2023–24 UEFA Champions League

The 2023–24 UEFA Champions League was the 69th season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 32nd season since it was renamed from the European Champion Clubs' Cup to the UEFA Champions League.

Real Madrid defeated Borussia Dortmund 2–0 in the final, which was played at the Wembley Stadium in London, England, for a record-extending 15th European Cup title, and their sixth in eleven years. As winners, Real Madrid earned the right to play against Atalanta, the winners of the 2023–24 UEFA Europa League, in the 2024 UEFA Super Cup. They also qualified for the final of the brand-new 2024 FIFA Intercontinental Cup and the expanded 2025 FIFA Club World Cup in the United States.

This edition was the final season with the format of 32 teams participating in the group stage, after UEFA announced that a brand new format would be introduced for the following edition.

Manchester City were the defending champions, but were eliminated by eventual winners Real Madrid in the quarter-finals.

Association team allocation

A total of 78 teams from 53 of the 55 UEFA member associations participated in the 2023–24 UEFA Champions League (the exceptions being Liechtenstein, which did not organise a domestic league, and Russia). The association ranking based on the UEFA association coefficients was used to determine the number of participating teams for each association:
*Associations 1–4 each had four teams qualify.
*Associations 5–6 each had three teams qualify.
*Associations 7–15 (except Russia) each had two teams qualify.
*Associations 16–55 (except Liechtenstein) each had one team qualify.
*The winners of the 2022–23 UEFA Champions League and 2022–23 UEFA Europa League were each given an additional entry if they did not qualify for the 2023–24 UEFA Champions League through their domestic league.

Association ranking

For the 2023–24 UEFA Champions League, the associations were allocated places according to their 2022 UEFA association coefficients, which took into account their performance in European competitions from 2017–18 to 2021–22. The team allocation reflected Russia's ongoing suspension from UEFA competitions.

Apart from the allocation based on the association coefficients, associations could have additional teams (a maximum of 5 per association) participating in the Champions League, as noted below:
* – Additional berth for UEFA Europa League title holders

Distribution

The following is the default access list for the 2023–24 season.

Due to the suspension of Russia for the 2023–24 European season, the following changes to the access list were made:
*The champions of association 11 (Serbia) entered the group stage instead of the play-off round (Champions Path).
*The champions of association 13 (Belgium) entered the play-off round instead of the third qualifying round (Champions Path).
*The champions of association 15 (Greece) entered the third qualifying round instead of the second qualifying round (Champions Path).
*The champions of associations 18 (Denmark) and 19 (Croatia) entered the second qualifying round instead of the first qualifying round (Champions Path).
*The runner-up of association 11 (Serbia) entered the third qualifying round instead of the second qualifying round (League Path).

Since the Champions League title holders (Manchester City) qualified via their domestic league, the following changes to the access list were made:
*The champions of association 12 (Ukraine) entered the group stage instead of the play-off round (Champions Path).
*The champions of association 14 (Switzerland) entered the play-off round instead of the third qualifying round (Champions Path).
*The champions of association 16 (Czech Republic) entered the third qualifying round instead of the second qualifying round (Champions Path).
*The champions of associations 20 (Turkey) and 21 (Cyprus) entered the second qualifying round instead of the first qualifying round (Champions Path).

Teams

The labels in the parentheses show how each team qualified for the place of its starting round:
*TH: Champions League title holders
*EL: Europa League title holders
*1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th: League positions of the previous season

The second qualifying round, third qualifying round and play-off round were divided into Champions Path (CH) and League Path (LP).

Notes

Round and draw dates

The schedule of the competition was as follows. All matches were played on Tuesdays and Wednesdays apart from the preliminary round final and the final.

Qualifying rounds

Preliminary round

First qualifying round

Second qualifying round

Third qualifying round

Play-off round

Group stage

The group stage draw for the 2023–24 UEFA Champions League took place at the Grimaldi Forum, Monaco, on 31 August at . The 32 teams were drawn into eight groups of four. For the draw, the teams were seeded into four pots, each of eight teams, based on the following principles:
*Pot 1 contained the Champions League and Europa League title holders, and the champions of the top six associations based on their 2021–22 UEFA association coefficients. Because Manchester City (the champions of the 2022–23 Premier League) won the 2022–23 UEFA Champions League, the champions of Association 7 (Netherlands) Feyenoord entered into Pot 1.
*Pots 2, 3 and 4 contained the remaining qualified teams, with their pot being determined by UEFA club coefficient (CC).

Teams from the same association could not be drawn into the same group.

Union Berlin and Antwerp made their debut appearances in the group stage.

A total of 15 national associations were represented in the group stage.

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Group E

Group F

Group G

Group H

Knockout phase

In the knockout phase, teams played against each other over two legs on a home-and-away basis, except for the one-match final.

Bracket

Round of 16

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Final

Statistics

Statistics exclude qualifying rounds and play-off round.

Top goalscorers

Team of the Season

The UEFA technical study group selected the following players as the team of the tournament.

Player of the Season

* Vinícius Júnior ( Real Madrid)

Young Player of the Season

* Jude Bellingham ( Real Madrid)

See also

*2023–24 UEFA Europa League
*2023–24 UEFA Europa Conference League
*2024 UEFA Super Cup
*2023–24 UEFA Women's Champions League
*2023–24 UEFA Youth League

References

External links

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UEFA Champions League seasons
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Sports events affected by the Russian invasion of Ukraine