The 2003–04 UEFA Champions League group stage matches took take place between 16 September and 10 December 2003. The group stage featured teams qualified by their league positions and others who had come through qualifying.
Draw
The 32 teams were divided into four pots. Pot 1 comprised the
previous year's title holders
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
and the top seven clubs in the team ranking. Pot 2 contained the following eight clubs in the rankings and likewise for Pots 3 and 4. Each group contained one team from each pot. A team's seeding was determined by the
UEFA coefficients
In European football, the UEFA coefficients are statistics based in weighted arithmetic means used for ranking and seeding teams in club and international competitions. Introduced in 1979 for men's football tournaments, and after applied in wome ...
.
Clubs from the same association were paired up to split the matchdays between Tuesday and Wednesday. Clubs with the same pairing letter would play on different days, ensuring that teams from the same city (e.g.
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
and
Internazionale
Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale () or simply Inter, and colloquially known as Inter Milan in English-speaking countries, is an Italian professional football club based in Milan, Lombardy. Inter is ...
, who also share a stadium) did not play on the same day.
Format
During the group stage, each team plays the other three teams in their group twice (home and away or at an alternative venue). The top two teams with the most points or who meet the
tie-break criteria progress to the
first knockout round. The third placed side entered the
UEFA Cup
A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...
in 2004.
Tiebreakers
Based on paragraph 4.05 in the UEFA 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:
#higher number of points obtained in the group matches played among the teams in question;
#superior goal difference from the group matches played among the teams in question;
#higher number of goals scored away from home in the group matches played among the teams in question;
#superior goal difference from all group matches played;
#higher number of goals scored in all group matches played;
#higher number of coefficient points accumulated by the club in question, as well as its association, over the previous five seasons.
Groups
Times are
CET
CET or cet may refer to:
Places
* Cet, Albania
* Cet, standard astronomical abbreviation for the constellation Cetus
* Colchester Town railway station (National Rail code CET), in Colchester, England
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Comcast Ente ...
/
CEST CEST or cest may refer to:
* Central European Summer Time (UTC+2), daylight saving time observed in the central European time zone
* Cognitive-Experiential Self-Theory
* Chemical Exchange Saturation Transfer, a subset of Magnetization transfer in ...
, as listed by UEFA (local times are in parentheses).
Group A
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Group B
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Group C
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Group D
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(*) originally scheduled for 25 November, delayed for security reasons due to the
Istanbul terrorist bombings of 15 and 20 November
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Group E
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Group F
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Group G
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Group H
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Notes
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:2003-04 UEFA Champions League group stage
Group Stage
A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses:
# One or more competitions held at a single venue and concent ...
2003-04