2003–04 UEFA Champions League


The 2003–04 UEFA Champions League was the 12th season of UEFA's premier European club football tournament, the UEFA Champions League, since its rebranding from the European Cup in 1992, and the 49th tournament overall. This was the first UEFA Champions League edition to feature a new format with a 16-team knockout round instead of a second group stage.
The competition was won by Portugal's Porto, who defeated [AS AS Monaco FC|Monaco FC|Monaco] of France 3–0 at the Arena AufSchalke in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. This was Portugal's first win since 1987, and Porto's second European trophy in two years, following their UEFA Cup success from the previous season. This was the second consecutive victory in a European cup for Porto coach José Mourinho, who beat Monaco coached by Didier Deschamps, a two-time winner of the competition as a player. As winners of the competition, Porto went on to represent UEFA in the 2004 Intercontinental Cup.
Milan were the defending champions, but were eliminated by Deportivo La Coruña in the quarter-finals.
WWW uefa.com/uefachampionslea...

Association team allocation

A total of 72 teams from 48 UEFA member associations participated in the 2003–04 UEFA Champions League. Liechtenstein as well as Andorra and San Marino did not participate. Also not admitted was Azerbaijan, which was suspended by UEFA. Each association enters a certain number of clubs to the Champions League based on its league coefficient; associations with a higher league coefficient may enter more clubs than associations with a lower league coefficient, but no association may enter more than four teams.
  • 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 16–52 each have one team qualify.

Association ranking

For the 2003–04 UEFA Champions League, the associations are allocated places according to their 2002 UEFA country coefficients, which takes into account their performance in European competitions from 1997–98 to 2001–02.

Distribution

Since the title holders also qualified for the Champions League Third qualifying round through their domestic league, one Third qualifying round spot was vacated. Due to this, as well as due to the suspension of Azerbaijan, the following changes to the default access list are made:
  • The champions of association 16 are promoted from the second qualifying round to the third qualifying round.
  • The champions of associations 26, 27 and 28 are promoted from the first qualifying round to the second qualifying round.
Teams entering in this roundTeams advancing from previous round
First qualifying round

  • 20 champions from associations 29–52
Second qualifying round

  • 12 champions from associations 17–28
  • 6 runners-up from associations 10–15
  • 10 winners from the first qualifying round
    • Third qualifying round
    • 7 champions from associations 10–16
    • 3 runners-up from associations 7–9
    • 5 third-place finishers from associations 1–6
    • 3 fourth-place finishers from associations 1–3
  • 14 winners from the second qualifying round
    • Group stage
    • 1 current Champions League title holder
    • 9 champions from associations 1–9
    • 6 runners-up from associations 1–6
  • 16 winners from the third qualifying round
    • Knockout phase
    • 8 group winners from the group stage
    • 8 group runners-up from the group stage

    Teams

    League positions of the previous season shown in parentheses.
    ;Notes

    Round and draw dates

    The schedule of the competition is as follows.

    Group stage

    Title holders, 16 winners from the third qualifying round, 9 champions from countries ranked 1–10, and six second-placed teams from countries ranked 1–6 were drawn into eight groups of four teams each. The top two teams in each group advanced to the Champions League play-offs, while the third-placed teams advanced to the Third Round of the UEFA Cup.
    Tiebreakers, if necessary, were applied in the following order:
    1. Points earned in head-to-head matches between the tied teams.
    2. Total goals scored in head-to-head matches between the tied teams.
    3. Away goals scored in head-to-head matches between the tied teams.
    4. Cumulative goal difference in all group matches.
    5. Total goals scored in all group matches.
    6. Higher UEFA coefficient going into the competition.
    Celta Vigo, Partizan, Real Sociedad and VfB Stuttgart made their debut appearances in the group stage. This season became the first in the history of the Champions League in which three Greek clubs played in the group stage

    Statistics

    Statistics exclude qualifying rounds.