The 2017–18 UEFA Champions League group stage began on 12 September and ended on 6 December 2017.
A total of 32 teams competed in the group stage to decide the 16 places in the
knockout phase
A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...
of the
2017–18 UEFA Champions League.
Draw
The draw for the group stage was held on 24 August 2017, 18:00
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 ...
, at the
Grimaldi Forum
The Grimaldi Forum in Monaco is a conference and congress centre located on the seafront of Monaco's eastern beach quartier, Larvotto. Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo and the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra regularly perform there. This is also t ...
in
Monaco
Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...
.
The 32 teams were drawn into eight groups of four, with the restriction that teams from the same association could not be drawn against each other. For the draw, the teams were seeded into four pots based on the following principles:
*Pot 1 contained the title holders and the champions of the top seven associations based on their 2016
UEFA country coefficients.
If the title holders were one of the champions of the top seven associations, the champions of the association ranked eighth were also seeded into Pot 1.
*Pot 2, 3 and 4 contained the remaining teams, seeded based on their 2017
UEFA club coefficients.
On 17 July 2014, the UEFA emergency panel ruled that Ukrainian and Russian clubs would not be drawn against each other "until further notice" due to the
political unrest
Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...
between the countries.
Moreover, the draw was controlled for teams from the same association in order to split the teams evenly into the two sets of four groups (A–D, E–H) for maximum television coverage. On each matchday, one set of four groups played their matches on Tuesday, while the other set of four groups played their matches on Wednesday, with the two sets of groups alternating between each matchday.
The fixtures were decided after the draw, using a computer draw not shown to public, with the following match sequence (Regulations Article 16.02):
''Note: Positions for scheduling did not use the seeding pots, e.g., Team 1 was not necessarily the team from Pot 1 in the draw.''
There were certain scheduling restrictions: for example, teams from the same city (e.g.,
Real Madrid and
Atlético Madrid) in general were not scheduled to play at home on the same matchday (to avoid teams from the same city playing at home on the same day or on consecutive days, due to logistics and crowd control), and teams in certain countries (e.g., Russia and Azerbaijan) were not scheduled to play at home on the last matchday (due to cold weather and simultaneous kick-off times).
Teams
Below were the participating teams (with their 2017
UEFA club coefficients),
grouped by their seeding pot. They included 22 teams which enter in this stage, and the 10 winners of the
play-off round
The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...
(5 in
Champions Route, 5 in
League Route).
;Notes
Format
In each group, teams played against each other home-and-away in a
round-robin format. The group winners and runners-up advanced to the
round of 16
A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...
, while the third-placed teams entered the
Europa League round of 32.
Tiebreakers
Teams were ranked according to
points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss), and if tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria were applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Articles 17.01):
#Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
#
Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
#
#
#
#
Away goals
The away goals rule is a method of tiebreaking in association football and other sports when teams play each other twice, once at each team's home ground. Under the away goals rule, if the total goals scored by each team are equal, the team that ...
scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
#If more than two teams are tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams are still tied, all head-to-head criteria above are reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;
#Goal difference in all group matches;
#Goals scored in all group matches;
#Away goals scored in all group matches;
#Wins in all group matches;
#Away wins in all group matches;
#Disciplinary points (red card = 3 points, yellow card = 1 point, expulsion for two yellow cards in one match = 3 points);
#
UEFA club coefficient.
Groups
The matchdays were 12–13 September, 26–27 September, 17–18 October, 31 October – 1 November, 21–22 November, and 5–6 December 2017.
The match kickoff times were 20:45 CEST/CET in general, except for certain matches for geographical reasons.
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 En ...
/
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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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
External links
UEFA Champions League(official website)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Uefa Champions League Group Stage 2017-18
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 concen ...
2017-18
September 2017 sports events in Europe
October 2017 sports events in Europe
November 2017 sports events in Europe
December 2017 sports events in Europe