The UEFA Champions League has already concluded for the year and today it is the turn of the Europa League. As usual, all matches will be played on Thursday, except one: Fenerbahçe vs. Athletic Club.
The match was played yesterday, Wednesday, to avoid two UEFA matches being played at the same time in the same city, Istanbul -the other being Istanbul Basaksehir in the Conference League-. Yesterday, Athletic Club Bilbao won 0-2, after two goals from Iñaki Williams, making it provisional leader.
One of the most interesting matches today is Viktoria Plzeň vs Manchester United, two teams with the same number of points, 9. Ruben Amorim still has chances to get into the first eight, after two consecutive victories.
Two top European teams, Lyon and Eintracht Frankfurt (second in the Bundesliga), face each other for the first time today and are both in the top 8. Another clash between two top-8 teams is Ajax vs. Lazio.
-Meanwhile, Real Sociedad have a golden opportunity to climb the charts as they meet Dinamo Kiev, the only team with 0 points.
Remember that the new Europa League format works the same as the Champions League. This means that teams between 1-8 will be given preferential access to the round of 16 (playing that second leg at home), teams between 25-36 will be eliminated and teams between 9 and 24 will be seeded in the same way as we have explained here.
All Europa League matches for Thursday December 12
Matches played at 6:45 PM CET, 1 hour earlier UK time
- Roma vs Braga
- Viktoria Plzeň against Manchester United
- Malmo tegen Galatasaray
- Olympiakos vs Twente
- PAOK against Ferencváros
- Ludogorets against AZ Alkmaar
- Union SG v Nice
- Hoffenheim tegen FCSB
Matches played at 9pm CET, 1 hour earlier UK time
- Ajax vs Lazio
- Porto against Midtjylland
- Bodø/Glimt from Beşiktaş
- Elfsborg against Karabakh
- Maccabi Tel-Aviv v RFS
- Lyon vs Eintracht Frankfurt
- Rangers vs Tottenham Hotspur
- Real Sociedad vs Dynamo Kiev
- Slavia Prague vs Anderlecht
