UEFA Champions League 2006-07

The UEFA Champions League 2006-07 was the 52nd edition of the European championship football club tournament and 15th edition under the current UEFA Champions League format. The final was contested by AC Milan and Liverpool on 23 May 2007. Beforehand, it was billed as a repeat of the 2004-05 Champions League final, except this time it was played at the Olympic Stadium in Athens, Greece and was won by AC Milan, 2-1.

Early issues

Italian Serie A scandal

The Italian qualifiers should have been, according to the results of the 2005-06 Serie A campaign, Juventus, AC Milan, Internazionale, and Fiorentina. After the match-fixing scandal, the four teams were decided on 25 July.

Internazionale and Roma were confirmed as the direct entrants to the group stage. AC Milan and Chievo were confirmed as the entrants into the third qualifying round. Originally, AC Milan were barred from the Champions League, but were restored to the competition on appeal, although instead of entering the group stage directly, they first had to negotiate a third qualifying round tie, in which they beat Red Star Belgrade by an aggregate score of 3-1.^[1] This move by the Italian FA has proved to be a point of contention, since AC Milan went on to win the competition.

Suspension of Hellenic Football Federation

The participation of Greek teams in this year's tournament was in doubt following FIFA's suspension of the Hellenic Football Federation from all international competition because of government interference in the running of the sport in Greece. FIFA suspended the Hellenic Football Federation from all international competitions on 3 July 2006 because of incompatibilities between Greek law and FIFA regulations.^[2] This would have prevented Greek teams from participating in the competition. However, the Greek parliament amended the draft sports law on the night of 11 July to satisfy FIFA's objections, and the suspension was lifted on 12 July.^[3]

Later issues

Doubt over matches to be played in Italy

On 8 February, the Italian Government announced that San Siro Stadium in Milan was unsafe for spectators in light of riots that took place during and following an Italian Serie A match in Sicily. As a result, the venues of the first leg of the Inter-Valencia tie scheduled for 21 February and the second leg of the Celtic-Milan tie scheduled for 7 March were thrown into doubt. Various proposals and offers of the use of stadia outside Italy were made^[4] but it was finally agreed that the Inter-Valencia tie would be played at the San Siro with a reduced capacity of 36,000. After further work at the San Siro, Italian authorities and UEFA announced that the second leg of Celtic-Milan would go ahead at the stadium, at its full capacity of 85,700. 4,500 seats were reserved for Celtic supporters. ^[5]

Qualifying rounds

First qualifying round

The first legs were played on 11 and 12 July, 2006, with the second legs on 18 and 19 July.

Team #1	Agg.	Team #2	1st leg	2nd leg
Elbasani	1-3	Ekranas	1-0	0-3
TVMK Tallinn	3-4	FH Hafnarfjörður	2-3	1-1
Liepājas Metalurgs	2-1	FC Aqtöbe	1-0	1-1
MyPa	2-0	The New Saints	1-0	1-0
Cork City	2-1	Apollon Limassol	1-0	1-1
Sioni Bolnisi	2-1	Bakı	2-0	0-1
F91 Dudelange	0-1	FK Rabotnički	0-1	0-0
Shakhtyor	0-2	Široki Brijeg	0-1	0-1
Birkirkara	2-5	B36 Tórshavn	0-3	2-2
Linfield	3-5	ND Gorica	1-3	2-2
Pyunik	0-2	Sheriff Tiraspol	0-0	0-2

Second qualifying round

The first legs were played on 25 and 26 July 2006, with the second legs on 1 and 2 August.

Team #1	Agg.	Team #2	1st leg	2nd leg
ND Gorica	0-5	Steaua	0-2	0-3
Levski Sofia	4-0	Sioni Bolnisi	2-0	2-0
FC Zürich	2-3	Red Bull Salzburg	2-1	0-2
Djurgården	2-3	Ružomberok	1-0	1-3
Debrecen	2-5	FK Rabotnicki	1-1	1-4
Cork City	0-4	FK Crvena Zvezda¹	0-1	0-3
Fenerbahçe	9-0	B36 Tórshavn	4-0	5-0
Mladá Boleslav	5-3	Vålerenga	3-1	2-2
Sheriff Tiraspol	1-1(a)	Spartak Moskva	1-1	0-0
Liepājas Metalurgs	1-8	Dynamo Kyiv	1-4	0-4
FH Hafnarfjörður	0-3	Legia Warszawa	0-1	0-2
FC København	4-2	MyPa	2-0	2-2
Ekranas	3-9	Dinamo Zagreb	1-4	2-5
Hearts	3-0	Široki Brijeg	3-0	0-0

Third qualifying round

The first legs were played on 8 and 9 August, 2006, with the second legs on 22 and 23 August.

Team #1	Agg.	Team #2	1st leg	2nd leg
Slovan Liberec	1-2	Spartak Moskva	0-0	1-2
Shakhtar Donetsk	4-2	Legia Warszawa	1-0	3-2
Red Bull Salzburg	1-3	Valencia	1-0	0-3
Levski Sofia	4-2	Chievo	2-0	2-2
Hearts	1-5	AEK Athens	1-2	0-3
CSKA Moskva	5-0	Ružomberok	3-0	2-0
AC Milan	3-1	FK Crvena Zvezda¹	1-0	2-1
Galatasaray	6-3	Mladá Boleslav	5-2	1-1
Standard Liège	3-4	Steaua	2-2	1-2
Austria Vienna	1-4	Benfica	1-1	0-3
Dinamo Zagreb	1-5	Arsenal	0-3	1-2
FC København	3-2	Ajax	1-2	2-0
Hamburger SV	1-1(a)	Osasuna	0-0	1-1
Dynamo Kyiv	5-3	Fenerbahçe	3-1	2-2
Liverpool	3-2	Maccabi Haifa	2-1	1-1²
Lille	4-0	Rabotnički	3-0	1-0

The teams eliminated in this round proceed to the first round of the UEFA Cup.

¹ This club qualified for this season's UEFA competitions as a member of the Football Association of Serbia and Montenegro during the 2005-06 season but is currently a member of the Football Association of Serbia which is the official successor of the previous football association.^[6]

² Due to the armed conflict going on in Israel, UEFA decided that no European matches could be staged in the country until further notice.^[7] The match was played at Lobanovsky Dynamo Stadium in Kiev, Ukraine.^[8]

Group stage

The draw for this round was held 24 August, 2006 in Monaco. The matches were played 12 September-6 December 2006.

Main article: UEFA Champions League 2006-07 Group Stage

Tie-breaking criteria

Based on paragraph 4.05 in the UEFA regulations for the current season, if two or more teams are equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following criteria are applied to determine the rankings:

higher number of points obtained in the group matches played among the teams in question;
superior goal difference from the group matches played among the teams in question;
higher number of goals scored away from home in the group matches played among the teams in question;
superior goal difference from all group matches played;
higher number of goals scored in all group matches played;
higher number of coefficient points accumulated by the club in question, as well as its association, over the previous five seasons.

Teams that progressed to the First Knockout Round are indicated in bold type.

Teams that progressed to the UEFA Cup are indicated in bold italics.

Teams eliminated from European competitions for the season are indicated in plain italics.

Key to colours in group tables
	Top two places advance to knockout stage
	Third place enters the UEFA Cup at the round of 32

Group A

Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
1. Chelsea	13	6	4	1	1	10	4	6
2. Barcelona	11	6	3	2	1	12	4	8
3. Werder Bremen	10	6	3	1	2	7	5	2
4. Levski Sofia	0	6	0	0	6	1	17	-16

Group B

Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
1. FC Bayern	12	6	3	3	0	10	3	7
2. Internazionale	10	6	3	1	2	5	5	0
3. Spartak Moskva	5	6	1	2	3	7	11	-4
4. Sporting	5	6	1	2	3	3	6	-3

Group C

Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
1. Liverpool	13	6	4	1	1	11	5	6
2. PSV Eindhoven	10	6	3	1	2	6	6	0
3. Bordeaux	7	6	2	1	3	6	7	-1
4. Galatasaray	4	6	1	1	4	7	12	-5

Group D

Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
1. Valencia	13	6	4	1	1	12	6	6
2. Roma	10	6	3	1	2	8	4	4
3. Shakhtar Donetsk	6	6	1	3	2	6	11	-5
4. Olympiacos	3	6	0	3	3	6	11	-5

Group E

Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
1. Lyon	14	6	4	2	0	12	3	9
2. Real Madrid	11	6	3	2	1	14	8	6
3. Steaua	5	6	1	2	3	7	11	-4
4. Dynamo Kyiv	2	6	0	2	4	5	16	-11

Group F

Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
1. Manchester United	12	6	4	0	2	10	5	5
2. Celtic	9	6	3	0	3	8	9	-1
3. Benfica	7	6	2	1	3	7	8	-1
4. FC København	7	6	2	1	3	5	8	-3

Group G

Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
1. Arsenal	11	6	3	2	1	7	3	4
2. Porto	11	6	3	2	1	9	4	5
3. CSKA Moskva	8	6	2	2	2	4	5	-1
4. Hamburg	3	6	1	0	5	7	15	-8

Notes:

Arsenal wins the group by virtue of a win and a draw against Porto

Group H

Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
1. AC Milan	10	6	3	1	2	8	4	4
2. Lille	9	6	2	3	1	8	5	3
3. AEK Athens	8	6	2	2	2	6	9	-3
4. Anderlecht	4	6	0	4	2	7	11	-4

(KEY: Pts= Points; Pld= Matches Played; W= Matches Won; D= Matches Drawn; L= Matches Lost; GF= Goals For; GA= Goals Against; GD= Goal Difference)

Knockout stage

Main article: UEFA Champions League 2006-07 Knockout Stage

All knockout rounds are two-legged, except for the final. In the event of aggregate scores being equal after normal time in the second leg, the winning team will be that which scored more goals on their away leg: if the scores in the two matches were identical, extra time is played. The away goals rule also applies if scores are equal at the end of extra time. If there are no goals scored in extra time, the tie is decided on a penalty shoot out. The team first out of the hat in each tie plays the first leg of their tie at home, and the second leg away. This team is denoted as "Team #1" below.

Bracket

Round of 16			Quarter-finals			Semi-finals			Final

Roma	0	2
Lyon	0	0
			Roma	2	1

			Manchester United	1	7
Lille	0	0

Manchester United	1	1
						Manchester United	3	0

						AC Milan	2	3
Celtic	0	0

AC Milan (a.e.t.)	0	1
			AC Milan	2	2

			FC Bayern	2	0
Real Madrid	3	1

FC Bayern (a)	2	2
									Milan	2

									Liverpool	1
Porto	1	1

Chelsea	1	2
			Chelsea	1	2

			Valencia	1	1
Internazionale	2	0

Valencia (a)	2	0
						Chelsea	1	0(1)

						Liverpool (p)	0	1(4)
PSV Eindhoven	1	1

Arsenal	0	1
			PSV Eindhoven	0	0

			Liverpool	3	1
Barcelona	1	1

Liverpool (a)	2	0

First Knockout Round

The draw for the first knockout round of the competition took place on 15 December 2006 at 12:00 CET in Nyon, Switzerland.^[9]

The first legs were played on 20 and 21 February 2007, with the second legs on 6 and 7 March.

Team #1	Agg.	Team #2	1st leg	2nd leg
Porto	2-3	Chelsea	1-1	1-2
Celtic	0-1	AC Milan	0-0	0-1 (a.e.t.)
PSV Eindhoven	2-1	Arsenal	1-0	1-1
Lille	0-2	Manchester United	0-1	0-1
Roma	2-0	Lyon	0-0	2-0
Barcelona	2-2 (a)	Liverpool	1-2	1-0
Real Madrid	4-4 (a)	FC Bayern	3-2	1-2
Internazionale	2-2 (a)	Valencia	2-2	0-0

Quarter-finals

The draw for the final stages, including the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final, was held on Friday, 9 March 2007 at 12:00 CET in Athens, Greece. The draw was conducted by ad interim UEFA CEO Gianni Infantino, assisted by Friedrich Stickler, chairman of the UEFA Club Competitions Committee. Theodoros Zagorakis, the captain of Greece in Euro 2004, was appointed ambassador for the final.

The quarter-final matches were played on 3/4 April, and on 10/11 April 2007.

Team #1	Agg.	Team #2	1st leg	2nd leg
AC Milan	4-2	FC Bayern	2-2	2-0
PSV Eindhoven	0-4	Liverpool	0-3	0-1
Roma	3-8	Manchester United	2-1	1-7
Chelsea	3-2	Valencia	1-1	2-1

Semi-finals

The semi-final matches were played on 24/25 April and 1/2 May 2007.

Team #1	Agg.	Team #2	1st leg	2nd leg
Chelsea	1-1 (1-4p)	Liverpool	1-0	0-1
Manchester United	3-5	AC Milan	3-2	0-3

Final

Main article: 2007 UEFA Champions League Final

The Final took place on 23 May 2007 at the Olympic Stadium in Athens, Greece. Unlike the other knockout rounds, the final was played in only one match with extra time in case of a draw at 90 minutes. If the teams were still level following extra time, a penalty shoot-out would have determined the winner.

AC Milan scored first through Filippo Inzaghi just before half time. Inzaghi scored again in the 82nd minute, before Dirk Kuyt scored a late consolation goal a minute before full time.

The winner (A.C. Milan) will go on to represent Europe at the 2007 FIFA Club World Cup</