8 teams who won the UEFA Europa League after being eliminated from the UEFA Champions League
The UEFA Champions League is one of the biggest tournaments in the history of football and every player dreams of winning it once in their career. Only some elite clubs in Europe have achieved this milestone.
UEFA introduced another European competition, the UEFA Cup in 1971. It is a second-tier competition. Although one cannot take this casually as many elite clubs like- Chelsea and Atletico Madrid have won it in recent years. So, the level of competition is very high in both competitions. Earlier it was known as UEFA Cup, but since the 2009-10 season it was renamed the UEFA Europa League.
Every year eight teams switched to the UEFA Europa League after their third-place finish in the UEFA Champions League group stage.
Here, in the slideshow, we will look at all the teams who got eliminated from the UEFA Champions League and won the UEFA Europa League in the same year.
#8 Galatasaray
The Turkish side is the first club to win the UEFA Europa League (at that time known as UEFA Cup) in 1999-2000. After being eliminated from the UEFA Champions League. Galatasaray were dropped into the UEFA Cup after a third-place finish in the UEFA Champions League group stage. They defeated Arsenal in the final. Galatasaray won 4-1 on penalties, and it was the first ever European honour for the Turkish club.
They won the treble in 1999-2000 season, having won the Turkish League and Turkish Cup. They are one of the most successful clubs from Turkey. Hakan Sukur was their top scorer with 25 goals across all competition.
#7 Feyenoord
In the 2001-2002 season, the Dutch club won the UEFA Cup by beating Borussia Dortmund (Germany) in the final. With just one win and 6 points in 5 UEFA Champions League games, they finished 3rd in their group and got transferred to the UEFA Cup. However, they ended up as the champions of UEFA Cup beating Borussia Dortmund in the final by 3-2. Van Hooijdonk scored the brace and Tomasson was the other scorer for Feyenoord.
During the 2001-02 season, Feyenoord finished 3rd in the Dutch League and got knocked out in the quarterfinals of Dutch Cup. Pierre Van Hooijdonk was the top scorer in UEFA Cup with 8 goals out of which 2 came in the final.