UEFA Europa League: Qarabag FC to face IF Elfsborg

Qarabag FC will play a next match in the 6th round of the UEFA Europa League Main Stage on December 12.

The Azerbaijani champion will face Swedish team IF Elfsborg at the Boras Arena.

The match will be refereed by Portuguese main referee António Nobre. The game starts at 00:00 (Baku time).

The players coached by Gurban Gurbanov will start the match with significant losses.

Due to injuries, defenders Kevin Medina, Bahlu Mustafazadeh and midfielder Alexey Isaev will miss the game.

Note that Qarabag FC which has three points, ranks 32nd in the tournament table.

To advance to the playoffs, the Azerbaijani representative must enter the top 24 teams.

The 2024–25 UEFA Europa League is the 54th season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 16th season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League.

This is the first season played under a new format, which replaces the 32-team group stage with a 36-team league phase.

This increases the total number of matches played in the competition (excluding qualifying rounds) from 141 to 189.

The new format also does not allow teams to transfer from the Champions League league or knockout phase to the Europa League knockout phase, and thus Europa League winners (Atalanta in the 2023–24 edition) can no longer defend their title as the winner of the Europa League automatically qualifies for the Champions League league phase.

The final will be played on May 21, 2025 at the San Mamés Stadium in Bilbao, Spain. The winners of the 2024–25 UEFA Europa League will automatically qualify for the 2025–26 UEFA Champions League league phase and earn the right to play against the winners of the 2024–25 UEFA Champions League in the 2025 UEFA Super Cup.