No competition in Europe has a more compelling individual storyline right now than the Europa League, and it belongs to Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. The Marseille striker is the competition's all-time record scorer with 34 goals, a tally built across spells at Borussia Dortmund, Arsenal and now Marseille, and he adds to it most weeks the competition is in session. Add in a 2026/27 draw that dropped Juventus, AC Milan, Benfica and Bayer Leverkusen all into the same pot after they missed out on Champions League qualification, and this season's Europa League looks unusually heavyweight even by the competition's recent standards.

Here's Aubameyang's record, what the draw produced, and where to actually watch the highlights once matches begin.

How to watch Europa League highlights

Our Europa League highlights hub collects every uploaded clip as soon as it's live, with a multi-source player that automatically switches to a working upload if one is geo-blocked where you are. UEFA's official channels also post free extended highlights shortly after full time for every fixture.

Aubameyang: the Europa League's all-time top scorer

Aubameyang built his early Europa League numbers during his years at Borussia Dortmund and Arsenal, but it's his return to Marseille that turned a strong record into an outright one, overtaking the players who previously held the mark. He's scored in almost every way imaginable in the competition too, including a stoppage-time overhead kick against Ajax that briefly stopped a five-match goal drought in its tracks, and a hat-trick performance that included a penalty and a 12-yard winner deep into added time. For the full club-by-club history of the competition alongside his individual numbers, see our Europa League all-time top scorers list.

The 2026/27 draw: a heavyweight Pot 1

The league phase draw was held on 28 August at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco, a day after the Champions League draw at the same venue, and it produced one of the most star-studded Europa League pots in years. Juventus, AC Milan, Benfica and Bayer Leverkusen, four clubs that spent most of the last decade treating the Champions League as their natural home, all missed out on qualifying for it this season and were seeded into Pot 1 instead, joined by Marseille. Marseille's own pool includes Olympiacos, Celtic, Bayer Leverkusen and Sturm Graz, a genuinely watchable run of fixtures for a club whose Europa League identity has been shaped almost entirely by Aubameyang's goals over the past two seasons.

England's representation in the competition looks different from a typical Champions League year too: instead of the usual cluster of Premier League giants, this season's Europa League features Crystal Palace, Bournemouth and Sunderland, three clubs more accustomed to a mid-table Premier League fight than continental nights. Bournemouth are playing in Europe for the first time in their history, and Ararat-Armenia became the first Armenian club ever to reach the competition's group stage or league phase in any format. For the complete pot-by-pot breakdown and every club's eight opponents, read our full 2026/27 draw results.

The format itself uses the same Swiss-model system as the Champions League: 36 clubs in one table, eight matches each against opponents from four pots, with the top eight advancing directly and the rest of the qualification places decided by a knockout play-off round. Our Europa League format explained guide covers exactly how that works, and how it compares to the Champions League and Conference League.

When does the Europa League start this season?

Matchday 1 of the 2026/27 league phase runs on 16 and 17 September 2026. The final is scheduled for 26 May 2027 at Stadion Frankfurt in Germany.

A quick history of the Europa League

The competition began life as the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup in 1955, became the UEFA Cup in 1971, and took its current name in 2009 when UEFA folded the old UEFA Cup Winners' Cup structure into it. Sevilla are by some distance the competition's most successful club, with a remarkable seven titles, most of them won in a run of dominance across the 2010s and 2020s that has no real parallel in the competition's history. For the full list of champions since 1972, see our Europa League all-time winners guide.

The competition has always had a slightly different character to the Champions League: fewer of the continent's very biggest clubs treat it as a priority every season, but it's also produced some of European football's most memorable underdog runs, and this year's Pot 1 full of fallen Champions League regulars is a reminder of how quickly the two competitions' casts of characters can overlap.

What to expect from a Europa League highlights reel

Extended highlights typically run 8 to 10 minutes per match, covering every goal alongside major chances and refereeing incidents. Given how often the competition produces genuine shocks, its highlights reels tend to have a different rhythm to Champions League ones: fewer guaranteed elite-level performances every week, but a higher chance of stumbling on something completely unexpected.

The debutants worth following

Every Europa League season produces at least one club experiencing continental football for the first time, but this year's crop is unusually rich. Bournemouth's debut is a landmark moment for a club that spent large parts of the 2010s outside the Premier League altogether, let alone in Europe. Torreense, a small Portuguese side, arrive after an unlikely run through their domestic route to continental qualification. And Ararat-Armenia's presence is more historically significant still: they are the first club from Armenia ever to reach the Europa League's group stage or league phase in any of its formats, a milestone that matters to the country's domestic football well beyond this season's results on the pitch.

None of the smaller clubs in this year's draw are given much hope of finishing in the automatic qualification places, but a Pot 1 as heavyweight as this one means a shock result or two is close to guaranteed somewhere along the way, and those are exactly the kind of highlights that tend to travel furthest beyond the competition's usual audience.

Europa League highlights FAQ

Who is the Europa League's all-time top scorer?

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, with 34 goals across spells at Borussia Dortmund, Arsenal and Marseille, is the competition's all-time record scorer.

Where can I watch Europa League highlights for free?

UEFA's official channels post free extended highlights for every match. Our Europa League highlights hub pulls them together in one place.

Which big clubs are in the Europa League instead of the Champions League this season?

Juventus, AC Milan, Benfica and Bayer Leverkusen were all seeded in Pot 1 after missing out on Champions League qualification for 2026/27.

Which clubs are playing in Europe for the first time in 2026/27?

Bournemouth and Portugal's Torreense are both making their European debuts, while Ararat-Armenia became the first Armenian club to reach the Europa League's group stage or league phase.

When does the 2026/27 Europa League season start?

Matchday 1 runs on 16 and 17 September 2026.

When and where is the 2027 Europa League final?

The final is scheduled for 26 May 2027 at Stadion Frankfurt (the Waldstadion) in Frankfurt, Germany.

Which club has won the most Europa League titles?

Sevilla have won the competition a record seven times, more than any other club, with most of those titles coming during a run of dominance across the 2010s and 2020s.

What was the Europa League called before 2009?

It began as the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup in 1955, became the UEFA Cup in 1971, and was renamed the Europa League in 2009.

How does the Europa League relate to the Champions League?

Both use the same 36-club, four-pot, eight-match Swiss-model format. Clubs that miss out on Champions League qualification through their domestic league often enter the Europa League instead, which is why this season's Europa League includes clubs like Juventus, Milan and Benfica.

What happens to the club that wins the Europa League?

The Europa League winner earns a place in the following season's Champions League league phase, regardless of how they finish domestically, which is part of why the competition is taken so seriously even by clubs used to playing in Europe's top tier.

How many goals has Aubameyang scored for Marseille specifically?

Since returning to Marseille, Aubameyang has added heavily to his Europa League tally, including a stoppage-time overhead kick against Ajax and a hat-trick that included a penalty and a 12-yard stoppage-time winner, on his way to becoming the competition's outright record scorer.

Does the Europa League have a play-off round like the Champions League?

Yes. Clubs finishing 9th to 24th in the 36-team league table enter a two-legged knockout play-off for the remaining places in the round of 16, the same structure used by the Champions League and Conference League.

More Europa League reading

For the competition's club history, see our Europa League all-time winners list, led by Sevilla's record seven titles. For every fixture from this season's draw, read the full draw breakdown, and once the league phase kicks off in September, catch every goal on our Europa League highlights hub.