2007–08 UEFA Champions League

Association team allocation

76 teams participated in the 2007–08 UEFA Champions League from 52 UEFA member associations (not including Liechtenstein). Each association enters a certain number of clubs to the Champions League based on its league coefficient which takes into account the performance of its clubs in European competitions from 2001–02 to 2005–06.; associations with a higher league coefficients may enter more clubs than associations with a lower league coefficient, but no association may enter more than four teams. All UEFA associations are guaranteed to have at least one team qualify, with the exception of Liechtenstein, which competes in the Swiss league system, but has no team in the Swiss Super League. One new nation entered their league champion in this year's tournament: Montenegro, following the dissolution of Serbia and Montenegro. The champions from San Marino and Andorra also entered from this year onwards. Below is the qualification scheme for the 2007–08 Champions League:

• Associations 1–3 each have four teams qualify.
• Associations 4–6 each have three teams qualify.
• Associations 7–15 each have two teams qualify.
• Associations 16–53 (except Liechtenstein) each have one team qualify.

Association ranking

For the 2007–08 UEFA Champions League, the associations are allocated places according to their 2006 UEFA country coefficients, which takes into account their performance in European competitions from 2001–02 to 2005–06.

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Distribution

Since the title holders (Milan) qualified for the Champions League third qualifying round through their domestic league and entered the group stage automatically, their spot in the third qualifying round is vacated, and the following changes to the default access list are made:

• The champions of association 16 (Switzerland) are promoted from the second qualifying round to the third qualifying round.
• The champions of associations 23 and 24 (Denmark and Hungary) are promoted from the first qualifying round to the second qualifying round.

Teams

;Notes

Round and draw dates

The calendar shows the dates of the rounds and draw.

Notes

Qualifying rounds

Main article: 2007–08 UEFA Champions League qualifying rounds

First qualifying round

Second qualifying round

Third qualifying round

Group stage

Main article: 2007–08 UEFA Champions League group stage

The draw was held on Thursday, 30 August 2007 at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco. The draw was hosted by Pedro Pinto and conducted by UEFA General Secretary David Taylor and Michele Centenaro, UEFA's head of club competitions. The matches were played between 18 September and 12 December 2007.

The top two teams in each group advanced to the knockout stage, and the third-placed teams entered the round of 32 of the UEFA Cup. Based on paragraph 6.05 in the regulations for the current season, if two or more teams are equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following criteria are applied to determine the rankings:

1. higher number of points obtained in the group matches played among the teams in question;
2. superior goal difference from the group matches played among the teams in question;
3. higher number of goals scored away from home in the group matches played among the teams in question;
4. superior goal difference from all group matches played;
5. higher number of goals scored in all group matches played;
6. higher number of coefficient points accumulated by the club in question, as well as its association, over the previous five seasons.

Sevilla and Slavia Prague made their debut appearance in the group stage.

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Group E

Group F

Group G

Group H

Knockout phase

Main article: 2007–08 UEFA Champions League knockout stage

In the knockout stage, teams played against each other over two legs on a home-and-away basis, except for the one-match final. The mechanism of the draws for each round was as follows:

• In the draw for the round of 16, the eight group winners were seeded, and the eight group runners-up were unseeded. The seeded teams were drawn against the unseeded teams, with the seeded teams hosting the second leg. Teams from the same group or the same association could not be drawn against each other.
• In the draws for the quarter-finals and semi-finals, there were no seedings, and teams from the same group or the same association could be drawn against each other. As the draws for the quarter-finals and semi-finals were held together before the quarter-finals were played, the identity of the quarter-final winners was not known at the time of the semi-final draw. A draw was also held to determine which semi-final winner was designated as the "home" team for the final (for administrative purposes as it was played at a neutral venue).

Bracket

Round of 16

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Final

Statistics

Statistics exclude qualifying rounds.

Top goalscorers

References

References

1. "Country coefficients 2005/06". UEFA.
2. Kassies, Bert. (February 2007). "The access list from UEFA European Cup Football". UEFA European Cup Football.
3. "UEFA Country Ranking 2007". Bert Kassies.
4. (17 August 2007). "2007/08 UEFA Champions League access list". UEFA.
5. "Shels relinquish Champions League place". [[Raidió Teilifís Éireann]].
6. (2007). "Regulations of the UEFA Champions League 2007/08". [[UEFA]].
7. (30 August 2007). "Excitement builds as draw nears". UEFA.
8. (21 May 2008). "UEFA Champions League Press Release – Top Scorers – Final – Wednesday 21 May 2008 (after match)". [[UEFA]].