The Champions League is divided into three stages, the first is the qualifying stage, the second is the group stage, and the third is the knockout stage.
Qualifying stage
Starting from the 2009/ 10 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 another 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.
group match
Competition criteria for the Champions League poster group stage: The number of teams directly entering the group stage is 32 (365,438+0 teams+defending champions), and the three football associations with the highest points in UEFA will each have three teams directly entering the group stage. The Football Association, ranked 4th to 6th, has two teams each. The Football Association ranked 7th to 12 has a team directly. Together with the 10 team in the play-off, 32 teams will participate in the Champions League group stage. Group match: 32 teams are divided into eight groups, with four teams in each group scoring points. The two teams with the best results entered the knockout stage, and the third place in eight groups entered the knockout stage of the top 32 of the European League (UEFA Cup). The four teams with the best results will be listed as seed teams together with the first place in each group of the UEFA Cup.
Qualifying rules for the group stage: 1, high score; 2. If the points are the same, look at the winning relationship; 3. If the winning relationship is the same, look at the number of goals scored by the other side; 4. If it is the same, see who scores more goals away; 5. If they are the same, look at the total goal difference in the group match; 6. If it is the same, look at the total number of goals scored in the group stage; 7. If it's the same, look at the point of fair competition.
Elimination stage
Knockout football [2] In the knockout stage of the Champions League, except for the championship battle for the neutral field, all the others used two rounds of home and away matches. In addition, there are only two awards in the Champions League, the champion and the runner-up, and there is no competition for the third place.