Europa League matchday one facts and figures

• With their 6-0 victory at home to Aalborg BK, FC Steaua Bucureşti became the first team in the history of the UEFA Europa League to score six goals in a game. Their achievement was swiftly matched by PAOK FC, who ran out 6-1 winners at home to FC Dinamo Minsk. There had been 1,037 matches played in the competition before Steaua and PAOK kicked off.

• While 6-0 and 6-1 are now the two biggest winning scorelines in UEFA Europa League history, BSC Young Boys managed to match the old record of 5-0 with their home victory against ŠK Slovan Bratislava.

• Steaua set another competition record as Claudiu Keşerü registered the UEFA Europa League's fastest hat-trick. His three goals between the 61st and 72nd minutes took the record away from Liverpool FC's Steven Gerrard, who struck a 13-minute treble against SSC Napoli in 2010/11.

• Matchday one was a night for quickfire hat-tricks as PAOK's Stefanos Athanasiadis (18 minutes) claimed the third fastest in UEFA Europa League history and GNK Dinamo Zagreb's El Arbi Hilal Soudani (29) the fifth fastest.

• Fourteen teams made their group stage debut on matchday one and only one managed a victory, FC Dinamo Moskva prevailing 2-1 at Panathinaikos FC. It was a sobering night generally for the newcomers, with eight of them losing and the 14 sides between them managing just six goals while conceding 31.

• Only one nation has a representative in the group stage for the first time, Finland and HJK Helsinki (who lost 2-0 at FC København). That means 36 of UEFA's 54 member associations have now supplied at least one team to the competition during its six years of existence.

PSV's Luuk de Jong was on target again©AFP/Getty Images

• PSV Eindhoven are the sole club to have been involved in all six UEFA Europa League campaigns, and have also played more games in the competition than any other side, the 1-0 home success over Estoril-Praia being their 43rd. It was their 23rd victory, which puts them joint second in the all-time listings alongside Club Atlético de Madrid, two wins behind SL Benfica.

• Luuk de Jong, who converted PSV's winning penalty against Estoril, became the first player with a UEFA Europa League goal tally in double figures to score for three different clubs. His first goal for PSV followed eight for FC Twente and two with VfL Borussia Mönchengladbach.

• FC Salzburg's Jonatan Soriano, the competition's top marksman in 2013/14, got off the mark with his team's second equaliser in the 2-2 draw with Celtic FC – the competition's 2,700th goal.

• Ante Ćorić became, at 17 years and 157 days, the UEFA Europa League's fourth youngest goalscorer in Dinamo Zagreb's 5-1 win at home to FC Astra Giurgiu. The youngest scorer is still Romelu Lukaku, who netted for RSC Anderlecht against AFC Ajax in the inaugural 2009/10 competition aged 16 years and 218 days.

• There are ten national title holders in this season's UEFA Europa League field, but just three of them – Croatia's Dinamo Zagreb, Poland's Legia Warszawa and Romania's Steaua – mustered an opening win. There were defeats for the champions of the Czech Republic (AC Sparta Praha), Denmark (AaB), Finland (HJK) and Slovakia (Slovan), while those from Azerbaijan (Qarabağ FK), Austria (Salzburg) and Scotland (Celtic) all drew, the latter two against each other.

It was a good night for Everton©Getty Images

• Of the six sides that qualified automatically for the group stage, the three playing at home – Everton FC, ACF Fiorentina and holders Sevilla FC – all won and the three playing away – EA Guingamp, VfL Wolfsburg and Estoril – all lost.

• There were no victories for any of the four teams who began the campaign in the second qualifying round. While Dinamo Minsk and HNK Rijeka were both beaten away from home, FC Krasnodar (1-1 at LOSC Lille) and Asteras Tripolis FC (1-1 at Beşiktaş JK) picked up a point on their travels.

• Italy, with four clubs, have the largest number of representatives in this term's group stage, and the Serie A contingent got off to an excellent start, with Fiorentina, Napoli and FC Internazionale all winning and debutants Torino FC drawing away. The next best represented countries are Belgium, France, Greece and Ukraine with three teams apiece.

Mike Hammond is the editor of the European Football Yearbook, the 2014/15 edition of which is out now.