Europa League qualifying is the strangest bracket in European football. It gets bigger as it goes: clubs knocked out of the Champions League path land here, round after round. Forty-four matches in, here is what that looks like in numbers.
A funnel in reverse
Clubs in each round. The bracket more than doubles between the first and third round - every arrow points inward from the Champions League.
Total goals and the average per match. The second round is where the Champions League drop-outs arrive - and where the scoring peaks.
Two nights that flipped a tie
Benfica5-0FC Sankt Gallen
Beaten 2-1 in Switzerland, Benfica answered with five at home - then put six past Hearts FC in the next round.
Pafos FC4-0Hajduk Split
Two goals down from Split, Pafos FC turned the tie around inside 90 minutes in Cyprus.The heaviest scoreline of the qualifying so far: Sheriff Tiraspol 0-5 Maccabi Tel-Aviv in the second round.
What comes next
The only play-off tie on the calendar so far. The rest of the round fills up once the Champions League play-off draw resolves - this bracket is still waiting for its last arrivals.
- 09.07First qualifying roundSix ties, one settled on penalties.
- 23.07Second qualifying round48 goals in nine ties - the highest-scoring round.
- 06.08Third qualifying roundTwenty-six clubs, the widest the bracket gets.
- 20.08Play-off roundFirst legs from 20 August, return legs the following week.
Every club above has a page here with its squad details, the full season's matches with half-time scores, and the goal-timing breakdowns. The Champions League story from the same summer is one click away in the blog list.