The 2024–25 UEFA Champions League was the 70th season of Europe's premier club

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tournament organised by

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, and the 33rd season since it was rebranded from the

European Champion Clubs' Cup The European Champion Clubs' Cup, also known as Coupe des Clubs Champions Européens, or simply the European Cup, is a trophy awarded annually by UEFA to the Association football, football club that wins the UEFA Champions League. The competiti ...

to the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

. This was the first season under a new format, which had 36 participating teams that played eight games each against different opponents in a league phase, all the teams being ranked in a joint group. This increased the total number of matches played in the competition from 125 to 189 (excluding qualifying rounds).

Luis Enrique Luis Enrique Martínez García (; born 8 May 1970), known as Luis Enrique, is a Spanish football manager and former player. He is the manager of Ligue 1 club Paris Saint-Germain. A versatile player with good technique, he was capable of playin ...

Paris Saint-Germain Paris Saint-Germain Football Club, commonly referred to as Paris Saint-Germain () or simply PSG, is a French professional Association football, football club based in Paris. They compete in Ligue 1, the French football league system, top d ...

defeated Simone Inzaghi's

Inter Milan 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 Association football, football List of football ...

5–0 in the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

, which was held at the

Allianz Arena Allianz Arena (; known as Munich Football Arena for UEFA competitions) is a Association football, football stadium in Munich, Bavaria, Germany, with a 70,000 seating capacity for international matches and 75,000 for domestic matches. Widely kno ...

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

, Germany, to win their first Champions League title in a record margin of victory. As winners of the Champions League, Paris Saint-Germain automatically qualified for the

2025–26 UEFA Champions League The 2025–26 UEFA Champions League will be the 71st season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 34th season since it was rebranded from the European Cup to the UEFA Champions League. The final will be playe ...

league phase, the

2025 FIFA Intercontinental Cup The 2025 FIFA Intercontinental Cup will be the second edition of the FIFA Intercontinental Cup, an annual club association football tournament organised by FIFA. The tournament will comprise the six teams that won the previous edition of the c ...

finals, the 2029 FIFA Club World Cup group stage, and earned the right to play against

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as simply Tottenham (, , , ) or Spurs, is a professional Association football, football club based in Tottenham, North London, England. The club itself has stated that it should always ...

, the winners of the

2024–25 UEFA Europa League The 2024–25 UEFA Europa League was the 54th season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 16th season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League. This was the first season played under ...

, in the 2025 UEFA Super Cup. Paris Saint-Germain became the second French side to win after

Olympique Marseille Olympique de Marseille (, ; , ), also known simply as Marseille, or by the abbreviation OM (, ), is a French professional football club based in Marseille which competes in Ligue 1, the top flight of French football. Founded in 1899, OM has ...

in the 1992–93 edition.

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, th ...

were the defending champions, having won a record-extending 15th title in the previous season, but were eliminated by

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in the

quarter-finals A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, w ...

. The 2024–25 edition brought an end to the dominance of the English, German, Italian and Spanish clubs that had won the tournament since the 2004–05 edition.

Association team allocation

A total of 81 teams from 53 of the 55

member associations participated in the 2024–25 UEFA Champions League (the exceptions being

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, which did not organise a domestic league, and

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

, which was suspended). The association ranking based on the UEFA association coefficients was used to determine the number of participating teams for each association: *Associations 1–5 each had four teams. *Association 6 had three teams. *Associations 7–15 each had two teams. *Associations 16–55 (except

and

) each had one team. *The winners of the

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 CF ...

and 2023–24 UEFA Europa League were each given an additional entry if they did not qualify for the 2024–25 UEFA Champions League through their domestic league. *The two associations who obtained the most coefficient points in the 2023–24 season each had one European Performance Spot into the league phase. The winners of the UEFA Champions League and Europa League could not fill the European Performance Spots.

Association ranking

For the 2024–25 UEFA Champions League, the associations were allocated places according to their 2023 UEFA association coefficients, which took into account their performance in European competitions from 2018–19 to 2022–23. The table reflects Russia's ongoing suspension from UEFA. Apart from the allocation based on the association coefficients, associations could have additional teams participating in the Champions League, as noted below: * – European Performance Spot, the additional berths for associations who finished in the top two of the 2023–24 association coefficients * – Additional berth for UEFA Champions League title holders * – Additional berth for UEFA Europa League title holders

Distribution

The information here reflects the suspension of Russia in European football, and so the following changes to the default access list were made: *The champions of associations 23 (Sweden) and 24 (Poland) will enter the second qualifying round instead of the first qualifying round (Champions Path). As the Champions League title holders (

) qualified via their domestic league's standard berth allocation, the following changes to the default access list were made: * Shakhtar Donetsk as the club with the highest club coefficient that would otherwise have entered the Champions Path of the qualifying phase or play-off round, will enter the league phase instead of the Champions Path play-off round. *

Dinamo Zagreb Građanski nogometni klub Dinamo Zagreb (), commonly referred to as simply Dinamo Zagreb (), is a Croatian professional football club based in Zagreb. Dinamo play their home matches at Stadion Maksimir. They are the most successful club in Cr ...

, as the club with the highest club coefficient that would otherwise have entered the Champions Path second qualifying round, will enter the Champions Path play-off round. *

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and Qarabağ, as the two clubs with the highest club coefficient that would otherwise have will enter the Champions Path first qualifying round, entered the Champions Path second qualifying round. As the Europa League title holders (

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) qualified via their domestic league's standard berth allocation, the following changes to the default access list were made: * Benfica, as the club with the highest club coefficient that would otherwise have entered the League Path third qualifying round, will enter the league phase instead of the League Path third qualifying round. *

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and Red Bull Salzburg, as the two clubs with the highest club coefficient that would otherwise have entered the League Path second qualifying round, will enter the third qualifying round.

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, etc.: League positions of the previous season *EPS: The European Performance Spots given to clubs from the two associations with the highest coefficient points in 2023–24 The second qualifying round, third qualifying round and play-off round were divided into Champions Path (CH) and League Path (LP).

Round and draw dates

The schedule of the competition was as follows. Compared to past seasons, one "exclusive week" was introduced in which Thursday was also a matchday. All matches in other weeks were played on Tuesdays and Wednesdays apart from the final.

Qualifying rounds

First qualifying round

Second qualifying round

Third qualifying round

Play-off round

League phase

The league phase draw for the 2024–25 UEFA Champions League took place at the Grimaldi Forum in

Monaco Monaco, officially the Principality of Monaco, is a Sovereign state, sovereign city-state and European microstates, microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Regions of Italy, Italian region of Liguria, in Western Europe, ...

on 29 August 2024, 18:00 CEST. The 36 teams were divided into four pots of nine teams each based on their UEFA club coefficient, except for the Champions League title holders, who were automatically placed as the top seed in pot 1. The 36 teams were manually drawn and then, the automated software digitally drew their eight different opponents at random, determining which of their matches were at home and which ones away. Each team faced two opponents from each of the four pots, one at home and one away. Teams could not face opponents from their own association, and could only be drawn against a maximum of two sides from the same association. Brest and

Girona Girona (; ) is the capital city of the Province of Girona in the autonomous community of Catalonia, Spain, at the confluence of the Ter, Onyar, Galligants, and Güell rivers. The city had an official population of 106,476 in 2024, but the p ...

made their debut appearances in European football.

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club (commonly referred to as simply Villa) is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club, founded in 1874, compete in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The team have p ...

Bologna Bologna ( , , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the List of cities in Italy, seventh most populous city in Italy, with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its M ...

and Slovan Bratislava made their debut appearances since the introduction of the group stage. A total of 16 national associations were represented in the league phase.

Table

The top eight ranked teams received a bye to the round of 16. The teams ranked from 9th to 24th contested the knockout phase play-offs, with the teams ranked from 9th to 16th seeded for the draw. Teams ranked from 25th to 36th were eliminated from all competitions, with no access to the

Results

Knockout phase

In the

knockout phase A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, w ...

, teams played against each other over two legs on a home-and-away basis, except for the one-match final. The bracket structure for the knockout phase was partially fixed in advance using seeding, with teams' positions in the bracket determined by the final standings in the league phase.

Bracket

Knockout phase play-offs

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

* Ousmane Dembélé (

)

Young Player of the Season

* Désiré Doué (

)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:2024-25 UEFA Champions League UEFA Champions League seasons 1 1