The 2025–26 UEFA Europa League season officially kicked off on Thursday, and it started with some exciting matches! This was just the first qualifying round, and 16 teams were in action, hoping to make it all the way to the group stage of Europe’s second-biggest club competition.
There are four total qualifying rounds, so teams still have a long way to go. But for some clubs, the journey has already gotten off to a fantastic start — and for others, it’s going to be tough to recover when they play their second leg matches next week.
Let’s break down all the action in a way that’s fun and easy to follow!
🇦🇿 Sabah vs Celje: Europa League’s First Goal and a Wild Finish!
The very first goal of the new Europa League season was scored by Pavol Safranko, who plays for Sabah, a team from Azerbaijan. He scored just five minutes into the match against Celje, a team from Slovenia. This is Sabah’s first time ever playing in the Europa League, so scoring the first goal was a dream start!
But the match didn’t stay easy for them.
Celje came back to tie the game twice, both times thanks to their forward Franko Kovacevic. Then, in the 93rd minute (that’s in injury time!), Darko Hrka scored for Celje to give the Slovenians a 3-2 win.
It was a back-and-forth game, and both teams scored multiple times — the only match on Thursday where both teams got on the scoresheet. These two teams will meet again next week in Slovenia to finish the tie.
🇨🇾 AEK Larnaca 1-0 Partizan Belgrade
In Cyprus, AEK Larnaca defeated Partizan Belgrade from Serbia with a 1-0 win. It was a close match, but AEK took their chance and made it count. With the win at home, they now have a small advantage going into the second leg.
🇵🇱 Legia Warsaw 1-0 Aktobe
In Poland, Legia Warsaw also won 1-0, beating Aktobe, a team from Kazakhstan. Like AEK, Legia is hoping to go far in this competition. In fact, they were in the UEFA Conference League quarter-finals just a few months ago! They’ll look to finish the job next week.
🇺🇦 Shakhtar Donetsk 6-0 Ilves: The Biggest Win of the Day
The biggest story of the day came from Shakhtar Donetsk, one of Ukraine’s top clubs. They played against Ilves from Finland, and it wasn’t even close. Shakhtar destroyed Ilves 6-0 in a match played in Ljubljana, Slovenia, since Shakhtar can’t currently play in Ukraine due to the ongoing conflict there.
This was one of the biggest wins in Shakhtar’s history in European competitions! They had five different players score goals, and they looked sharp and powerful throughout the game. With that big lead, they’re almost sure to move on to the next round.
🇭🇺 Paks 0-0 CFR Cluj
Not every match had lots of goals. In Hungary, Paks and CFR Cluj from Romania played to a 0-0 draw. Neither team created many big chances, so it’ll be a winner-take-all situation in Romania next week. The team that scores even once could come out on top!
🇧🇬 Levski Sofia 0-0 Hapoel Be’er Sheva
Another 0-0 game happened in Bulgaria, where Levski Sofia hosted Hapoel Be’er Sheva from Israel. This one had a lot of drama, though!
In the 70th minute, Levski’s Maicon got a second yellow card and was sent off, giving the visitors a man advantage for 25 minutes. But late in the match, Hapoel’s Eliel Peretz also got sent off. So by the end of the game, both teams were down to 10 players!
Still, neither team could find a goal, so their second leg is wide open.
🇸🇪 Hacken 1-0 Spartak Trnava
In Slovakia, Swedish club Hacken grabbed a solid 1-0 away win over Spartak Trnava. The hero was Severin Nioule, who scored just 11 minutes into the second half. That away goal gives Hacken the upper hand when they play the second leg in Sweden next week.
🇲🇩 Sheriff Tiraspol 4-0 Prishtina
One of the most impressive performances of the day came from Sheriff Tiraspol, a team from Moldova. They crushed Prishtina from Kosovo by a score of 4-0 at home.
The star of the show? Cyrille Bayala, who scored a hat-trick (that’s three goals in one match!). It was a big win for Sheriff, who had not won in their last six European home games before this one. Sheriff has played in the Europa League before and even reached the knockout playoffs in the 2022–23 season, so they have experience.
What Happens Next?
All of these matches were just the first leg of a two-game series. That means each team will get one more chance to play again next Thursday in the second leg. The teams that come out with better scores on aggregate (combined total of goals from both games) will move on to the second qualifying round.
But don’t worry if your favorite team loses! In the Europa League’s rules, any team that gets knocked out of qualifying drops into the Conference League. So they still get a chance to play in European competition — just in a different tournament.
Let’s Recap the Results! 📋
Sabah 2-3 Celje ✅ (Only game where both teams scored!)
AEK Larnaca 1-0 Partizan
Legia Warsaw 1-0 Aktobe
Shakhtar Donetsk 6-0 Ilves ⚡ (Biggest win of the day!)
Paks 0-0 CFR Cluj
Levski Sofia 0-0 Hapoel Be’er Sheva 🟥🟥 (Both teams ended with 10 men!)
Spartak Trnava 0-1 Hacken
Sheriff Tiraspol 4-0 Prishtina 🎩 (Bayala hat-trick hero)
Final Word ⚽
The Europa League qualifying is just getting started, but we already saw a mix of thrillers, tight defensive battles, and massive wins. Next week’s second leg games will decide who keeps their European dreams alive — and who drops into the Conference League instead.
So, stay tuned! There’s a lot more soccer drama to come.
