1999–2000 UEFA Champions League


The 1999–2000 UEFA Champions League was the 45th season of the UEFA Champions League, UEFA's premier European club football tournament, and the eighth season since its rebranding from the "European Champion Clubs' Cup" or "European Cup". The competition was won by Real Madrid, who clinched a historic eighth title win by beating fellow La Liga side Valencia in the final held at the Stade de France in Paris, the city where the original roots of the competition had begun nearly 50 years earlier.
After two years of allowing runners-up of strongest continental leagues to enter, UEFA went even further and expanded the tournament to up to four strongest teams from Europe's top national leagues. As a result, the tournament was a stark contrast from the 1996–97 edition three years earlier where only national champions had participated.
The competition was dominated by Spanish teams, with three of the four semi-finalists coming from that nation: Real Madrid, Valencia and Barcelona. The final between Real Madrid and Valencia marked the first time that both finalists had come from the same country.
Manchester United were the defending champions, but were eliminated by eventual winners Real Madrid in the quarter-finals.
WWW uefa.com/uefachampionslea...

Changes to the competition format

The 1999–2000 edition of the Champions League featured a whole different format to the competition. An additional qualifying round was introduced to generate two group stages, firstly with 32 teams – eight groups of four – who played six matches each to reduce the competition to 16 teams for the second group stage, with the eight third-placed teams moving to the UEFA Cup third round. At the end of the second group stage, eight teams remained to contest the knock-out stage.

Association team allocation

A total of 71 teams participated in the 1999–2000 Champions League, from 47 of 51 UEFA associations. Liechtenstein as well as Andorra and San Marino did not participate. Additionally, Bosnia and Herzegovina were not admitted due to having no nation-wide champion.
Below is the qualification scheme for the 2000–01 UEFA 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 16–48 each have one team qualify

Association ranking

Countries are allocated places according to their 1998 UEFA league coefficient, which takes into account their performance in European competitions from 1993–94 to 1997–98.

Distribution

The title holders qualified for the Champions League group stage through their domestic league, thus the group stage spot reserved for the title holders was vacated. Additionally, Bosnia and Herzegovina was not admitted as their play-off for Champions League qualification didn't take place. Due to these factors, 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 27, 28 and 29 are promoted from the first qualifying round to the second qualifying round.

Teams

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

Round and draw dates

The schedule of the competition is as follows.

First group stage

16 winners from the third qualifying round, 10 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. Compared to the two previous seasons, three associations were allowed three teams – the league winner and runner-up from each nation qualified for the first group stage, and the third-placed teams qualified for the third qualifying round – and three associations were allowed four teams – the league winner and runner-up from each nation qualified for the first group stage, and the third- and fourth-placed teams qualified for the third qualifying round. Nine additional associations were still allowed two teams. The top two teams in each group advanced to the Champions League second group stage, while the third-placed teams advanced to round three of the UEFA Cup.
AIK, Boavista, Bordeaux, Chelsea, Fiorentina, Hertha BSC, Lazio, Maribor, Molde, Valencia and Willem II made their debut in the group stage. Maribor was the first Slovenian side to play in group stage. Germany became the first association to have four teams in the Champions League group stage.
Tiebreakers, if necessary, are 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.

Second group stage

Eight winners and eight runners-up from the first group stage were drawn into four groups of four teams each, each containing two group winners and two runners-up. Teams from the same country or from the same first-round group could not be drawn together. The top two teams in each group advanced to the quarter-finals.

Top goalscorers

The top scorers from the 1999–2000 UEFA Champions League are as follows:
RankNameTeamGoalsMinutes played
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