Rules for drawing lots for Champions League group matches

Since last season, there will be four rounds of qualifiers (the fourth round is a play-off) before the Champions League group stage, all of which are home and away two rounds of elimination, and the other ten places will be decided to enter the group stage. There are two ways to participate in the Champions League qualifiers: the champion way and the ranking way. The main purpose of separating the two qualifying methods is that teams that enter the group stage through championship and ranking will not meet in the group stage. Teams eliminated in the third qualifying round will enter the play-offs of the European League (the fourth qualifying round).

(1) How the champion enters the group stage:

In the first round of qualifiers, the national champions of the Football Association ranked 48-53 and ***6 teams in UEFA points, which were divided into two teams to play two rounds of home and away games, and three winners entered the second round of qualifiers. The champions of 3 1 countries (except Liechtenstein) ranked by UEFA from 16 to 47 will directly enter the second round of qualifiers.

In the second qualifying round, 34 teams were eliminated in pairs of 17, and the winner of 17 entered the third qualifying round.

In the third round of preliminaries, 65438- 15 ranked sixth and seventh in the league, and 13- 15 was the national league champion of the Football Association. *** 13 teams participated directly, among which 17 won the second round of preliminaries and the winner entered.

Team 15, which advanced in the final round of the fourth qualifying round (play-off), started the fourth qualifying round together with the league runner-up ranked 1~3 and the league runner-up ranked 4~5, and was divided into champion group and non-champion group. The winner of 10 entered the group stage.

(2) The ranking method of entering the group stage:

The sixth runner-up of UEFA and the ninth runner-up of UEFA entered the third round of qualifiers directly with 15. This 10 team was divided into five pairs for elimination, and the winners of the five pairs entered the play-offs together with the runner-up of the Football Association ranked 1 to the third place in Europe and the runner-up of the Football Association ranked fourth to fifth. 10 teams were also eliminated in five pairs, and the winners of the five pairs entered the Champions League group stage.