2015–16 UEFA Europa League group stage

The 2015–16 UEFA Europa League group stage was played from 17 September to 10 December 2015. A total of 48 teams competed in the group stage to decide 24 of the 32 places in the knockout phase of the 2015–16 UEFA Europa League.^[1]

The draw was held on 28 August 2015, 13:00 CEST, at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco.^[2][3] The 48 teams were drawn into twelve groups of four, with the restriction that teams from the same association could not be drawn against each other. For the draw, the teams were seeded into four pots based on their 2015 UEFA club coefficients.^[4][5][6] Moreover, the draw was controlled for teams from the same association in order to split the teams evenly into the two sets of groups (A–F, G–L) for maximum television coverage.

The fixtures were decided after the draw. On each matchday, six groups play their matches at 19:00 CEST/CET, while the other six groups play their matches at 21:05 CEST/CET, with the two sets of groups (A–F, G–L) alternating between each matchday. There are other restrictions: for example, teams from the same city (e.g., Sporting CP and Belenenses, Fenerbahçe and Beşiktaş) in general do not play at home on the same matchday (UEFA tries to avoid teams from the same city playing at home on the same day, due to logistics and crowd control), and teams in certain countries (e.g., Belarus, Russia) do not play at home on the last matchday (due to cold weather and simultaneous kick-off times).

On 17 July 2014, the UEFA emergency panel ruled that Ukrainian and Russian clubs would not be drawn against each other "until further notice" due to the political unrest between the countries.^[7] Therefore, Ukrainian club Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk (Pot 1) and Russian clubs Rubin Kazan (Pot 1), Lokomotiv Moscow and Krasnodar (both Pot 3) could not be drawn into the same group.

Below are the 48 teams which qualified for the group stage (with their 2015 UEFA club coefficients),^[4] grouped by their seeding pot.^[8][9] They included sixteen teams which entered in this stage, the 22 winners of the play-off round, and the ten losers of the Champions League play-off round.

Key to colours
Group winners and runners-up advance to the round of 32

Pot 1 Team Coeff Schalke 04 111.883 Borussia Dortmund[†] 99.883 Basel[CL-CR] 84.875 Napoli 84.102 Tottenham Hotspur 84.078 Ajax[†] 66.195 Villarreal 58.999 Rubin Kazan[†] 57.099 Athletic Bilbao[†] 56.999 Sporting CP[CL-LR] 56.276 Marseille 55.483 Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk 52.033

Pot 2 Team Coeff Braga 51.776 Fiorentina 49.102 Lazio[CL-LR] 49.102 Anderlecht 47.440 Liverpool 47.078 AZ[†] 46.695 Viktoria Plzeň[†] 41.825 Club Brugge[CL-LR] 41.440 PAOK[†] 40.880 Celtic[CL-CR] 39.080 Beşiktaş 36.520 APOEL[CL-CR] 35.460

Pot 3 Team Coeff Monaco[CL-LR] 31.483 Sparta Prague[†] 30.825 Fenerbahçe[†] 30.020 Legia Warsaw[†] 24.800 Bordeaux[†] 24.483 Lokomotiv Moscow 23.099 Lech Poznań[†] 17.300 Saint-Étienne[†] 16.983 Slovan Liberec[†] 16.325 FC Augsburg 15.883 Rapid Wien[CL-LR] 15.635 Krasnodar[†] 15.099

Pot 4 Team Coeff Partizan[CL-CR] 14.775 Asteras Tripolis 13.380 Belenenses[†] 12.276 Rosenborg[†] 11.875 Qarabağ[†] 11.500 Molde[†] 10.375 Dinamo Minsk[†] 9.650 Groningen 8.695 Sion 8.375 Midtjylland[†] 7.960 Skënderbeu[CL-CR] 5.575 Gabala[†] 2.750

Notes

In each group, teams played against each other home-and-away in a round-robin format. The group winners and runners-up advanced to the round of 32, where they were joined by the eight third-placed teams from the Champions League group stage.^[1]

The teams were ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If two or more teams were equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following criteria were applied in the order given to determine the rankings (regulations Article 16.01):^[1]

1. higher number of points obtained in the group matches played among the teams in question;
2. superior goal difference from the group matches played among the teams in question;
3. higher number of goals scored in the group matches played among the teams in question;
4. higher number of goals scored away from home in the group matches played among the teams in question;
5. if, after having applied criteria 1 to 4, teams still had an equal ranking, criteria 1 to 4 were reapplied exclusively to the matches between the teams in question to determine their final rankings. If this procedure did not lead to a decision, criteria 6 to 12 applied;
6. superior goal difference in all group matches;
7. higher number of goals scored in all group matches;
8. higher number of away goals scored in all group matches;
9. higher number of wins in all group matches;
10. higher number of away wins in all group matches;
11. lower disciplinary points total based only on yellow and red cards received in all group matches (red card = 3 points, yellow card = 1 point, expulsion for two yellow cards in one match = 3 points);
12. higher club coefficient.

The matchdays were 17 September, 1 October, 22 October, 5 November, 26 November, and 10 December 2015.^[10] The match kickoff times were 19:00 and 21:05 CEST/CET, except for six matches (certain matches in Azerbaijan, Belarus, Russia and Turkey) which were 17:00 CEST/CET.^[11][12] Times up to 24 October 2015 (matchdays 1–3) were CEST (UTC+2), thereafter (matchdays 4–6) times were CET (UTC+1).

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		MOL	FEN	AJX	CEL
1	Molde	6	3	2	1	10	7	+3	11	Advance to knockout phase		—	0–2	1–1	3–1
2	Fenerbahçe	6	2	3	1	7	6	+1	9			1–3	—	1–0	1–1
3	Ajax	6	1	4	1	6	6	0	7			1–1	0–0	—	2–2
4	Celtic	6	0	3	3	8	12	−4	3			1–2	2–2	1–2	—

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Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		LIV	SIO	RUB	BOR
1	Liverpool	6	2	4	0	6	4	+2	10	Advance to knockout phase		—	1–1	1–1	2–1
2	Sion	6	2	3	1	5	5	0	9			0–0	—	2–1	1–1
3	Rubin Kazan	6	1	3	2	6	6	0	6			0–1	2–0	—	0–0
4	Bordeaux	6	0	4	2	5	7	−2	4			1–1	0–1	2–2	—

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Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		KRA	DOR	PAOK	QAB
1	Krasnodar	6	4	1	1	9	4	+5	13	Advance to knockout phase		—	1–0	2–1	2–1
2	Borussia Dortmund	6	3	1	2	10	5	+5	10			2–1	—	0–1	4–0
3	PAOK	6	1	4	1	3	3	0	7			0–0	1–1	—	0–0
4	Gabala	6	0	2	4	2	12	−10	2			0–3	1–3	0–0	—

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Notes

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		NAP	MID	BRU	LEG
1	Napoli	6	6	0	0	22	3	+19	18	Advance to knockout phase		—	5–0	5–0	5–2
2	Midtjylland	6	2	1	3	6	12	−6	7			1–4	—	1–1	1–0
3	Club Brugge	6	1	2	3	4	11	−7	5			0–1	1–3	—	1–0
4	Legia Warsaw	6	1	1	4	4	10	−6	4			0–2	1–0	1–1	—

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Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		RW	VIL	PLZ	DMI
1	Rapid Wien	6	5	0	1	10	6	+4	15	Advance to knockout phase		—	2–1	3–2	2–1
2	Villarreal	6	4	1	1	12	6	+6	13			1–0	—	1–0	4–0
3	Viktoria Plzeň	6	1	1	4	8	10	−2	4			1–2	3–3	—	2–0
4	Dinamo Minsk	6	1	0	5	3	11	−8	3			0–1	1–2	1–0	—

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Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		BRA	MAR	LIB	GRO
1	Braga	6	4	1	1	7	4	+3	13	Advance to knockout phase		—	3–2	2–1	1–0
2	Marseille	6	4	0	2	12	7	+5	12			1–0	—	0–1	2–1
3	Slovan Liberec	6	2	1	3	6	8	−2	7			0–1	2–4	—	1–1
4	Groningen	6	0	2	4	2	8	−6	2			0–0	0–3	0–1	—

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Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		LAZ	SET	DNI	ROS
1	Lazio	6	4	2	0	13	6	+7	14	Advance to knockout phase		—	3–2	3–1	3–1
2	Saint-Étienne	6	2	3	1	10	7	+3	9			1–1	—	3–0	2–2
3	Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk	6	2	1	3	6	8	−2	7			1–1	0–1	—	3–0
4	Rosenborg	6	0	2	4	4	12	−8	2			0–2	1–1	0–1	—

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Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		LMO	SPO	BES	SKE
1	Lokomotiv Moscow	6	3	2	1	12	7	+5	11	Advance to knockout phase		—	2–4	1–1	2–0
2	Sporting CP	6	3	1	2	14	11	+3	10			1–3	—	3–1	5–1
3	Beşiktaş	6	2	3	1	7	6	+1	9			1–1	1–1	—	2–0
4	Skënderbeu	6	1	0	5	4	13	−9	3			0–3	3–0	0–1	—