1. Different promotion methods
The Europa League in the 2024 season is divided into 8 groups, and the top of the 8 groups will advance directly and lock in8 places in the Round of 16
8 groups of second need and Champions League thirdPlay the play-offs to fight for itAnother 8 places in the round of 16.
For example, let's take the World Cup qualifiers in Asia 65 places, six countries directly qualify for the World Cup, 0The 5 places need to compete with another South American team for this promotion place, so the second place in the Europa League group can be understood as holding 05 places, the third in the Champions League group holds the other 0For 5 places, the two teams put their respective 05 put on the table to make up 1 promotion place, the two sides play two games, who wins in the end, who takes the 1 place.Take, for example, the Italian team AS Roma. In Group G of the Europa League, Slavia Prague from the Czech League topped the group and qualified directly for the last 16 of the Europa League.
Roma finished second in the group and finished third in Group G of the Champions League for a place in the round of 16.
After the round of 16 is decided, the matchup is determined by the draw, which means that there is no difference between the first and second groups of 16 into 8 in the knockout round.
2. What is the difference between the first group and the second group?
The Europa League is not like the Champions League, smallGroup rankings often don't reflect the true strength between the two teams, for example, there is a big gap between Roma and Slavia Prague in Group G. Last season, Roma also finished second in their group and reached the final.
The reason for this is often because of the different competition in the league, the teams that need to get the Champions League qualification through the Europa League championship in the four major leagues are often not guaranteed to be in the top four in the league, and the depth of the bench can barely ensure the double-line operation, so they have to focus on the league in the Europa League group stage, the Europa League as an alternative, Roma and Manchester United are a good example, and the maximum economic benefits of the Europa League are Sevilla from La Liga, Often, the Champions League will earn enough appearance fees to win the Europa League and qualify for next season's Champions League, so that the league only needs to guarantee that it will not be relegated.
3. After entering the knockout round, the advantage of first place in the group disappears
Because it is necessary to redraw the round of 16, the team that wins the group often faces the team that has qualified from the play-offs, and it is difficult to resist, and many of them stop in the round of 16. In the past 10 years, the teams that have won the Europa League are all teams from the four major leagues.
Take the Europa League winners in 2017-2023 as an example, 2017 - Manchester United, 2018 - Atletico Madrid, 2019 - Chelsea, 2020 - Sevilla, 2021 - Villarreal, 2022 - Eintracht Frankfurt, 2023 - Sevilla.
None of these teams finished second in the Europa League group, often from third place in the Champions League group through the Europa League play-offs until they won the title, while last season's Roma finished second in the group and reached the final. Therefore, if you want to win the Europa League, in fact, the first group and the second group do not have much advantage.
To sum up,In addition to the difference in the way of qualification, the first and second groups of the Europa League did not show their real strength very well, and the advantage in the knockout round was not great