2012–13 UEFA Europa League

2012–13 UEFA Europa League

The Amsterdam Arena hosted the final.
Tournament details
Dates	3 July – 30 August 2012 (qualifying) 20 September 2012 – 15 May 2013 (competition proper)
Teams	48+8 (competition proper) 161+32 (total) (from 53 associations)
Final positions
Champions	Chelsea (1st title)
Runners-up	Benfica
Tournament statistics
Matches played	205
Goals scored	521 (2.54 per match)
Attendance	4,174,756 (20,365 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Libor Kozák (8 goals)
← 2011–12 2013–14 →

The 2012–13 UEFA Europa League was the 42nd season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 4th season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League.

The final was played at the Amsterdam Arena in Amsterdam, Netherlands. It was contested on 15 May 2013 between Portuguese club Benfica and English club Chelsea, who entered the competition at the Round of 32 after they finished in third place in the group stage of the 2012–13 Champions League. Chelsea won the final 2–1 for their first Europa League title, making them the fourth club – after Juventus, Ajax and Bayern Munich – to have won the three major UEFA club titles (Champions League, Europa League and Cup Winners' Cup).

For the 2012–13 edition, the following changes were made from the 2011–12 edition:

Atlético Madrid were the defending champions, but were eliminated by Rubin Kazan in the Round of 32.

A total of 193 teams from 53 UEFA member associations participate in the 2012–13 UEFA Europa League. The association ranking based on the UEFA country coefficients is used to determine the number of participating teams for each association:

The winners of the 2011–12 UEFA Europa League are given an additional entry as title holders if they do not qualify for the 2012–13 UEFA Champions League or Europa League through their domestic performance. However, this additional entry is not necessary for this season since the title holders qualified for European competitions through their domestic performance.