2025/26 Europa League season by numbers

The 2025/26 UEFA Europa League concluded on Wednesday, with Aston Villa beating Freiburg 3-0 in the final in Istanbul.

We run through the key facts and figures from another thrilling campaign.

Statistics do not include qualifying unless stated.

1 Go Ahead Eagles made their first-ever appearance in the league phase or group stage of a men's European competition. The Dutch side recorded their first Europa League win on Matchday 2 when they came from behind to defeat Panathinaikos in Athens.

2 Matchday 5 brought two rematches of European Cup finals, Nottingham Forest overcoming Malmö just as they had done in 1979 while Celtic defeated Feyenoord, to whom they lost in the 1970 showpiece.

3 The only team to come through the league phase unbeaten were Viktoria Plzeň, who finished in 14th place with a record of three wins, five draws and zero defeats. The Czech team also had the best defensive record with only three goals conceded in the league phase.

3 Unai Emery has become the first coach to win this tournament with three different teams. They all have 'villa' in their name: Sevilla (three times), Villarreal and Aston Villa.

4 Compared to zero hat-tricks in last season's league phase, there were four this time round. Those came from Anass Zaroury (Panathinaikos), Petar Stanić (Ludogorets), Corentin Tolisso (Lyon) and Talisca (Fenerbahçe).

5 Aston Villa, Bologna, Brann, Go Ahead Eagles and Nottingham Forest made their first appearances in the group stage/league phase of this competition in the Europa League era. All but Go Ahead Eagles reached the knockout phase.

5 Unai Emery lifted his fifth Europa League trophy as a coach with victory in Istanbul. No other coach has won more than one (not including the UEFA Cup).

6 Stuttgart forward Deniz Undav created more assists than any other player with a total of six to help his side progress to the round of 16.

7 Nottingham Forest forward Igor Jesus and Ludogorets' Petar Stanić finished as the joint-top scorers in this season's tournament with seven goals apiece.

9 Villa kept the most clean sheets with an impressive nine from their 15 games in total.

19 Gabriel Veiga scored after just 19 seconds as Porto swept aside Nice at Estádio do Dragão on Matchday 5, the fastest goal of the 2025/26 campaign.

23 Teams from 23 national associations were represented in the league phase. Seventeen different nations were represented in the knockout phase.

31 Villa were the top scorers in the competition with 31. They only failed to find the net in one of their 15 games, the 1-0 semi-final first-leg defeat at Nottingham Forest.

31 Villa became the 31st different winners of the UEFA Cup/Europa League, and the sixth English side. They are the third new name on the trophy in the last six seasons, along with Atalanta in 2023/24 and Villarreal in 2020/21.

39 Olivier Giroud became the third-oldest scorer in competition history when he helped Lille to victory over Brann on opening night aged 38 years 360 days. The French forward then improved on that mark (though remained third) on Matchdays 7 and 8. Then, in the knockout phase play-off second leg, a header against Crvena Zvezda at the age of 39 years 149 days made him the oldest-ever scorer in a Europa League knockout game.

42 Aged 41 years 341 days, Dante became the oldest outfield player to appear in the Europa League as Nice hosted Roma on Matchday 1. He has since improved on his own record, featuring in the Matchday 7 success against Go Ahead Eagles at the age of 42 years 96 days.

51 Eighteen simultaneous games produced 51 goals as the league phase reached a dramatic conclusion on Matchday 8.

59 Lyon enjoyed the highest percentage of average possession with 59.9. The French side also finished top for passing accuracy with 88.9%.

87 Jamaldeen Jimoh-Aloba enjoyed a European debut to remember on Matchday 8 when he came on as a second-half substitute and scored the 87th-minute winner for Aston Villa against Salzburg.

100 Roma became the first team to reach a century of Europa League/UEFA Cup victories (including qualifying) when they defeated Midtjylland 2-1 on Matchday 5. In doing so, the Italian side also ended the last remaining 100% record in the league phase; the Danish side were the only team to win all four of their opening matches.

100 Unai Emery reached 100 Europa League games as a coach on Matchday 7.

400 Kerem Aktürkoğlu's Matchday 2 double brought victory over Nice for Fenerbahçe and a 400th goal in Europe for the Turkish side.

512 There were a total of 512 goals in the tournament with an average of 2.71 per match (or one every 33 minutes).