People who believe the Europa League is a second-rate tournament dont know what they are talking about. You had teams eager to prove they were the greatest, teams with a chip on their shoulder, teams barely missing the Champions League cut. Kind of rivalry like this fosters excellence.
Consider the next season. Ajax, Braga; they are not pushovers. They know how to win; they have battled through qualifications. This is war. This is not some consolation gift. Its a test of ability, a test of heart, a test of who more wants it.
Underdogs grow legends in the Europa League. New stars are born in here. Here is where the beautiful game is performed with fervent enthusiasm. Don't you dare discount it? Accept it, have fun, and lets see who wins.
If we look at it from a different perspective, then it is true that the Europa League has also produced many champions and even among them there are those who have been able to achieve it repeatedly, everyone must have known which club I mean, yes it is Sevilla. Even when there is a club that is relegated from the Champions League, in reality they also have to lose when competing in the Europa League, even though in terms of club status they are a bigger club. But I also can't say what the cause is and we can assume a lot about this, whether it happened because they were not that interested in the Europa League or there was something else, we can't answer that.
But on the other hand we also have to see the fact that every time a club that is automatically in the Champions League the following season because they managed to become champions in the Europa League, they also can't compete there. So indeed the quality shows the difference between these 2 competitions.
If there is a competition or comparison between which league is better, the champions league or the Europa league, I think it is pretty easy to understand that the champions league is far superior. That’s why the best teams in the world compete in the champions league and those who are not worthy of competing in the champions league, compete in the Europa league competition.
But if we look at the Europa league competition as an individual competition, I think being the second best competition in the whole world is not that bad. And definitely a lot of teams have shown good surprises in the Europa league competition which they could not show in their domestic league. If we think about that Europa league competition and judge if it is good or not, I will say it is definitely very good. But compared to the champions league it does not come even close.