Roma will also play in the Europa League in the 2024-2025 season. Atalanta’s victory against Torino in fact confirmed the Giallorossi’s failure to qualify for the Champions League. Like the Champions League, the second European club competition will also undergo some important changes to its formula.
THE CHAMPIONSHIP PHASE – The participants in the main phase of the competition, as in the Champions League, will increase from 32 to 36 and there will no longer be groups of 4 teams. Instead, there will be a single ranking that will determine the teams qualified for the direct elimination phase: the top 8 ranked will go directly to the round of 16, those who finish from 9th to 24th position will play the playoffs and the others will be eliminated. There are no longer any “relegations” in the Conference League.
THE CALENDAR – Each team will play 8 matches, 4 at home and 4 away, against as many different opponents drawn by lot. The 36 teams, in fact, will be divided into 4 brackets and each team will play with 2 opponents per bracket, including their own. Roma will be seeded, but this will not prevent them, for example, from facing Tottenham, also in the first pot. Basically, national derbies cannot be played at this stage, but it is a rule that can provide for an exception in case it is not possible to draw up a calendar without these matches: with only 2 (or 3) teams in this competition, they are therefore exclude crosses between Italians in the championship phase.
SINGLE GOALS ALSO COUNT – The ranking will obviously be determined by the number of points won. In the event of a draw, the first discriminating factor will be the goal difference, then the goals scored, then the goals scored away, then the victories obtained, then the victories obtained away, then the number of points obtained by the teams faced, then the number of goals scored by the teams faced, then the best disciplinary situation, then the UEFA coefficient. Therefore, even a goal scored more or less can determine a change in position in the standings, which in turn has its weight in the direct elimination phase.
THE DIRECT ELIMINATION PHASE – This is because the draw will be tennis style, meaning that in the playoffs, the teams number 9 and 10 in the ranking will be drawn against the teams number 23 and 24, the teams number 11 and 12 will face the numbers 21 and 22 and so on : positioning yourself higher in the rankings in the championship phase will certainly allow you to face a “better” opponent and have a better positioning in the scoreboard. Likewise, the draw for the round of 16 is already predetermined, with the draws which, also in this case, will concern the pairs of teams 1-2, 3-4, 5-6 and 7-8, to determine their position in the same. The quarter-finals and semi-finals will then be played, always following the scoreboard and without further draws until reaching the final set for 21 May 2025 at the San Mames Stadium in Bilbao.
DATES
Presentation of the championship phase calendar: August 30, 2024
First day: 25-26 September 2024
Second day: October 3, 2024
Third day: October 24, 2024
Fourth day: November 7, 2024
Fifth day: November 28, 2024
Sixth day: December 12, 2024
Seventh day: January 23, 2025
Eighth day: January 30, 2025
Draw of the positioning of the teams in the draw of the direct elimination phase: January 31, 2025
Playoffs: 13 February 2025 – 20 February 2025
Round of 16: March 6, 2025 – March 13, 2025
Quarter finals: 10 April 2025 – 17 April 2025
Semifinals: 1 May 2025 – 8 May 2025
The final: May 21, 2025
