UEFA Women's Europa Cup round of 16, quarter-final and semi-final draw

The UEFA Women's Europa Cup draw has the knockout bracket from the round of 16 until the final.

The 16 teams involved in the draw were the winners of the second qualifying round, which ended on Thursday. Every round in the new competition is contested as a set of two-legged knockout ties, including the final on 25/26 April and 2/3 May.

2025/26 UEFA Women's Europa Cup dates

Round of 16

First leg: 11/12 November
Second leg: 19/20 November

Quarter-finals

First leg: 11/12 February
Second leg: 18/19 February

Semi-finals

First leg: 24/25 March
Second leg: 1/2 April

Final (two legs)

First leg: 25 or 26 April
Second leg: 2 or 3 May

How the draw worked

A draw between the same number of seeded and unseeded clubs determined the ties for the round of 16. Clubs were seeded for this draw in accordance with the club coefficient rankings established at the beginning of the season and with the principles set by the Women's Football Committee.

The draw was conducted in accordance with the following principles:

A) The eight seeded clubs are paired to form four pairs (clubs ranked 1 and 2, 3 and 4, 5 and 6, and 7 and 8). The eight unseeded clubs (ranked 9 to 16) are placed in one pot.

B) The clubs in each seeded pair are drawn into one of the two positions in each round of 16 tie. The eight unseeded clubs are drawn against the seeded clubs, as illustrated below.

C) A draw is conducted to determine which club plays the first leg at home.

The quarter-final, semi-final and final pairings were determined according to the below explainer. A draw was conducted to determine which club plays the first leg at home.

Draw system 

The draw was carried out using a seeded bracket (see above). The top eight clubs were divided into seeded pairs based on the club coefficient rankings established at the beginning of the season. The remaining eight clubs were unseeded.

The draw saw one of each pair of seeded clubs allocated to one of the pre-determined positions and drawn against an unseeded club in the round of 16. Clubs then progress along the bracket until the final. However, a draw was still needed for each subsequent round to determine the home and away order in which the ties are played.

Draw Procedure 

ROUND OF 16

Six bowls were prepared for the round of 16 draw: four containing the seeded pairings (one seeded pairing per bowl), one with the unseeded clubs and one central empty bowl.

One ball was drawn from the bowl containing Pairing 7 & 8 and another from the unseeded bowl. Both were placed into the central bowl, shuffled and then drawn consecutively. The club drawn first will host the first match of the tie, while the club drawn second will host the second match of the tie. The clubs were placed in the reserved spots on the silver side of the bracket representing Pairing 7 & 8 and their unseeded opponent.

The remaining ball was taken from the bowl containing Pairing 7 & 8 and another ball is taken from the unseeded bowl. Both were placed into the central empty bowl, shuffled and then drawn consecutively. Again, the club drawn first will host the first match of the tie, while the club drawn second will host the second match. The clubs were placed in the reserved spots on the green side of the bracket representing Pairing 7 & 8 and their unseeded club opponent.

The same procedure was carried out with the remaining seeded pairings, continuing with Pairing 5 & 6 and concluding with Pairing 1 & 2, until all seeded clubs were drawn against all unseeded clubs and assigned to the appropriate position in the bracket.

QUARTER-FINALS

As all the potential opponents are known until the final, a draw was made to determine the order of the matches only (i.e. which club will host the first leg and which team the second leg).

To conduct the quarter-final draw, the round of 16 ties were labelled 1 to 8, starting from top to bottom on the silver side (1 to 4) and continuing top to bottom on the green side (5 to 8).

Four pots were prepared, with each pot containing two balls representing the winners of the round of 16 matches from one rung of the relevant side of the bracket. The first silver pot contained 'Winner of R16 - 1' and 'Winner of R16 - 2', while the second contained 'Winner of R16 - 3' and 'Winner of R16 - 4'. The first green pot contained 'Winner of R16 - 5' and 'Winner of R16 - 6' and the second contained 'Winner of R16 - 7' and 'Winner of R16 - 8'.

The first silver pot was poured into the central bowl. The balls were shuffled and then drawn, with the first ball drawn indicating the club that will play the first match of the quarter-final at home, and the second ball indicating the club that will play the second leg at home.

The procedure was repeated with the remaining silver pot, followed by the two green pots, to complete the order of matches for all the quarter-finals.

SEMI-FINALS

To conduct the semi-final draw, the quarter-final ties were labelled 1 to 4 starting from top to bottom on the silver side (1 to 2) and continuing top to bottom on the green side (3 to 4).

Two pots were prepared, one for the silver side of the bracket containing 'Winner of QF - 1' and 'Winner of QF - 2', and one for the green side of the bracket containing 'Winner of QF - 3' and 'Winner of QF - 4'.

The silver pot was poured into a central empty bowl. The balls were shuffled and then drawn, with the first ball drawn indicating the club that will play the first leg of the semi-final at home, and the second ball indicating the club that will play the second leg at home.

The procedure was repeated with the green pot to complete the order of matches for the green semi-final.

FINAL

One pot was prepared containing 'Winner of SF - 1' and 'Winner of SF - 2'.

The pot was poured into the central empty bowl. The balls were shuffled and then drawn, with the first ball drawn indicating the club that will play the first leg of the final at home, and the second ball indicating the club that will play the second leg at home.