The curtains came down on the 2021/22 Europa League season on Wednesday night with Eintracht Frankfurt beating Rangers on penalties to lift the coveted crown.
The Germans did not lose a single match through the season, becoming the third side to achieve such feat, joining Sevilla and Chelsea.
Here are some of the top numbers from the just-concluded season.
- 13 Eintracht Frankfurt finished unbeaten in this season’s competition (W7 D6) and are only the third side in the UEFA Europa League era to complete an unbeaten campaign after Chelsea (2018/19) and Villarreal (2020/21)
- 7 All seven of Europa League top scorer James Tavernier’s goals came in the knockout stages, and he opened the scoring in all four of the Scottish side’s knockout home games. Reminder: he’s a right-back
- 9:34 Patson Daka struck the quickest ever Europa League hat-trick as Leicester recovered from 2-0 down at Spartak Moskva on Matchday 3, the Zambian sealing the points with a fourth 25 minutes later
- 22 Galatasaray went through an UEFA group stage unbeaten for the first time, at the 22nd time of asking. Frankfurt, Monaco and Lyon were also undefeated heading into the knockout stages
- 1 West Ham made their debut in a UEFA group stage as they returned to European competition proper for the first time since 2006/07
- 6 Filip Kostić provided a competition-high six assists in this season’s Europa League, for five different scorers – Sam Lammers, Gonçalo Paciência, Djibril Sow, Rafael Borré (2) and a Guido Rodríguez own goal
- 3 Braga beat Sheriff 3-2 on spot kicks in the knockout round play-offs, the only tie this season to go to a penalty shoot-out before the final
- 16 Braga’s Roger Fernandes became the youngest ever Europa League player, aged 16 years and 88 days when the Bissau-born winger came on in the first leg at Sheriff
- 41 Legia goalkeeper Artur Boruc was the oldest player to feature this season
- 6 Lyon extended their winning run on their travels in the Europa League to six games – matching a record shared by Atlético de Madrid (2011–12) and Porto (2010–11) – before they were held at West Ham in the quarter-finals
- 12.60 Eljif Elmas’s opener for Napoli against Spartak Moskva on Matchday 2 was timed at 12.60 seconds, the second-fastest goal in UEFA Europa League history after Jan Sýkora’s 10.69-second effort for Liberec at Qarabağ in 2016/17
- 23 Rangers were the top-scoring team in this season’s competition on 23 goals, two more than second-placed Frankfurt
- 7 For the seventh successive season, an English team made it to the semi-finals, but Spain’s record eight-year run in the last four came to an end
- 53 There were 53 goals across the eight ties in the new knockout round play-offs, an average of 6.6 per tie
- 2 Finalists Rangers and Frankfurt were both seeded in Pot 2 for the group stage draw back in August
- 11 Daichi Kamada has 11 goals in 23 outings in the Europa League proper, as many as he has scored in 95 Bundesliga games
- 1 Frankfurt will play in the Champions League for the first time next season – their only season in UEFA’s premier club competition previous was in 1959/60, when they made it to the European Cup final
