1993–94 UEFA Champions League


The 1993–94 UEFA Champions League, originally known as the 1993–94 European Cup, was the 39th season of the UEFA Champions League, UEFA's premier club football tournament, and the second season with the UEFA Champions League logo. The competition was won by Italian club Milan, their fifth title, beating Spanish club Barcelona 4–0 in the final. Marseille were the defending champions, but were not allowed to enter the competition due their involvement in a match-fixing scandal in Division 1 the season prior. This saw them stripped of their league title and demoted to Division 2 at the end of 1993–94. This was the first and only time which the defending champions did not participate in the following season of the competition. Third-placed Monaco took the vacated French berth.
There were changes made to the UEFA Champions League's format from the previous year. After two seasons, with the groups, it introduced one legged semi-finals taking place after the group stage, meaning the two sides qualified from each group as group winners playing the semi-finals at home.
This edition was marked by the absence of Yugoslav participants because Yugoslavia was under UN economic sanctions. Yugoslav participants were frequently present in advanced stages of the competition with Red Star Belgrade having won the European Cup in 1991 and finished second in the group the following season. Partizan were to represent Yugoslavia in this edition, but were not allowed to participate. Meanwhile, Croatia, Belarus, Moldova, Georgia and Wales entered their champions for the first time in this edition.

Teams

In total, 42 national champions participated in 1993–94 UEFA Champions League season. The 20 lowest-ranked champions according to the 1993 club seeding coefficients entered in the preliminary round, while the 22 best-ranked champions entered in the first round.

Distribution

Since the title holders originally qualified via their domestic league, the title holder spot was vacated and the following changes to the default access list were made:
  • The champions ranked 21st and 22nd were promoted from the preliminary round to the first round.

Ranking

The teams were ranked according to their 1993 UEFA seeding coefficients, which took into account performances in European competitions from 1988–89 to 1992–93. Each club and national association had a seeding coefficient calculated, with both values added together to determine the club's final coefficient. This ranking then determined the round each team would enter.

;Notes

Round and draw dates

The schedule of the competition is as follows. All draws were held in Geneva, Switzerland.

Group stage

The group stage began on 24 November 1993 and ended on 13 April 1994. The eight teams were divided into two groups of four, and the teams in each group played against each other on a home-and-away basis, meaning that each team played a total of six group matches. For each win, teams were awarded two points, with one point awarded for each draw. At the end of the group stage, the two teams in each group with the most points advanced to the semi-finals.
All teams except Milan and Porto made their group stage debuts. Two of these teams had previously contested the 1991–92 group stage, the only season of the European Cup to adopt such a format.

Top goalscorers

The top scorers from the 1993–94 UEFA Champions League are as follows:
RankNameTeamGoals
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