2018–19 UEFA Champions League

The **2018–19 UEFA Champions League** was the 64th season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 27th season since it was renamed from the European Champion Clubs' Cup to the UEFA Champions League.

The final was played at the Wanda Metropolitano in Madrid, Spain. The final was played between two English clubs, Liverpool and Tottenham. Liverpool beat Tottenham 2–0 with goals from Mohamed Salah and Divock Origi. This brought Liverpool to there 6th European Champion Clubs' Cup / UEFA Champions League. Liverpool have won the most European Champion Clubs' Cup and UEFA Champions League than any other British Club.

## Teams

League positions of the previous season shown in parentheses (TH: Champions League title holders; EL: Europa League title holders).

|colspan=4|Group stage||||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|Barcelona|Borussia Dortmund|Roma|Porto||
|Atlético Madrid <sup>EL</sup>|Manchester City|Internazionale|Shakhtar Donetsk||
|Real Madrid|Manchester United|Paris Saint-Germain|Club Brugge||
|Valencia|Tottenham Hotspur|Monaco|Galatasaray||
|Bayern Munich|Liverpool|Lyon|Viktoria Plzeň||
|Schalke 04|Juventus|Lokomotiv Moscow|rowspan=2||
|1899 Hoffenheim|Napoli|CSKA Moscow|||
|Young Boys|PSV Eindhoven|colspan=2|||
|AEK Athens|Red Bull Salzburg|Spartak Moscow|Standard Liège||
|rowspan=2 colspan=2||Benfica|Fenerbahçe||
|Dynamo Kyiv|||||
|CFR Cluj|Midtjylland|Basel|PAOK||
|Dinamo Zagreb|BATE Borisov|Ajax|Sturm Graz||
|Legia Warsaw|Red Star Belgrade|Kukësi|Alashkert||
|Malmö FF|Astana|Cork City|F91 Dudelange||
|Hapoel Be'er Sheva||Zrinjski Mostar|Crusaders||
|Celtic|Spartak Trnava|Torpedo Kutaisi|Sūduva Marijampolė||
|APOEL||Spartaks Jūrmala|Valletta||
|Rosenborg|Sheriff Tiraspol|Shkëndija|The New Saints||
|Qarabağ|Valur|Flora Tallinn|Víkingur Gøta||
|Ludogorets Razgrad|HJK|Sutjeska Nikšić|||
|Lincoln Red Imps|FC Santa Coloma||Drita||

- Notes

## Round and draw dates

The schedule of the competition is as follows (all draws are held at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, unless stated otherwise).

|Stage|Round|Draw date|First leg|Second leg|||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|Preliminary|Preliminary round|12 June 2018|26 June 2018 (semi-final round)|29 June 2018 (final round)|||
|rowspan=3|Qualifying|First qualifying round|rowspan=2|19 June 2018|10–11 July 2018|17–18 July 2018|
|Second qualifying round|24–25 July 2018|31 July – 1 August 2018|||||
|Third qualifying round|23 July 2018|7–8 August 2018|14 August 2018||||
|Play-off|Play-off round|6 August 2018|21–22 August 2018|28–29 August 2018|||
|rowspan=6|Group stage|Matchday 1|rowspan=6|30 August 2018 (Monaco)|colspan=2|18–19 September 2018|
|Matchday 2|colspan=2|2–3 October 2018|||||
|Matchday 3|colspan=2|23–24 October 2018|||||
|Matchday 4|colspan=2|6–7 November 2018|||||
|Matchday 5|colspan=2|27–28 November 2018|||||
|Matchday 6|colspan=2|11–12 December 2018|||||
|rowspan=4|Knockout phase|Round of 16|17 December 2018|12–13 & 19–20 February 2019|5–6 & 12–13 March 2019||
|Quarter-finals|15 March 2019|9–10 April 2019|16–17 April 2019||||
|Semi-finals|rowspan=2|19 April 2019|30 April – 1 May 2019|7–8 May 2019|||
|Final|colspan=2|1 June 2019 at Wanda Metropolitano, Madrid|||||

From this season, there will be staggered kick-off times – 18:55 CET and 21:00 CET.

## Group stage

The draw for the group stage will be held on 30 August 2018 at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco. The 32 teams are drawn into eight groups of four, with the restriction that teams from the same association cannot be drawn against each other. For the draw, the teams are seeded into four pots based on the following principles (introduced starting this season):
- Pot 1 contains the Champions League and Europa League title holders, and the champions of the top six associations based on their 2017 UEFA country coefficients. If either or both title holders are one of the champions of the top six associations, the champions of the next highest ranked association(s) are also seeded into Pot 1.
- Pot 2, 3 and 4 contain the remaining teams, seeded based on their 2018 UEFA club coefficients.

In each group, teams play against each other home-and-away in a round-robin format. The group winners and runners-up advance to the round of 16, while the third-placed teams enter the 2018–19 UEFA Europa League round of 32. The matchdays are 18–19 September, 2–3 October, 23–24 October, 6–7 November, 27–28 November, and 11–12 December 2018.

A total of 32 teams play in the group stage: 26 teams which enter in this stage, and the six winners of the play-off round (four from Champions Path, two from League Path).

- Atlético Madrid _CC: 140.000_ _(Pot 1)
- Bayern Munich _CC: 135.000_ _(Pot 1)_
- Barcelona _CC: 132.000_ _(Pot 1)_
- Juventus _CC: 126.000_ _(Pot 1)_
- Paris Saint-Germain _CC: 109.000_ _(Pot 1)_
- Manchester City _CC: 100.000_ _(Pot 1)_
- Lokomotiv Moscow _CC: 22.500_ _(Pot 1)_
- Real Madrid _CC: TBD (160.000)_ _(Pot 1 if Champions League title holders otherwise Pot 2)_
- Borussia Dortmund _CC: 89.000_ _(Pot 2)_
- Porto _CC: 86.000_ _(Pot 2)_
- Manchester United _CC: 82.000_ _(Pot 2)_
- Shakhtar Donetsk _CC: 81.000_ _(Pot 2)_
- Napoli _CC: 78.000_ _(Pot 2)_
- Tottenham Hotspur _CC: 67.000_
- Roma _CC: 64.000_
- Liverpool _CC: TBD (62.000)_ _(Pot 1 if Champions League title holders)_
- Schalke 04 _CC: 62.000_ _(Pot 3)_
- Lyon _CC: 59.500 (Pot 3)_
- Monaco _CC: 57.000 (Pot 3)_
- CSKA Moscow _CC: 45.000 (Pot 3)_
- Valencia _CC: 36.000_
- Viktoria Plzeň _CC: 33.000_
- Club Brugge _CC: 29.500_
- Galatasaray _CC: 29.500_
- Internazionale _CC: 16.000_ _(Pot 4)_
- 1899 Hoffenheim _CC: 14.285_ _(Pot 4)''

## Knockout stage

In the knockout stage, teams play against each other over two legs on a home-and-away basis, except for the one-match final. The mechanism of the draws for each round is as follows:
- In the draw for the round of 16, the eight group winners are seeded, and the eight group runners-up are unseeded. The seeded teams are drawn against the unseeded teams, with the seeded teams hosting the second leg. Teams from the same group or the same association cannot be drawn against each other.
- In the draws for the quarter-finals onwards, there are no seedings, and teams from the same group or the same association can be drawn against each other.

### Round of 16

The draw for the round of 16 will be held on 17 December 2018. The first legs will be played on 12, 13, 19 and 20 February, and the second legs will be played on 5, 6, 12 and 13 March 2019.

### Quarter-finals

The draw for the quarter-finals will be held on 15 March 2019. The first legs will be played on 9 and 10 April, and the second legs will be played on 16 and 17 April 2019.

### Semi-finals

The draw for the semi-finals will be held on 19 April 2019. The first legs will be played on 30 April and 1 May, and the second legs will be played on 7 and 8 May 2019.

### Final

The final will be played on 1 June 2019 at the Wanda Metropolitano in Madrid. The "home" team (for administrative purposes) will be determined by an additional draw held after the semi-final draw.

## Other websites

- UEFA Champions League (official website)

## Infobox (international football competition)

- **tourney name**: UEFA Champions League
- **year**: 2018–19
- **image**: Wanda-Metropolitano.jpg
- **size**: 275
- **caption**: The Wanda Metropolitano in Madrid hosted the final
- **dates**: _Qualifying:_
26 June – 29 August 2018
_Competition proper:_
18 September 2018 – 1 June 2019
- **num teams**: _Competition proper:_ 32
_Total:_ 79
- **associations**: 54
- **matches**: 32
- **goals**: 94
- **top scorer**: Lionel Messi (5 goals)
- **prevseason**: 2017–18 UEFA Champions League, 2017–18
- **nextseason**: 2019–20 UEFA Champions League, 2019–20
- **updated**: 3 October 2018