Europa League: Goals analysis of the league phase
Monday, February 16, 2026
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UEFA's analysis unit examines how the goals were scored in the league phase of this season's UEFA Europa League.
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Over the 144 matches in this season's Europa League league phase, a total of 386 goals were scored – an average of 2.69 per game.
Importance of the first goal
While league phase winners Lyon registered the highest-scoring victory – a 6-0 defeat of Maccabi Tel-Aviv – and three other games produced dramatic 4-3 scorelines, the narrow victory proved a significant theme.
The most common final scorelines were 1-0 and 2-1 – a total of 28 games, or 19% of the total.
The first goal usually proved crucial. In 75% of games, the team who opened the scoring went on to win. A total of 13 teams triumphed in every game in which they scored first.
The top three in the table – Lyon, Aston Villa and Midtjylland – did so on six occasions each. As the graphic below illustrates, four teams managed it on five occasions. Only one of them, 11th-place-Stuttgart, finished outside the top eight.
The 75% figure is a significant increase on last season’s 69% at this stage. The average time of the first goal was 30 minutes, indicating cautious starts to games, with both teams building their way into a game rather than taking early risks.
In terms of comebacks, Celtic, Ferencváros, Go Ahead Eagles and Genk all took the three points despite conceding first in two matches each. Overall, this feat was achieved on 17 occasions.
Nearly a quarter of all the goals scored (23%) were followed by another strike within five minutes. This is significantly higher than the statistical average distribution of goals, which is 14%. On the majority of occasions (57%) it was the team who had just scored netting again rather than conceding (43%).
The relatively high proportion of goals scored in close succession hints at the importance of emotional regulation for players seeking to remain composed in high-pressure moments to enable continued effective decision-making.
Set pieces
Excluding penalties, nearly one in five of the 386 goals (19%) came from set plays. Regardless of whether they were winning, drawing or chasing the game late on, many teams displayed creativity and variety in their set plays to great effect. As the video below illustrates, short corners and effective blocking techniques were often deployed to create vital space for a free player.
Midtjylland profited from their prowess in these moments, with exactly half of their 18 goals coming from set play situations.
As the first clip on the video below shows, mixing up corner deliveries proved particularly effective. We see Midtjylland centre-back Martin Erlić head home unmarked at the back post after a flick-on from a short corner routine, which came as a result of a direct inswinging corner being cleared. Erlić scored a second late in the Matchday 7 encounter with Brann, this time after a near-post flick-on from a direct corner.
Goalscoring locations
First-time finishes inside the box proved typical of the league phase. A total of 84% of goals were from within the penalty area. However, the proportion of first-time finishes overall (56%) is lower than the 65% recorded in the league phase last season.
With crucial space always at a premium in the box, intelligent positioning, awareness and movement are critical to be successful. Lyon were a great example of this, topping both the Europa League table and the goalscoring charts (18) with all but one of their goals (94%) coming from inside the box.
Paulo Fonseca's side gained due rewards by populating the box to maximise the number of options available to the player on the ball and make it difficult for the opposition to make effective clearances.
Goals scored under pressure
The chart above illustrates another key ability for goalscorers – shifting the ball to a position of low pressure to hit the target. The fact that nearly half of the shots leading to a goal (47%) were taken under low pressure from an opponent suggests that attackers were able to shift the ball from a direct marker (and therefore a high pressure situation) to create the optimal path to goal. This could be to shoot or find a team-mate in a better position to score.
Although a clear majority of goals were from inside the box, the league phase produced many stunning strikes from distance (49 from outside the box). As the first clip on the video below shows, Utrecht’s Miguel Rodriguez exemplified this ability with a wonderful strike from near the halfway line after spotting the Real Betis goalkeeper off his line. Betis' Brazilian winger Antony earned praise from the UEFA Technical Observer Jan Peder Jalland for a "world-class" strike – seen in clip three – against Feyenoord on Matchday 8. Meanwhile, every one of Salzburg's ten goals came from open play. Four of them were powerful shots from outside the box.
Wide-area assists
Just over one in five (21%) open-play goals were assisted from wide areas outside the box, highlighting the continued importance of crossing techniques and movement of players in central areas to evade markers to finish.
Inside the box, the cutback zone remains fruitful with 29% of goals being assisted from passes from these areas.
Among the teams exploiting crosses to score, Ferencváros led the way. Six of their 12 goals came from headed finishes after crosses, five of them from left-sided deliveries.
Creating and attacking the space behind
Some 69 open-play goals were scored from passes in behind the opposition defensive line. All five channels proved fertile ground for these passes with Stuttgart, PAOK and GNK Dinamo all scoring four goals from penetrating the opposition back line using one of the following methods:
• Playing directly behind. In clip one in the below video, we see Stuttgart’s Ermedin Demirović latch on to a long and direct ball from goalkeeper Alexander Nübel to score against Celta.
• Forward runs and passes from deep areas to exploit large spaces. In clip three, we see Lyon get one of the three goals they scored in this way.
• Combination play in tight areas to attract opposition pressure. Clip four shows Ian Maatsen open the scoring for Aston Villa after a passage of typically tight interplay.
Keys to success
Nearly half of goals (47%) were scored under low opposition pressure, highlighting the importance of practice in tight areas to create the best shooting opportunities.
More than half of goals were scored with a single touch (56%), emphasising the need for intelligent positioning, awareness and timing to arrive ahead of the defender and reduce the goalkeeper’s reaction time.
The use of the whole width of the pitch for balls into space behind the defence indicates the importance of clever and well-timed forward runs. For deeper players, great vision and a full range of passing skills all across the pitch is clearly important.
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