Aston Villa in the 2025/26 Europa League: the league phase draw, teams and rules
Aston Villa will find out their 2025/26 Europa League opponents at the end of August.
The preliminary stages of the Europa League have reached the play-off round, in which 24 teams will face off for 12 berths in the league phase. Their two-legged ties will be played on 21st August and 28th August – this week and next.
The winners will join Villa and 16 other qualified teams in the league phase draw along with seven teams eliminated from the play-off round of the Champions League.
In total, 36 teams will be entered into the league phase draw for the Europa League proper, which will take place on Friday 29th August.
Here are the fixtures in the Europa League play-off round:
- Maccabi Tel Aviv v Dynamo Kiev
- Shkëndija v Ludogorets Razgrad
- Slovan Bratislava v Young Boys
- Malmö v Sigma Olomouc
- Panathinaikos v Samsunspor
- Aberdeen v FCSB
- Lech Poznań v Genk
- Midtjylland v KuPS
- Lincoln Red Imps v Braga
- Zrinjski Mostar v Utrecht
- Brann v AEK Larnaca
- Rijeka v PAOK
The 13 teams that qualified directly for the league phase are: Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest (England), Bologna and Roma (Italy), Real Betis and Celta Vigo (Spain), Stuttgart and Freiburg (Germany), Go Ahead Eagles (Netherlands), Porto (Portugal), Lille and Lyon (France) and Dinamo Zagreb (Croatia).
Four clubs were eliminated from the Champions League qualifiers at the third stage and join the league face. They are Nice (France), Feyenoord (Netherlands), Viktoria Plzeň (Czech Republic), and Red Bull Salzburg (Austria).
Europa League draw rules
Each of the 36 teams in the league phase will be seeded in one of four pots. They will be manually drawn before being drawn by software against eight teams each, as they were for last year’s Champions League.
Every team will have a chance to face two clubs from each pot with one home and one away game per pot. However, there are certain regulations in drawing these teams:
- Teams from the same nation can’t play each other
- Teams can only play two opponents from any given nation
The top eight teams in the single supertable at the end of the league phase will qualify directly for the round of 16. Those finishing between 9th and 16th will face those finishing between 17th and 24th in a play-off round. The rest will be eliminated.
Villa in the league phase
Villa will be in pot one or pot two and it depends on which teams are knocked out of the Champions League in the play-off round. They can play anyone in the league phase except for Nottingham Forest.
Emery is a Europa League specialist. Along with Forest and a handful of others, Villa will be considered among the favourites. The final will take place at the home of Beşiktaş in Istanbul on 20th May.
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