UEFA Champions League 2007-08
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This article documents a current sports-related event. Information may change as the event progresses. |
The 2007-08 UEFA Champions League is the 53rd edition of the European championship football tournament and the 16th edition under the current UEFA Champions League format.
The final is scheduled to be played at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow on 21 May 2008. However, due to an upcoming review of venues eligible to host the Champions League Final (announced by UEFA President Michel Platini on 6 June 2007) this decision could be reversed, and a stadium with enhanced turnstile and ticketing technology chosen instead.[1]
Rinat Dasayev is appointed as the 2008 UEFA Champions League Final Ambassador.
Qualification
76 teams will participate in the 2007-2008 UEFA Champions League from UEFA's 53 member associations. Each association enters a certain number of clubs to the Champions League based on its league coefficient; associations with a higher league coefficients may enter more clubs than associations with a lower league coefficient, but no association may enter more than four teams. All UEFA associations are guaranteed to have at least 1 team qualify, with the exception of Liechtenstein, which organizes no league competition. One new nation will enter their league champion in this year's tournament: Montenegro, following the dissolution of Serbia and Montenegro. The champions from San Marino and Andorra are also entered from this year onwards. Below is the qualification scheme for the 2007-2008 Champions League:[2]
- Associations 1-3 (Spain, England, and Italy): 4 teams
- Associations 4-6 (France, Germany, and Portugal): 3 teams
- Associations 7-15 (Netherlands, Greece, Russia, Romania, Scotland, Belgium, Ukraine, Czech Republic, and Turkey): 2 teams
- Associations 16-53: 1 team
First qualifying round: (28 teams)
- 28 champions from associations 25-53
Second qualifying round: (28 teams)
- 14 winners from the First Qualifying Round
- 8 champions from associations 17-24 (Bulgaria, Israel, Norway, Austria, Serbia, Poland, Denmark, and Hungary)
- 6 runners-up from associations 10-15
Third qualifying round: (32 teams)
- 14 winners from the Second Qualifying Round
- 7 champions from associations 10-16
- 3 runners-up from associations 7-9
- 6 third-place finishers from associations 1-6
- 2 fourth-place finishers from associations 1-3 (AC Milan, the fourth-place finishers from Italy, as holders, qualify automatically for the group stage.)
Group stage: (32 teams)
- 1 current Champions League holder
- 16 winners from the Third Qualifying Round
- 9 champions from associations 1-9
- 6 runners-up from associations 1-6
- TH: The champions of 2006-07 edition will go through group stage directly.
Round and draw dates
The calendar shows that the dates of the rounds and draw.
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 29 June 2007 | Draw for first and second qualifying rounds |
| 17-18 July 2007 | First qualifying round, first leg |
| 24-25 July 2007 | First qualifying round, second leg |
| 31 July-1 August 2007 | Second qualifying round, first leg |
| 3 August 2007 | Draw for third qualifying round |
| 7-8 August 2007 | Second qualifying round, second leg |
| 14-15 August 2007 | Third qualifying round, first leg |
| 28-29 August 2007 | Third qualifying round, second leg |
| 30 August 2007 | Draw for group stage |
| 18-19 September 2007 | Group stage, Matchday 1 |
| 2-3 October 2007 | Group stage, Matchday 2 |
| 23-24 October 2007 | Group stage, Matchday 3 |
| 6-7 November 2007 | Group stage, Matchday 4 |
| 27-28 November 2007 | Group stage, Matchday 5 |
| 11-12 December 2007 | Group stage, Matchday 6 1 |
| 21 December 2007 | Draw for First knockout round |
| 19-20 February 2008 | First knockout round, 1st leg |
| 4-5 March 2008 | First knockout round, 2nd leg |
| 7 March 2008 | Draw for remaining rounds |
| 1-2 April 2008 | Quarter-finals, 1st leg |
| 8-9 April 2008 | Quarter-finals, 2nd leg |
| 22-23 April 2008 | Semi-finals, 1st leg |
| 29-30 April 2008 | Semi-finals, 2nd leg |
| 21 May 2008 | Final in Moscow, Russia |
1 Group D will play their Matchday 6 fixtures on 4 December due to AC Milan's participation in 2007 FIFA Club World Cup in Japan on 13 and 16 December.
Qualifying rounds
First qualifying round
The draw was held on Friday, 29 June 2007 at 12:00 CET in Nyon, Switzerland. The draw was conducted by UEFA General Secretary David Taylor and Michele Centenaro, UEFA's head of club competitions. The matches were played on 17/18 July and 24/25 July 2007.
| Team #1 | Agg. | Team #2 | 1st leg | 2nd leg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Khazar Lenkoran  |
2-4 | 
Dinamo Zagreb |
1-1 | 1-3 (aet) |
APOEL Nicosia  |
2-3 | 
BATE Borisov |
2-0 | 0-3 (aet) |
Sheriff Tiraspol  |
5-0 |  Rànger's |
2-0 | 3-0 |
FH Hafnarfjörður  |
4-1 |  HB Tórshavn |
4-1 | 0-0 |
The New Saints  |
4-4(a) |  Ventspils |
3-2 | 1-2 |
FK Pobeda  |
0-1 | 
Levadia Tallinn |
0-1 | 0-0 |
Olimpi Rustavi  |
0-3 | 
Astana |
0-0 | 0-3 |
FK Zeta  |
5-4 | 
FBK Kaunas |
3-1 | 2-3 |
SS Murata  |
1-4 | 
Tampere United |
1-2 | 0-2 |
F91 Dudelange  |
5-7 | 
MŠK Žilina |
1-2 | 4-5 |
Linfield  |
0-1 |  Elfsborg |
0-0 | 0-1 |
Derry City[3]  |
0-2 | 
Pyunik |
0-0 | 0-2 |
Marsaxlokk  |
1-9 |  FK Sarajevo |
0-6 | 1-3 |
NK Domžale  |
3-1 |  SK Tirana |
1-0 | 2-1 |
Second qualifying round
The draw was held on Friday, 29 June 2007 at 12:00 CET in Nyon, Switzerland. The draw was conducted by UEFA General Secretary David Taylor and Michele Centenaro, UEFA's head of club competitions. The matches were played on 31 July/1 August and 7/8 August 2007.
| Team #1 | Agg. | Team #2 | 1st leg | 2nd leg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Pyunik  |
1-4 | 
Shakhtar Donetsk |
0-2 | 1-2 |
Crvena Zvezda  |
(a)2-2 | Levadia Tallinn |
1-0 | 1-2 |
Rangers  |
3-0 | 
FK Zeta |
2-0 | 1-0 |
Debrecen  |
0-1 | Elfsborg |
0-1 | 0-0 |
Zagłębie Lubin  |
1-3 |  |
0-1 | 1-2 |
Genk .svg) |
2-2(a) | FK Sarajevo |
1-2 | 1-0 |
Ventspils  |
0-7 | 
Red Bull Salzburg |
0-3 | 0-4 |
Astana  |
2-10 |  Rosenborg |
1-3 | 1-7 |
| FH Hafnarfjörður |
2-4 |
BATE Borisov |
1-3 | 1-1 |
F.C. København  |
2-1 |  Beitar Jerusalem |
1-0 | 1-1(aet) |
MŠK Žilina  |
0-0(3-4p) |  Slavia Praha |
0-0 | 0-0(aet) |
Tampere United  |
2-0 | 
Levski Sofia |
1-0 | 1-0 |
| NK Domžale |
2-5 |
Dinamo Zagreb |
1-2 | 1-3 |
Beşiktaş  |
4-0 |  Sheriff Tiraspol |
1-0 | 3-0 |
Third qualifying round
The draw was held on Friday, 3 August 2007 at 12:00 CET in Nyon, Switzerland. The draw was conducted by UEFA General Secretary David Taylor and Giorgio Marchetti, UEFA's director of professional football. The matches were played on 14/15 August and 28/29 August 2007. Winners in this round qualify for the group stage, while the losing clubs will be entered in the first round of the UEFA Cup. Due to the death of Antonio Puerta the second leg of Sevilla's game against AEK Athens was postponed until 3 September.
| Team #1 | Agg. | Team #2 | 1st leg | 2nd leg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
BATE Borisov  |
2-4 | |
2-2 | 0-2 |
| Tampere United |
0-5 | Rosenborg |
0-3 | 0-2 |
Spartak Moskva  |
2-2(3-4p) | 
Celtic |
1-1 | 1-1(aet) |
Werder Bremen  |
5-3 | Dinamo Zagreb |
2-1 | 3-2 |
Red Bull Salzburg  |
2-3 |
Shakhtar Donetsk |
1-0 | 1-3 |
Ajax  |
1-3 | Slavia Praha |
0-1 | 1-2 |
Valencia  |
5-1 | Elfsborg |
3-0 | 2-1 |
FK Sarajevo  |
0-4 |
Dynamo Kyiv |
0-1 | 0-3 |
| Fenerbahçe |
3-0 | 
Anderlecht |
1-0 | 2-0 |
| Rangers |
1-0 |  Crvena Zvezda |
1-0 | 0-0 |
Toulouse  |
0-5 | 
Liverpool |
0-1 | 0-4 |
Benfica  |
3-1 |  F.C. København |
2-1 | 1-0 |
Lazio  |
4-2 | |
1-1 | 3-1 |
Sparta Praha  |
0-5 |
Arsenal |
0-2 | 0-3 |
Zürich  |
1-3 |  Beşiktaş |
1-1 | 0-2 |
| Sevilla |
6-1 |  AEK
Athens |
2-0 | 4-1 |
Group stage
The draw was held on Thursday, 30 August 2007 at 16:00 CET at Grimaldi Forum in Monaco. The draw was hosted by Pedro Pinto and conducted by UEFA General Secretary David Taylor and Michele Centenaro, UEFA's head of club competitions. The matches will be played from 18 September-12 December 2007.
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 highlighted in green have qualified for the knockout stage | |
| Teams highlighted in blue have qualified for the UEFA Cup at the round of 32 | |
| Fourth place is eliminated from European competition for the season |
In results tables, the home team is listed in the left-hand column.
Group A
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Group B
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Group C
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Group D
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