UEFA Europa League: 2021/22 season in numbers
Monday, May 23, 2022
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UEFA.com picks out our top stats from another record-setting campaign.
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13 Eintracht Frankfurt finished unbeaten in this season's competition (W7 D6) and are only the third side in the UEFA Europa League era to complete an unbeaten campaign after Chelsea (2018/19) and Villarreal (2020/21).
7 All seven of Europa League top scorer James Tavernier's goals came in the knockout stages, and he opened the scoring in all four of the Scottish side's knockout home games. Reminder: he's a right-back.
9:34 Patson Daka struck the quickest ever Europa League hat-trick as Leicester recovered from 2-0 down at Spartak Moskva on Matchday 3, the Zambian sealing the points with a fourth 25 minutes later.
22 Galatasaray went through an UEFA group stage unbeaten for the first time, at the 22nd time of asking. Frankfurt, Monaco and Lyon were also undefeated heading into the knockout stages.
1 West Ham made their debut in a UEFA group stage as they returned to European competition proper for the first time since 2006/07.
6 Filip Kostić provided a competition-high six assists in this season's Europa League, for five different scorers – Sam Lammers, Gonçalo Paciência, Djibril Sow, Rafael Borré (2) and a Guido Rodríguez own goal.
79.5 Of the 40 sides that featured in this season's competition, Frankfurt ranked 29th in terms of passing accuracy (79.5%); Rangers were 29th (80.6%).
3 Braga beat Sheriff 3-2 on spot kicks in the knockout round play-offs, the only tie this season to go to a penalty shoot-out before the final. Three is the lowest number of successful conversions ever required to win a Europa League tie.
16 Braga's Roger Fernandes became the youngest ever Europa League player, aged 16 years and 88 days when the Bissau-born winger came on in the first leg at Sheriff.
41 Legia goalkeeper Artur Boruc was the oldest player to feature this season. At 41, he is a year older than Betis talisman Joaquín and Rangers' Allan McGregor.
6 Lyon extended their winning run on their travels in the Europa League to six games – matching a record shared by Atlético de Madrid (2011–12) and Porto (2010–11) – before they were held at West Ham in the quarter-finals.
12.60 Eljif Elmas's opener for Napoli against Spartak Moskva on Matchday 2 was timed at 12.60 seconds, the second fastest goal in UEFA Europa League history after Jan Sýkora's 10.69-second effort for Liberec at Qarabağ in 2016/17. The Italian side went on to lose 3-2.
23 Rangers were the top-scoring team in this season's competition on 23 goals, two more than second-placed Frankfurt. The Scottish side played two games more.
7 For the seventh successive season, an English team made it to the semi-finals, but Spain's record eight-year run in the last four came to an end.
53 There were 53 goals across the eight ties in the new knockout round play-offs, an average of 6.6 per tie.
2 Finalists Rangers and Frankfurt were both seeded in Pot 2 for the group stage draw back in August. Frankfurt rose to 27th in the UEFA rankings having begun the season 48th, while Rangers climbed from 52nd to 34th.
5 Despite there being fewer matches in 2021/22, the final was the fifth knockout tie to go to extra time. No Europa League season had ever previously had more than four, finals included.
11 Daichi Kamada has 11 goals in 23 outings in the Europa League proper, as many as he has scored in 95 Bundesliga games. The Japan forward managed five in 13 in the competition this season.
1 Frankfurt will play in the Champions League for the first time next season – their only season in UEFA's premier club competition previous was in 1959/60, when they made it to the European Cup final.
