UEFA Europa League: 2018/19 season by numbers
Wednesday, May 29, 2019
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New competition records, oddities and eyebrow-raisers – UEFA.com picks out the season's killer stats.
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7 Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored all seven of Arsenal's semi-final goals against Valencia, and the Gunners' last eight in the competition prior to the final.
74 Unai Emery has overseen a record 74 UEFA Europa League matches; the next coach on the list, Jorge Jesus, has 52.
44 It took Villarreal's Carlos Bacca, final scorer in 2014 and 2016, just 44 seconds to register the group stage's first (and perhaps best) goal, a superb outside-of-the-boot volley from outside the box against Rangers.
18 Chelsea extended their unbeaten run in the UEFA Europa League to 18 matches, surpassing the previous best of 15 set by Atlético Madrid in 2011 and 2012. The Blues have not lost in the competition since April 2013.
39 Luxembourg became the 39th national association to be represented in the UEFA Europa League group stage.
6 Sevilla's 6-0 home win against Akhisar Belediyespor on matchday three equalled the record margin of victory in the competition.
3 This was the third one-nation UEFA Europa League final after Porto 1-0 Braga (2011) and Atlético Madrid 3-0 Athletic Club (2012). It also happened seven times in the UEFA Cup era.
5 Arsenal and Villarreal both kept a record-equalling five successive clean sheets during their campaigns.
4 The number of times you could fit the population of Dudelange's homonymous home town into San Siro. The Luxembourger team led AC Milan 2-1 before falling away in the last 25 minutes.
13 Dinamo Zagreb's run of 13 straight eliminations in a UEFA group stage ended as the 19-time Croatian champions qualified for the knockouts for the first time with two games to spare.
9 Chelsea were among nine sides who made their debut appearances in the UEFA Europa League group stage. When they won the title in 2013, they had switched from the UEFA Champions League before the knockouts.
119 Slavia Praha's valiant campaign finally looked to be over when Franco Vázquez’s 98th-minute effort left the unfancied Czechs needing to score twice against Sevilla to reach the quarter-finals. Mick van Buren quickly struck back and, in the 119th minute, Simon Kjær's own goal took them through 6-5 on aggregate.
8-1 Zenit were stunned 4-0 at Dinamo Minsk in the third qualifying round, setting the stage for a remarkable comeback in Russia – they won 8-1 after extra time!
5 Olivier Giroud netted in five consecutive UEFA Europa League games until Dynamo Kyiv finally found a way of keeping the formidable Frenchman at bay. He duly hit a perfect hat-trick in the second leg.
11 With 11 and 10 goals respectively, Chelsea striker Giroud and Frankfurt's Luka Jović both achieved double figures, only the fifth and sixth players to do so in the UEFA Europa League after Aritz Aduriz, Radamel Falcao (twice), Giuseppe Rossi and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar.
21 This season's oldest scorer David Català (38 years, 224 days) was 21 when AEK Larnaca team-mate and 2018/19's youngest scorer Dimitris Raspas (17 years, 186 days) was born.
7 Villarreal and Napoli both continued their perfect group stage records as they advanced to the knockout phase for the seventh time in as many attempts.
90,000 Rennes received 90,000 home ticket applications for their round of 16 first leg against Arsenal, for a stadium with a capacity of under 30,000. They won 3-1.
3 Salzburg finished the group stage with a 100% record for the third time – no other side have done it more than once.
17 RB Leipzig became the 17th different German club to grace the UEFA Europa League group stage.