Aston Villa will play European football for the third season running in 2025/26, competing in the UEFA Europa League.
Unai Emery’s side will enter the prestigious competition – in its 55th season – past the qualifying round for the first time since its rebrand from the UEFA Cup in 2009, after a sixth-placed finish in the Premier League table this time around.
Here are all the key details you need ahead of the 2025/26 Europa League…
Teams
Ezri Konsa Lille
Thirteen sides have already secured their place in the league phase, with the remainder of the line-up to be put together following the conclusion of the qualifying round.
The league phase currently comprises two teams each from England, Italy, Germany, Spain and France, and one each from Holland, Portugal and Croatia.
Five sides have already secured a spot in the final play-off round, with three teams already in the third qualifying round, and the line-ups for qualifying rounds one and two complete.
Teams to have already qualified for the league phase are as follows…
Aston Villa (England)
Crystal Palace (England)
Lille (France)
Lyon (France)
Bologna (Italy)
Roma (Italy)
Freiburg (Germany)
Stuttgart (Germany)
Celta Vigo (Spain)
Real Betis (Spain)
Dinamo Zagreb (Croatia)
Go Ahead Eagles (Holland)
Porto (Portugal)
Fixture dates
UEFA Europa League
The competition this season will get underway on Thursday, July 10, in the first qualifying round.
The play-off round will commence on Thursday, August 21, with the league phase to get underway from Wednesday, September 24.
Like this season’s Champions League, Villa will contest six of their league matches in 2025, with the final two held in the new year, including matchday eight, on Thursday, January 29.
Full fixture dates can be seen below…
First qualifying round: 10/17 July 2025
Second qualifying round: 24/31 July 2025
Third qualifying round: 7/14 August 2025
Play-offs: 21/28 August 2025
Matchday 1: 24/25 September 2025
Matchday 2: 2 October 2025
Matchday 3: 23 October 2025
Matchday 4: 6 November 2025
Matchday 5: 27 November 2025
Matchday 6: 11 December 2025
Matchday 7: 22 January 2026
Matchday 8: 29 January 2026
Knockout phase play-offs: 19/26 February 2026
Round of 16: 12/19 March 2026
Quarter-finals: 9/16 April 2026
Semi-finals: 30 April/7 May 2026
Final: 20 May 2026
Draw dates
UEFA Europa League draw
The draws for the first and second qualifying rounds will both take place later this month, with the draw for the third qualifying round next month and the final play-off round draw being held at the beginning of August.
Villa will discover their opponents when the league phase draw is conducted on Friday, August 29.
The round of 32 draw will take place on Friday, January 30 following the conclusion of the league phase, while the bracket will be completed with the draw for the round of 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals and final on Friday, February 27.
Full draw dates are as follows...
First qualifying round: 17 June 2025
Second qualifying round: 18 June 2025
Third qualifying round: 21 July 2025
Play-offs: 4 August 2025
League phase: 29 August 2025
Knockout phase play-offs: 30 January 2026
Round of 16, quarter-final, semi-final, and final: 27 February 2026
Format
UEFA Europa League
Having been introduced last season, the 2025/26 Europa League will again follow the league phase format, mirroring the Champions League and Conference League.
In a table of 36 teams, the top 24 will qualify for the round of 32, with the top eight automatically skipping this round and advancing straight to the last 16.
From there, a straight knockout format determines the finalists and eventual winner, with each tie apart from the final held over two legs - home and away.
The away goals rule has been discontinued in recent years, meaning a level aggregate scoreline after 90 minutes will see the second legs go to extra-time and penalties to decide a winner.
As is tradition, the winner of the competition will earn a place in the league phase of the 2026/27 Champions League.
Final
Beşiktaş Stadyumu
The final will take place traditionally on a Wednesday evening at the end of the season, being held in Istanbul, Türkiye, on May 20.
It will be staged at Beşiktaş Stadyumu, which also hosted the 2019 UEFA Super Cup Final between Liverpool and Chelsea, which the Reds won on penalties.
History
Aston Villa UEFA Cup
Villa’s history in the Europa League currently comprises just two campaigns, with both having ended in the qualifying round, meaning next season will be the first time they have competed in the group stage or recently-introduced league phase round.
Defeats to Austria’s Rapid Vienna in the play-off rounds in both 2009/10 and 2010/11 represent the Villans’ best finish in the current iteration of the tournament to date, though they have a more recognisable history in the UEFA Cup, having partaken in no less than 11 campaigns.
Their first, in 1975/76, saw them exit in the first round at the hands of Royel Antwerp, though they would make the quarter-finals two years later, losing to Barcelona, before a second-round elimination in 1983/84.
The 1990s saw Villa establish themselves as a regular in European football, with six campaigns in the UEFA Cup, the highlight of which another run to the quarter-finals in 1997/98 which would be halted by Atlético Madrid.
Two more runs followed in the 2000s, where a first-round elimination in 2001/02 was followed by a run to the round of 32 in 2008/09, which proved the final year of the UEFA Cup before the switch to the Europa League.