How is the europa league different?
There are a few changes in the Europa League. The Europa League now has 16 extra teams competing in the tournament. There are now 12 groups of 4 teams, the top two teams in each group qualify for the final 32. 8 teams from the Champions league that finished 3rd in their group will compete in the Europa League last 32. Qualification is now different. Quote from Wikipedia: “Associations ranked 7–9 in the UEFA coefficients will send the Cup winner and three other teams to the UEFA Europa League qualification, all other nations send a Cup winner and two other teams, except Liechtenstein, Andorra and San Marino, who will only send a Cup winner.