Slavia was the only one from the first basket of the Conference League to drop out in the group

A mediocre Turkish league team, a weak Romanian champion and a cup debutant from Kosovo. Slavia was the clear favourite for first place after being drawn in a group with Sivaspor, Cluj and Ballkani, but failed to qualify for the knockout stage.

Along with Slavia, there were several big-name clubs in the first basket. Last year’s Champions League semi-finalist Villarreal flew through the group with Lech Poznan, Hapoel Beer Sheva and Austria Wien and celebrated advancing from first place.

West Ham, with two Czechs in the squad, literally put on a one club show. He was the only one, together with Bayern Munich, to win all six cup competitions, and he was twice lucky to beat FCSB, Silkeborg and Anderlecht.

But the rest of the basket wasn’t as good. Basel have been struggling of late, yet came through from a simple group with Slovan Bratislava, Zalgiris Vilnius and Pyunik Yerevan to at least second place.

Gent, with Michael Ngade, grabbed promotion from second place in the last round by winning a straight game against Molde, beating the Norwegian runners-up 4:0. Djurgarden finished ahead of them in the surprise group stage.

Basaksehir supported the successful campaign of the Turkish teams, leaving even Fiorentina behind in the table and going straight to the eighth round. At home, Antonin Barak and co. were ridiculed with a 3:0 defeat.

Alkmaar, like last year in the group with Jablonec, came from first place to qualify, followed by Dnipro-1, Apollon Limassol and Vaduz. Partizan Belgrade lost the first place in the last round to Slovácko, but they are still moving on from the second place.

Source: UEFA