DIAMITE SPORTS NEWS AND FREE PREDICTIONS: EUROPA LEAGUE QUALIFIERS + DRAW PICKS

The 2017–18 UEFA Europa League is the 47th season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 9th season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League.

The 2018 UEFA Europa League Final will be played at the Parc Olympique Lyonnais in Décines-Charpieu, France.^[1]

The winners of the 2017–18 UEFA Europa League will automatically qualify for the 2018–19 UEFA Champions Leaguegroup stage,^[2] and also earn the right to play against the winners of the 2017–18 UEFA Champions League in the 2018 UEFA Super Cup.

Manchester United, the defending champions, qualified for the 2017–18 UEFA Champions League as the title holders of Europa League.^[3] They will only be able to defend their title if they finish third in their group in the Champions League group stage.

Distribution

In the default access list, Manchester United enter the group stage (as the sixth-placed team of the 2016–17 Premier League).^[8] However, since they qualified for the Champions League as the Europa League title holders, the spot which they qualified for in the Europa League group stage is vacated, and the following changes to the default allocation system are made:^[11]^[12]^[13]

The domestic cup winners of association 13 (Czech Republic) are promoted from the third qualifying round to the group stage.
The domestic cup winners of association 18 (Poland) are promoted from the second qualifying round to the third qualifying round.
The domestic cup winners of associations 25 and 26 (Scotland and Azerbaijan) are promoted from the first qualifying round to the second qualifying round.

	Teams entering in this round	Teams advancing from previous round	Teams transferred from Champions League
First qualifying round (100 teams)	29 domestic cup winners from associations 27–55 36 domestic league runners-up from associations 18–54 (except Liechtenstein) 35 domestic league third-placed teams from associations 16–51 (except Liechtenstein)
Second qualifying round (66 teams)	8 domestic cup winners from associations 19–26 2 domestic league runners-up from associations 16–17 6 domestic league fourth-placed teams from associations 10–15	50 winners from first qualifying round
Third qualifying round (58 teams)	5 domestic cup winners from associations 14–18 9 domestic league third-placed teams from associations 7–15 5 domestic league fourth-placed teams from associations 5–9 3 domestic league fifth-placed teams from associations 4–6 (League Cup winners for France) 3 domestic league sixth-placed teams from associations 1–3 (League Cup winners for England)	33 winners from second qualifying round
Play-off round (44 teams)		29 winners from third qualifying round	15 losers from Champions League third qualifying round
Group stage (48 teams)	13 domestic cup winners from associations 1–13 1 domestic league fourth-placed team from association 4 3 domestic league fifth-placed teams from associations 1–3 −1 Europa League title holders	22 winners from play-off round	10 losers from Champions League play-off round
Knockout phase (32 teams)		12 group winners from group stage 12 group runners-up from group stage	8 third-placed teams from Champions League group stage

Redistribution rules

A Europa League place is vacated when a team qualifies for both the Champions League and the Europa League, or qualifies for the Europa League by more than one method. When a place is vacated, it is redistributed within the national association by the following rules (regulations Articles 3.03 and 3.04):^[5]

When the domestic cup winners (considered as the "highest-placed" qualifier within the national association with the latest starting round) also qualify for the Champions League, their Europa League place is vacated. As a result, the highest-placed team in the league which have not yet qualified for European competitions qualify for the Europa League, with the Europa League qualifiers which finish above them in the league moved up one "place".
When the domestic cup winners also qualify for the Europa League through league position, their place through the league position is vacated. As a result, the highest-placed team in the league which have not yet qualified for European competitions qualify for the Europa League, with the Europa League qualifiers which finish above them in the league moved up one "place" if possible.
For associations where a Europa League place is reserved for either the League Cup or end-of-season European competition play-offs winners, they always qualify for the Europa League as the "lowest-placed" qualifier. If the League Cup winners have already qualified for European competitions through other methods, this reserved Europa League place is taken by the highest-placed team in the league which have not yet qualified for European competitions.

Teams

The labels in the parentheses show how each team qualified for the place of its starting round:^[14]

CW: Cup winners
2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, etc.: League position
LC: League Cup winners
RW: Regular season winners
PW: End-of-season European competition play-offs winners
UCL: Transferred from the Champions League
- GS: Third-placed teams from the group stage
- PO: Losers from the play-off round
- Q3: Losers from the third qualifying round

First qualifying round

The draw for the first qualifying round was held on 19 June 2017, 13:00 CEST, at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.^[28]

A total of 100 teams played in the first qualifying round. The first legs were played on 29 June, and the second legs were played on 4 and 6 July 2017.

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Maccabi Tel Aviv	5–0	Tirana	2–0	3–0
Mladost Lučani	0–5	Inter Baku	0–3	0–2
Shirak	2–4	Gorica	0–2	2–2
Shkëndija	7–0^[A]	Dacia Chișinău	3–0	4–0
Trenčín	8–1	Torpedo Kutaisi	5–1	3–0
Kairat	8–1	Atlantas	6–0	2–1
Chikhura Sachkhere	1–2	Rheindorf Altach	0–1	1–1
Zira	4–1	Differdange 03	2–0	2–1
Levski Sofia	3–1	Sutjeska Nikšić	3–1	0–0
Lech Poznań	7–0	Pelister	4–0	3–0
Beitar Jerusalem	7–3	Vasas	4–3	3–0
Fola Esch	3–2	Milsami Orhei	2–1	1–1
Vojvodina	2–3	Ružomberok	2–1	0–2
Irtysh Pavlodar	3–0	Dunav Ruse	1–0	2–0
Mladost Podgorica	4–0	Gandzasar Kapan	1–0	3–0
Široki Brijeg	2–0^[A]	Ordabasy	2–0	0–0
Partizani Tirana	1–4	Botev Plovdiv	1–3	0–1
Pyunik	1–9^[A]	Slovan Bratislava	1–4	0–5
Dinamo Batumi	0–5^[A]	Jagiellonia Białystok	0–1	0–4
Videoton	5–3	Balzan	2–0	3–3
Red Star Belgrade	6–3	Floriana	3–0	3–3
UE Santa Coloma	0–6	Osijek	0–2	0–4
Tre Penne	0–7^[A]	Rabotnički	0–1	0–6
Željezničar Sarajevo	3–2	Zeta	1–0	2–2
St Joseph's	0–10^[A]	AEL Limassol	0–4	0–6
Valletta	3–0	Folgore	2–0	1–0
Zaria Bălți	3–3 (6–5 p)	Sarajevo	2–1	1–2 (a.e.t.)
Rangers	1–2	Progrès Niederkorn	1–0	0–2
AEK Larnaca	6–1	Lincoln Red Imps	5–0	1–1
Skënderbeu Korçë	6–0	Sant Julià	1–0	5–0
Ventspils	0–1	Valur	0–0	0–1
Bala Town	1–5	Vaduz	1–2	0–3
Domžale	5–2	Flora Tallinn	2–0	3–2
Midtjylland	10–2	Derry City	6–1	4–1
Haugesund	7–0	Coleraine	7–0	0–0
St Johnstone	1–3	Trakai	1–2	0–1
VPS	2–0	Olimpija Ljubljana	1–0	1–0
Crusaders	3–3 (a)	Liepāja	3–1	0–2
Dinamo Minsk	4–1	NSÍ Runavík	2–1	2–0
Stjarnan	0–2	Shamrock Rovers	0–1	0–1
Odd	5–0	Ballymena United	3–0	2–0
Connah's Quay Nomads	1–3	HJK	1–0	0–3
Nõmme Kalju	4–2	B36 Tórshavn	2–1	2–1
Ferencváros	3–0	Jelgava	2–0	1–0
IFK Norrköping	6–0	Prishtina	5–0	1–0
Shakhtyor Soligorsk	1–2	Sūduva Marijampolė	0–0	1–2
KR	2–0^[A]	SJK	0–0	2–0
Levadia Tallinn	2–6	Cork City	0–2	2–4
Lyngby	4–0	Bangor City	1–0	3–0
KÍ	0–5^[A]	AIK	0–0	0–5