2021–22 UEFA Europa League
The 2021–22 UEFA Europa League was the 51st season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 13th season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League.
The Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán Stadium in Seville hosted the final | |
| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Dates | Qualifying: 3–26 August 2021 Competition proper: 15 September 2021 – 18 May 2022 |
| Teams | Competition proper: 32+8 Total: 21+37 (from 33 associations) |
| Final positions | |
| Champions | Eintracht Frankfurt (2nd title) |
| Runners-up | Rangers |
| Tournament statistics | |
| Matches played | 139 |
| Goals scored | 367 (2.64 per match) |
| Attendance | 3,435,542 (24,716 per match) |
| Top scorer(s) | James Tavernier (Rangers) 7 goals |
| Best player(s) | Filip Kostić (Eintracht Frankfurt) |
Eintracht Frankfurt defeated Rangers 5–4 on penalties following a 1–1 draw after extra time in the final played at the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán Stadium in Seville, Spain, winning the competition for the second time in club history, and the first since 1980. The final was originally scheduled to be played at the Puskás Aréna in Budapest, Hungary. However, due to the postponement and relocation of the 2020 final, the final hosts were shifted back a year, with Budapest instead hosting the 2023 final. As winners, Eintracht Frankfurt automatically qualified for the 2022–23 UEFA Champions League group stage, and also earned the right to play against the winners of the 2021–22 UEFA Champions League, Real Madrid, in the 2022 UEFA Super Cup.
This season was the first since 1999–2000 (the first season after the dissolution of the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup) where three major European club competitions (UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, and the newly created UEFA Europa Conference League) take place, and the first outright where the Europa League (then the UEFA Cup) is the secondary competition of the three. As a result, major changes to the format of the Europa League were made. The number of teams in the group stage was reduced from 48 to 32 teams, and the number of teams participating in qualifying was also reduced significantly. The first round of the knockout phase also now involved only the group stage runners-up and the Champions League third-placed teams, with the group winners directly advancing to the round of 16.
As the title holders Villarreal qualified for the 2021–22 UEFA Champions League, they were unable to defend their title as they advanced to the Champions League knockout stage, and were eliminated by Liverpool in the semi-finals.
On 24 June 2021, UEFA approved the proposal to abolish the away goals rule in all UEFA club competitions, which had been used since 1965. Therefore, if in a two-legged tie, two teams scored the same number of aggregate goals, the winner of tie was not decided by the number of away goals scored by each team, but always by 30 minutes of extra time, and if the two teams scored the same number of goals in extra time, the winner was decided by a penalty shoot-out.