EUROPA League
MAN UNITED, 4 OTHER EX-CHAMPS VIE FOR EUROPA CROWN
Manchester United, Inter Milan and Sevilla headline a quintet of former champions travelling to Germany for a remodelled eight-team knockout tournament that will crown the winner of a Europa League campaign heavily disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic.
All games will be played behind closed doors as one-off ties across four venues – Cologne, Duisburg, Dusseldorf and Gelsenkirchen – following a five-month interruption.
While a Champions League berth still awaits the victors of the final in Cologne on Aug 21, much has changed since the Covid-19 outbreak that brought European football to a standstill in March.
“There are rules and regulations in the ‘bubble’ that’s going to travel. We’ve got to stick together, stay together in and around the hotel and the training ground,” United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said of the strict health protocols clubs must respect.
Players and staff will undergo virus testing before departing for Germany and again on the eve of a match, a process repeated for each subsequent game till the final.
Uefa has also advised teams to travel on chartered flights and minimise contact with the public, strongly recommending the use of exclusive hotels – to which players will largely be confined – in order to avoid potential cross-contamination.
Substitutes and coaching staff must maintain social distancing when seated, with players instructed to limit contact as much as possible when warming up, while match balls will be disinfected before kick-off and at half-time.
United, the 2017 winners, face FC Copenhagen in today’s quarter-final in Cologne while Serie A runners-up Inter take on Bundesliga outfit Bayer Leverkusen in a clash of former Uefa Cup champions in the Dusseldorf Arena.
England forward Jesse Lingard, who played in the 2-0 win over Ajax in the final three years ago, is confident the Red Devils can capture the title for a second time.
“We can’t wait to get there and play this game now. Hundred per cent I want to win it again,” he told MUTV ahead of the clash with their Danish opponents. “Lifting a trophy is a special feeling you can’t really explain and winning it before, you take that confidence forward.
“We have got a mixture of youth and experience in the squad and for the young lads to win their first trophy, it will be perfect for them.”
Should United advance to the last four, they will face either Sevilla – who have won the Europa League and its precursor, the Uefa Cup, a record five times – or fellow English Premier League rivals Wolves on Sunday.
This year’s Europa League final was initially due to be played in the Polish city of Gdansk in May before the health crisis forced a change of plans.
-AFP
Four-times Europa League winner Unai Emery booked an astonishing sixth final in the competition as a manager on Thursday when his Aston Villa team swept aside Nottingham Forest in the second leg of their all-English semi-final.
The 54-year-old Spaniard has won three times with Sevilla (2014, 2015, 2016) and once with Villarreal (2021) – either side of a defeat with Arsenal (2019) – deservedly earning him the epithet “Mr Europa League” from some fans and media.
Now he goes to the 2026 final seeking a fifth title, this time with Aston Villa against Bundesliga side Freiburg.
“His track record speaks for itself,” said Villa striker Ollie Watkins, heaping praise on his boss as the man to guarantee Europa League success. “We need to go and win it now.”
Emery was delighted with how his team overturned a 1-0 deficit to Forest in the first leg of the Europa League semi-final to score four times at home and win 4-1 on aggregate.
“Now we have to look to the final,” he said, hoping that Villa will do “something fantastic” for their fans.
Though thrilled at Thursday’s win, Emery left the pitch quickly after the final whistle, pumping his fist a few times at the crowd before letting his players enjoy the moment with fans
He and his Villa side will be favourites at the Europa League final in Istanbul on May 20, but Emery was taking nothing for granted. “Of course German teams are so difficult, their coaches, their players are so good,” he added of the upcoming opponents.
-Reuters
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List of teams which have qualified for the next round of the Europa League after the league phase concluded on Thursday, ranked by table position:
Directly to the round of 16:
1. Olympique Lyonnais (France)
2. Aston Villa (England)
3. Midtjylland (Denmark)
4. Real Betis (Spain)
5. Porto (Portugal)
6. Braga (Portugal)
7. Freiburg (Germany)
8. AS Roma (Italy)
Knockout phase play-off places (seeded)
9. Genk (Belgium)
10. Bologna (Italy)
11. VfB Stuttgart (Germany)
12. Ferencvaros (Hungary)
13. Nottingham Forest (England)
14. Viktoria Plzen (Czech Republic)
15. Red Star Belgrade (Serbia)
16. Celta Vigo (Spain)
Knockout phase play-off places (unseeded)
17. PAOK (Greece)
18. Lille (France)
19. Fenerbahce (Turkey)
20. Panathinaikos (Greece)
21. Celtic (Scotland)
22. Ludogorets (Bulgaria)
23. Dinamo Zagreb (Croatia)
24. SK Brann (Norway)
-Reuters
UEFA Europa League – Aston Villa v RB Salzburg – Villa Park, Birmingham, Britain – January 29, 2026 Aston
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Israeli club Maccabi Tel Aviv will not accept any away fan tickets for their Europa League match at Aston Villa next month, even if local authorities reverse the decision to ban their supporters, they said on Monday.
The ban followed safety concerns raised by British Police, who cited potential protests outside Villa Park, following demonstrations at Israel’s recent World Cup qualifiers in Oslo and Udine.
“From hard lessons learned we have taken the decision to decline any allocation offered on behalf of away fans and our decision should be understood in that context,” Maccabi said in a statement.
“We hope that circumstances will change and look forward to being able to play in Birmingham in a sporting environment in the near future.”
Aston Villa announced the decision last week, saying they were following instructions from the Safety Advisory Group (SAG), who are responsible for issuing safety certificates for games at Villa Park.
West Midlands Police described the match as high risk, past incidents, including violent confrontations and hate crime offences involving Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters ahead of a November 2024 game in Amsterdam.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar described the announcement as “shameful”.
Villa are third in the Europa League standings while Maccabi Tel Aviv are 30th after two rounds.
-Reuters
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