It’s an interesting situation. Feyenoord, Midtjylland, Lazio and Sturm Graz all took the same 8 points. So, who’s through in the end?

Feyenoord, Midtjylland, Lazio and Sturm Graz have won 8 points in the Europa League group stage. Usually, the tie is decided by the balance of points at the end. However, it could not be used here and so the teams with the best score advanced.

Feyenoord, who lost to Lazio at the beginning, then swept Sturm Graz 6:0, which was crucial for the victory in Group F.

Midtjylland finished second with a score of 12::8 (Feyenoord 13::9), helped by a 5::1 win over Lazio. The two advancing teams then scored two goals in both matches, with Dávid Hancko scoring one of them.

The two matches also ended in a draw between non-advancing Lazio and Sturm Graz, which was decided in the last round when Feyenoord managed to beat Lazio 1-0. The Austrian side lost 2-0 to Midtjylland.

The Italian team, led by Maurizio Sarri, is at least in the Conference League thanks to more goals scored, but no Czech team will be playing in the spring. Slavia came the closest, but failed to beat Sivasspor in the last round.

The last place was left to Sturm Graz, even though they won the same number of points as the first-placed Feyenoord. It’s an interesting situation that you don’t see every year.

In the Europa League, then, all the big favourites like Arsenal, Manchester United and AS Roma remain, joined by other giants like Barcelona and Juventus.

Europe’s second best competition, which lives in the shadow of the Champions League, has thus been given quite a gloss with the introduction of the Conference League, with a number of European giants regularly featuring.

Source: UEFA