2008–09 UEFA Champions League


The 2008–09 UEFA Champions League was the 54th edition of Europe's premier club football tournament and the 17th edition under the current UEFA Champions League format. The 2009 UEFA [Champions League Final|final] was played at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, Italy, on 27 May 2009. It was the eighth time the European Cup final has been held in Italy and the fourth time it has been held at the Stadio Olimpico. The final was contested by the defending champions, Manchester United, and Barcelona, who had last won the tournament in 2006. Barcelona won the match 2–0, with goals from Samuel Eto'o and Lionel Messi, securing The Treble in the process. In addition, both UEFA Cup finalists, Werder Bremen and Shakhtar Donetsk featured in the Champions League group stage.
Anorthosis Famagusta of Cyprus and BATE Borisov of Belarus were the first teams from their respective countries to qualify for the group stage. Romanian side CFR Cluj and Russian champions Zenit Saint Petersburg also made their Champions League debuts.
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Association team allocation

A total of 76 teams from 52 UEFA associations participated in the 2008–09 Champions League. Countries are allocated places according to the 2007 UEFA league co-efficient ranking.
Below is the qualification scheme for the 2008–09 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 each have one team qualify.

Association ranking

For the 2008–09 UEFA Champions League, the associations are allocated places according to their 2007 UEFA country coefficients, which takes into account their performance in European competitions from 2002–03 to 2006–07.

Distribution

Since the title holders qualified for the Champions League group stage through their domestic league, the group stage spot reserved for the title holders is vacated, and the following changes to the default access list are made:
  • The champions of association 10 are promoted from the third qualifying round to the group stage.
  • The champions of association 16 are promoted from the second qualifying round to the third qualifying round.
  • The champions of associations 23 and 24 are promoted from the first qualifying round to the second qualifying round.
Teams entering in this roundTeams advancing from previous round
First qualifying round

  • 28 champions from associations 25–53
Second qualifying round
  • 8 champions from associations 17–24
  • 6 runners-up from associations 10–15
  • 14 winners from the first qualifying round
    • Third qualifying round
    • 6 champions from associations 11–16
    • 3 runners-up from associations 7–9
    • 6 third-place finishers from associations 1–6
    • 3 fourth-place finishers from associations 1–3
  • 14 winners from the second qualifying round
    • Group stage
    • 10 champions from associations 1–10
    • 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

    Group stage

    The draw for the group stage took place on 28 August 2008 at the Grimaldi Forum, Monaco, prior to the 2008 UEFA Super Cup the following day.
    The top two teams in each group advanced to the knockout phase, 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.
    Anorthosis Famagusta, BATE Borisov, CFR Cluj and Zenit Saint Petersburg made their debuts in the group stage.

    Knockout phase

    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.

    Statistics

    Statistics exclude qualifying rounds.