For a fan’s point of view, Europa League is a very difficult to manage. Impossible, even. Whereas UEFA’s Champions League splits a smaller field (eight groups as opposed to 12) over two days of games, Europe’s second tournament packs 24 matches into a handful of Thursday hours. Assuming eight hours sleep, it would take you two-and-half days to watch every match day’s Europa League games, something I’m convinced nobody does. It’s hard for a competition to develop much of a following when you can’t watch all the games.
If your club is in the tournament, however, the tournament takes on a different meaning. Not only do you get more games from your team (usually involving players who play less in league) but you’re seeing a slew of clubs and venues that you’d otherwise never watch. It’s unlikely many Spurs fans had seen a game at Tromsø before today’s win in Norway.
[MORE: Few questions answered as Tottenham rebounds with Europa League win]
As with Champions League, though, group stage is winding down, meaning a number of spots in the competition’s Round of 32 have already been claimed. After today’s results, 18 teams know they’ll still be playing in Europe come February, with 14 different nations putting teams into the knockout round:
- Anzhi Makhachkala (Russia)
- AZ Alkmaar (Netherlands)
- Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk (Ukraine)
- Eintracht Frankfurt (Germany)
- Esbjerg (Denmark)
- Fiorentina (Italy)
- Genk (Belgium)
- Lazio (Italy)
- Ludogorets Razgrad (Bulgaria)
- Lyon (France)
- PAOK (Greece)
- Real Betis (Spain)
- Red Bull Salzburg (Austria)
- Rubin Kazan (Russia)
- Sevilla (Spain)
- Tottenham Hotspur (England)
- Trabzonspor (Turkey)
- Valencia (Spain)
Come Dec. 12, these 18 teams will be joined by six more from Europa League and the eight third place finishers from Champions League’s group. To date, however, only Tottenham have clinched first in their group.
Here are Thursday’s results:
Shakhter Karagandy 0 - 2 PAOK
Kuban’ Krasnodar 4 - 0 St. Gallen
Rubin Kazan 1 - 1 Maribor
Anzhi 1 - 1 Sheriff
Genk 3 - 1 Dynamo Kyiv
Rapid Wien 2 - 1 Thun
Slovan Liberec 1 - 2 Freiburg
Sevilla 1 - 1 Estoril
Lyon 1 - 0 Real Betis
Rijeka 0 - 0 Vitória Guimarães
Trabzonspor 4 - 2 Apollon
Legia Warsaw 0 - 2 Lazio
Tromsø 0 - 2 Tottenham Hotspur
AZ Alkmaar 2 - 0 Maccabi Haifa
Swansea City 0 - 1 Valencia
Chornomorets 2 - 1 Dinamo Zagreb
Ludogorets 2 - 0 PSV
Elfsborg 0 - 1 Salzburg
Esbjerg 2 - 1 Standard Liège
Wigan Athletic 1 - 2 Zulte-Waregem
Paços de Ferreira 0 - 0 Fiorentina
Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk 4 - 1 Pandurii Târgu Jiu
Bordeaux 0 - 1 Eintracht Frankfurt
APOEL 0 - 0 Maccabi Tel Aviv
