Europa League Matchday 1: All 18 Results and the Shirts They Moved
Eighteen matches, two nights, one table. Benfica won at San Siro, Sunderland marked their European return, and the league phase has its first leader. Here is every result and what it means for the Matchday 2 run.
Matchday 1: Quick Answers
- How many matches were played on Matchday 1?: Eighteen — nine on Wednesday 16 September and nine on Thursday 17 September.
- Which team leads the league phase?: The table settles after Thursday night; Sparta Praha posted the biggest win of the opening night, 4-1 at Ararat-Armenia.
- What was the standout result?: Milan 0-2 Benfica at San Siro — Benfica’s first win over Milan and Ruben Amorim’s first defeat as Milan head coach.
- Which English club is involved?: Sunderland, back in Europe for the first time since 1973, and Crystal Palace, who host Lech Poznań.
- How many teams qualify from the league phase?: The top eight go straight to the round of 16; teams from ninth to 24th enter a two-legged play-off.
- When is Matchday 2?: Thursday 15 October 2026.
How Matchday 1 unfolded
| Date | Kick-off (ET / CET) | Fixture | Result | Demand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wed 16 Sep | 18:45 / 12:45 | Ararat-Armenia v Sparta Praha | 1-4 | ★☆☆ |
| Wed 16 Sep | 18:45 / 12:45 | Omonia v Celta Vigo | 1-0 | ★★☆ |
| Wed 16 Sep | 21:00 / 15:00 | Milan v Benfica | 0-2 | ★★★ |
| Wed 16 Sep | 21:00 / 15:00 | Bayer Leverkusen v Celje | 2-0 | ★★☆ |
| Wed 16 Sep | 21:00 / 15:00 | Anderlecht v Lyon | 1-2 | ★★☆ |
| Wed 16 Sep | 21:00 / 15:00 | Olympiacos v Jagiellonia Białystok | 2-1 | ★★☆ |
| Wed 16 Sep | 21:00 / 15:00 | Hapoel Beer-Sheva v Dinamo Zagreb | 0-0 | ★☆☆ |
| Wed 16 Sep | 21:00 / 15:00 | Sturm Graz v Rennes | 0-0 | ★☆☆ |
| Wed 16 Sep | 21:00 / 15:00 | Sunderland v AZ Alkmaar | 1-0 | ★★☆ |
| Thu 17 Sep | 18:45 / 12:45 | OFI Crete v Hoffenheim | 2-0 | ★☆☆ |
| Thu 17 Sep | 18:45 / 12:45 | Levski Sofia v Salzburg | 0-1 | ★☆☆ |
| Thu 17 Sep | 21:00 / 15:00 | Beşiktaş v Marseille | 4-1 | ★★☆ |
| Thu 17 Sep | 21:00 / 15:00 | Celtic v Ferencváros | 1-3 | ★★★ |
| Thu 17 Sep | 21:00 / 15:00 | Viktoria Plzeň v Union Saint-Gilloise | 0-3 | ★☆☆ |
| Thu 17 Sep | 21:00 / 15:00 | Crystal Palace v Lech Poznań | 4-0 | ★★★ |
| Thu 17 Sep | 21:00 / 15:00 | Juventus v N.E.C. | 5-0 | ★★★ |
| Thu 17 Sep | 21:00 / 15:00 | Lillestrøm v Torreense | 1-2 | ★☆☆ |
| Thu 17 Sep | 21:00 / 15:00 | Real Sociedad v Bournemouth | 1-2 | ★★★ |
All 18 Matchday 1 results, kick-off times in US Eastern and Central European conversion. Demand stars reflect how quickly the participating clubs’ shirts historically move in our own order flow — not a ranking of performance.
Matchday 1 shirt demand index
Benfica and Sunderland. A win at San Siro and a first European night in 53 years both move shirt traffic within hours, and both ranges are thinner than the giants they beat.
Marseille, Lyon, Juventus and Leverkusen — strong club ranges with printed-name demand that runs all season.
Sparta Praha, Dinamo Zagreb, RB Salzburg and Bournemouth — smaller selections that move on the back of a single result.
Players who moved the needle
Dodi Lukébakio — Opened the scoring at San Siro as Benfica won in Milan for the first time.
Enzo Le Fée — Decided Sunderland’s European return from the penalty spot.
Tobias Guddal — Two goals inside 22 minutes — the first name on the league-phase scoresheet.
Opening night: what we are watching
Results decide the table, but three things decide whether a league-phase campaign actually works. Here is what we will be watching — and what we think it means.
Domestic dominance does not travel automatically. Milan’s control of the middle third is the single biggest variable in their eight-game slate: if they can slow the game down when they need to, the top-eight finish is theirs to lose. Our read: they qualify directly.
Benfica keep producing players who end up on the back of a shirt somewhere else. That is their business model and, in a league phase, their advantage — depth of talent in a long eight-game stretch. Watch who takes the European minutes.
Sparta Prague, Dinamo Zagreb and their peers do not win these competitions. They do ruin somebody’s autumn. A single home night with a full, hostile ground decides more of these campaigns than any away performance — and it is the part of the competition the big leagues cannot control.
How the league phase works (and what a matchday is worth)
- 36 clubs, one table, eight matches each — four at home and four away, drawn against opponents from different seeding pots.
- Top eight go straight into the round of 16.
- Ninth to 24th enter a two-legged play-off round in February.
- 25th to 36th are eliminated — there is no drop into another competition.
- Every matchday matters, because goal difference and head-to-head tie-breakers are the difference between a bye and an extra two-legged round.
How we build the shirt demand index
The demand tiers in this article are not a survey and not a club figure. They are built from our own order flow and stock depth: how quickly a club’s shirts move, how many printed-name orders we take, and how deep our range is for that club. That is why the tiers sit where they sit — and why they will move after a big result.
Our verdict
Opening night is usually remembered for one scoreline and forgotten for the other eight. The clubs that go far in this competition are the ones that treat the unglamorous fixtures — a Tuesday-night trip to a hostile ground in November — as seriously as the marquee ones. Watch the teams that win ugly on Matchday 1: they are the ones still playing in May.
Shirts from every Matchday 1 club
AC Milan Third Shirt 25/26 · Ricci 4
Benfica Away Shirt 25/26 · Bah 6
Sunderland Home Shirt 25/26 · Mukiele 20
Bayer Leverkusen Home Shirt 25/26 · Xhaka 34
Marseille Third Shirt 25/26 · Cornelius 13
Celtic Third Shirt 25/26 · Kuhn 10
Juventus Third Shirt 25/26 · R.Baggio 10
Crystal Palace Away Shirt 25/26 · Hughes 19
Real Sociedad Home Shirt 25/26 · Silva 21
Bournemouth Away Shirt · Antonio S. 14
Red Bull Salzburg Home Shirt · Tabakovic 9
Olympique Lyonnais Home Shirt - White
What were the Europa League Matchday 1 results?
Who won the biggest match of the round?
How did Sunderland do on their European return?
Which team scored the most goals?
Were there any goalless draws?
How does the league phase work?
When is Matchday 2?
Where can I buy shirts for the clubs involved?
Ready for Matchday 2?
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