campaign he teamed up again with Braulio, and scored seven during the league campaign – joint-top scorer alongside Juan Albín – while also helping the Madrid outskirts team to the quarterfinals of the UEFA Cup.

Marlon Harewood

His next Villa goal did not come until October when he scored in a 1–1 draw with Litex Lovech in the UEFA Cup.

Martin Brittain

Brittain made his debut for Newcastle on 3 March 2004 as a substitute in a 3–1 win over Vålerenga in the UEFA Cup.

Martin Kelly

He made his first appearance of the season in the UEFA Europa League, coming on as a half-time substitute for Glen Johnson in a 1-0 win away to FC Gomel on 2 August.

Michaël Goossens

With the Gelsenkirchen club, Goossens notably scored in the quarterfinals of the 1997–98 UEFA Cup against F.C. Internazionale Milano, but the defending champions were eventually ousted after losing 1–0 away and a 1–1 home draw; with three goals, he was the best scorer in European competition for Schalke, but only netted five times in two and a half seasons combined in the Bundesliga.

Olcan Adın

On 28 November 2013, Olcan was the hat-trick hero of the UEFA Europa League match against Apollon Limassol.

Oliver Neuville

In 1996–97 Neuville played in Spain with CD Tenerife, where he was part of a well-balanced offensive line that also featured Juanele (eight goals), Meho Kodro (six), Antonio Pinilla (seven) and Aurelio Vidmar (one), netting five goals in 1,885 minutes as the Canary Islands side easily retained its La Liga status, and also playing a relatively important part in the club's semifinal run in the UEFA Cup.

Rafael Sóbis

Inter's president at the time, Fernando Carvalho, suggested the change to only Sobis, the surname of his Ukrainian origins, because it could be more attractive for the European leagues, where the boy could get dual citizenship.

Raïs M'Bolhi

After some unstable performance from Ivan Karadzhov and Zdravko Chavdarov, M'Bolhi was expected to be the first choice goalkeeper for the rest of the first half of the season and the group stage of UEFA Europa League and he indeed established himself as the main goalkeeper for the "redmen".

Ricardo Carvalho

It was in the 2002–03 season that Carvalho made his name known all around Europe, winning his first domestic league title under Mourinho’s commands, the Portuguese Cup, and the UEFA Cup.

Romeu Almeida

In 2002–03, he scored a career-best 10 goals in 29 matches as the latter finished fourth and nearly qualified to the UEFA Cup.

Ross Forbes

In the 2010/11 season, Forbes starts his season by scoring a curling delivery straight into the net, in the Europa League second qualifying round match against Breiðablik in the first leg.

Saúl Ñíguez

On 8 March 2012, at the age of just 17 years and 108 days, Saúl made his official debut with Atletis first team, playing the last six minutes in a UEFA Europa League game against Beşiktaş JK (3–1 home win, 6–1 on aggregate).

Scott Arfield

Arfield's first appearance of the 2009–10 season came in a 1–0 home win over FC Vaduz in the UEFA Europa League.

Titus Bramble

On 10 August 2006, Bramble scored another vital goal for Newcastle in the UEFA Cup second qualifying round with a header against Latvian side FK Ventspils.

Tom Ince

On 29 July 2010, he was an unused substitute for the first time in Liverpool's UEFA Europa League qualifier against FK Rabotnički.

Vyacheslav Malafeev

Malafeev has since been the first choice goalkeeper ahead of Kamil Čontofalský and won the UEFA Cup in 2008 after keeping a clean sheet against Rangers F.C..

Walter Henrique da Silva

Walter played his first official game for Porto on 19 August in a UEFA Europa League play-off round against K.R.C. Genk, appearing eight minutes in a 3–0 away win.


see also

Jon Daly

In the 2011–12 season, Daly started his season, playing in both legs of the UEFA Europa League tie against Polish side Śląsk Wrocław.