The 2022–23 UEFA Europa League knockout phase began on 16 February with the knockout round play-offs and ended on 31 May 2023 with the final at the Puskás Aréna in Budapest, Hungary, to decide the champions of the 2022–23 UEFA Europa League.[1] A total of 24 teams competed in the knockout phase.[2]
Times are CET/CEST,[note 1] as listed by UEFA (local times, if different, are in parentheses).
Qualified teams
The knockout phase involved 24 teams: the 16 teams which qualified as winners and runners-up of each of the eight groups in the group stage, and the eight third-placed teams from the Champions League group stage.
Europa League group stage winners and runners-up
Group
Winners (advance to round of 16 and seeded in draw)
Runners-up (advance to KO play-offs and seeded in draw)
Each tie in the knockout phase, apart from the final, was played over two legs, with each team playing one leg at home. The team that scored more goals on aggregate over the two legs advanced to the next round. If the aggregate score was level, then 30 minutes of extra time was played (the away goals rule was not applied). If the score was still level at the end of extra time, the winners were decided by a penalty shoot-out. In the final, which was played as a single match, if the score was level at the end of normal time, extra time was played, followed by a penalty shoot-out if the score was still level.[2]
The mechanism of the draws for each round was as follows:
In the draw for the knockout round play-offs, the eight group runners-up were seeded, and the eight Champions League group third-placed teams were unseeded. The seeded teams were drawn against the unseeded teams, with the seeded teams hosting the second leg. Teams from the same association could not be drawn against each other.
In the draw for the round of 16, the eight group winners were seeded, and the eight winners of the knockout round play-offs were unseeded. Again, the seeded teams were drawn against the unseeded teams, with the seeded teams hosting the second leg. Teams from the same association could not be drawn against each other.
In the draws for the quarter-finals onwards, there were no seedings, and teams from the same association could be drawn against each other. As the draws for the quarter-finals and semi-finals were held together before the quarter-finals were played, the identity of the quarter-final winners was not known at the time of the semi-final draw. A draw was also held to determine which semi-final winner would be designated as the "home" team for the final (for administrative purposes as it was played at a neutral venue).
In the knockout phase, teams from the same or nearby cities (Roma and Lazio, Fenerbahçe and İstanbul Başakşehir, and Anderlecht and Union Saint-Gilloise, who share the same stadium), the second team listed played in the Europa Conference League were not scheduled to play at home on the same day, due to logistics and crowd control. To avoid such scheduling conflicts, adjustments had to be made by UEFA. For the knockout round playoffs and a round of 16, since both teams were drawn to play at home in a given leg, the home match of the team that was not the domestic cup or Europa Conference League winner, or lower domestic ranking (if neither are the domestic cup or Europa Conference League winner; i.e. Lazio and Anderlecht for this season), was moved from Thursday to Wednesday.[3] For the quarter-finals and semi-finals, if the two teams were drawn to play at home for the same leg, the order of legs of the tie involving the team with the lowest priority was reversed from the original draw.[4]
Schedule
The schedule was as follows (all draws were held at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland).[1]
The final was played on 31 May 2023 at the Puskás Aréna in Budapest. A draw was held on 17 March 2023, after the quarter-final and semi-final draws, to determine the "home" team for administrative purposes.[41]
^CET (UTC+1) for dates up to 25 March 2023 (round of 16), and CEST (UTC+2) for dates thereafter (quarter-finals, semi-finals and final).
^ abDue to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Ukrainian teams were required to play their home matches at neutral venues until further notice.[12] Therefore, Shakhtar Donetsk played at Stadion Wojska Polskiego, Warsaw, Poland, instead of their regular stadium Donbass Arena, Donetsk.[13]
^ abUnion Saint-Gilloise played their home matches at Constant Vanden Stock Stadium, Brussels, instead of their regular stadium, Joseph Marien Stadium, Brussels, which did not meet UEFA requirements.
^Ferencváros played their home matches at Puskás Aréna, Budapest, instead of their regular stadium, Ferencváros Stadion, Budapest.
Note: Between the 1999–2000 and 2008–09 seasons, the competition was still known as the UEFA Cup. All seasons are included following the competition's absorption of the Cup Winners' Cup.
