Anorthosis of Cyprus and BATE Borisov of Belarus were the first teams from their respective countries to qualify for the group stage. Romanian side CFR Cluj and Russian champions Zenit Saint Petersburg also made their Champions League debuts.
Association team allocation
A total of 76 teams from 52 UEFA associations (Liechtenstein organises no domestic league competition) participated in the 2008–09 Champions League. Countries are allocated places according to the 2007 UEFA league co-efficientranking.
Below is the qualification scheme for the 2008–09 Champions League:
Associations 1–3 each have four teams qualify.
Associations 4–6 each have three teams qualify.
Associations 7–15 each have two teams qualify.
Associations 16–53 (except Liechtenstein) each have one team qualify.
Association ranking
For the 2008–09 UEFA Champions League, the associations are allocated places according to their 2007 UEFA country coefficients, which takes into account their performance in European competitions from 2002–03 to 2006–07.[2]
Since the title holders (Manchester United) qualified for the Champions League group stage through their domestic league, the group stage spot reserved for the title holders is vacated, and the following changes to the default access list are made:[3]
The champions of association 10 (Scotland) are promoted from the third qualifying round to the group stage.
The champions of association 16 (Bulgaria) are promoted from the second qualifying round to the third qualifying round.
The champions of associations 23 (Poland) and 24 (Hungary) are promoted from the first qualifying round to the second qualifying round.
Teams entering in this round
Teams advancing from previous round
First qualifying round (28 teams)
28 champions from associations 25–53
Second qualifying round (28 teams)
8 champions from associations 17–24
6 runners-up from associations 10–15
14 winners from the first qualifying round
Third qualifying round (32 teams)
6 champions from associations 11–16
3 runners-up from associations 7–9
6 third-place finishers from associations 1–6
3 fourth-place finishers from associations 1–3
14 winners from the second qualifying round
Group stage (32 teams)
10 champions from associations 1–10
6 runners-up from associations 1–6
16 winners from the third qualifying round
Knockout phase (16 teams)
8 group winners from the group stage
8 group runners-up from the group stage
Teams
League positions of the previous season shown in parentheses (TH: Title holders).[4]
Portugal (POR): On 4 June 2008, a decision was taken to exclude Portuguese champions Porto from this year's competition, after the club was found guilty of bribing referees in the Primeira Liga during the 2003–04 season.[5] As a result, Vitória de Guimarães were promoted from the third qualifying round to the group stage, and Benfica from the UEFA Cup into the third qualifying round. After Porto appealed the decision, however, it was referred by UEFA's Appeals Body back to the Control & Disciplinary Body for re-assessment.[6] The meeting to re-assess the situation took place on 16 June 2008, with the decision being reversed and Porto being allowed back into the 2008–09 Champions League. The decision was taken due to Porto's disciplinary process in Portugal not yet being complete.[7]
Bulgaria (BUL): Bulgarian champions CSKA Sofia failed to obtain UEFA license due to unpaid debts and were replaced by league runners-up Levski Sofia.[8][9]
The draw for the first qualifying round took place on 1 July 2008 in Nyon, Switzerland.
The first legs were held on 15 and 16 July, while the second legs were played on 22 and 23 July 2008.
Two of the 14 ties were won by the team with the lower UEFA coefficient: Inter Baku (Azerbaijan, country rank 42) beat Rabotnički (Macedonia, 36); and BATE Borisov (Belarus, 40) beat Valur (Iceland, 37). Of the 28 teams in the first qualifying round, two survived as far as the group stage: Anorthosis Famagusta and BATE Borisov.
The draw for the second qualifying round took place on 1 July 2008 in Nyon, Switzerland, immediately after the draw for the first qualifying round.
The first legs were played on 29 and 30 July, while the second legs were played on 5 and 6 August 2008.
Three of the 14 ties were won by the team with the lower UEFA coefficient: Kaunas (unranked, coefficient 2.640) beat Rangers (ranked 24, coefficient 66.013); BATE Borisov (unranked, 1.760) beat Anderlecht (56, 41.810); and Anorthosis (ranked 193) beat Rapid Wien (ranked 166). Of the 28 teams in the second qualifying round, Panathinaikos were the only one to qualify for the knockout phase of the competition.
The draw for the third qualifying round took place on 1 August 2008 in Nyon, Switzerland.[10]
The first legs were played on 12 and 13 August, while the second legs were played on 26 and 27 August. The winners of each tie advanced to the group stage, while the losers were seeded into the 2008–09 UEFA Cup first round.
Four of the 16 ties were won by the team with the lower UEFA coefficient: Anorthosis (ranked 193) beat Olympiacos (ranked 44); BATE Borisov (unranked, coefficient 1.760) beat Levski Sofia (ranked 80, coefficient 32.644); Atlético Madrid (ranked 67) beat Schalke 04 (ranked 22) and Dynamo Kyiv (ranked 74) beat Spartak Moscow (ranked 61).
Location of teams of the 2008–09 UEFA Champions League group stage. Brown: Group A; Red: Group B; Orange: Group C; Yellow: Group D; Green: Group E; Blue: Group F; Purple: Group G; Pink: Group H.
The top two teams in each group advanced to the knockout phase, and the third-placed teams entered the round of 32 of the UEFA Cup. Based on paragraph 6.05 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.
In the knockout stage, teams played 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 was as follows:
In the draw for the round of 16, the eight group winners were seeded, and the eight group runners-up were unseeded. The seeded teams were drawn against the unseeded teams, with the seeded teams hosting the second leg. Teams from the same group or the same association could not be drawn against each other.
In the draws for the quarter-finals and semi-finals, there were no seedings, and teams from the same group or the same association could be drawn against each other. As the draws for the quarter-finals and semi-finals were held together before the quarter-finals were played, the identity of the quarter-final winners was not known at the time of the semi-final draw. A draw was also held to determine which semi-final winner was designated as the "home" team for the final (for administrative purposes as it was played at a neutral venue).
The draw for the round of 16 was held on 19 December 2008, and conducted by UEFA General Secretary David Taylor and Bruno Conti, the ambassador for the 2009 UEFA Champions League Final.[13] The first legs of the round of 16 were played on 24 and 25 February 2009, while the second legs were played on 10 and 11 March.[14]
Bayern Munich defeated Sporting CP by 12–1 on aggregate in the first knockout round; the biggest two-leg win in Champions League era. Manchester United's 2–0 victory against Internazionale in the first knockout round was their 21st consecutive undefeated match, a record surpassing Ajax's 20 undefeated matches, set between 1985–86 and 1995–96. The record was extended to 25 matches, ending with a 2–0 defeat to Barcelona in the final.
The draw for the quarter-finals took place in Nyon, Switzerland, on 20 March 2009. The first legs were played on 7 and 8 April while the second legs were played on 14 and 15 April.[15] Due to the 20th anniversary of Hillsborough Disaster, Liverpool were granted their request that their return leg not be played on 15 April; the match was played on 14 April.[16][17]
Porto's 1–0 loss to Manchester United in the second leg of the quarter-finals was the club's first ever home defeat to English opposition.
The draw for the semi-finals took place on 20 March 2009, immediately after the draw for the quarter-finals. The first legs were played on 28 and 29 April and the second legs on 5 and 6 May.
As in 2007–08, the semi-final teams consisted of three Premier League sides and Barcelona. This was the third consecutive season in which three of the four semi-final teams were English. Manchester United were the first defending champions to reach the semi-finals since the introduction of the first knockout round in the 2003–04 season. Chelsea were knocked out by Barcelona after a highly controversial performance by referee Tom Henning Øvrebø,[18] while Arsenal's 3–1 loss to Manchester United in the second leg of the semi-finals was the club's first defeat at the Emirates Stadium in a European competition.[19]
The final was played on 27 May 2009 at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, Italy. Barcelona won the match 2–0, with goals from Samuel Eto'o and Lionel Messi. Barcelona's victory also meant that they became the first Spanish team to win the Treble. Manchester United were the first defending champions to reach the final of the competition since Juventus in 1997, but they failed to become the first club to defend the European Cup since Milan in 1990.
^Ravdin, Eugene; Menicucci, Paolo (5 October 2006). "Moscow and Rome feast on finals". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. Archived from the original on 20 September 2008. Retrieved 25 May 2007.
^"FC Porto case deferred"(PDF). UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 13 June 2008. Archived(PDF) from the original on 11 September 2008. Retrieved 16 June 2008.
^"Porto admission confirmed". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 16 June 2008. Archived from the original on 29 August 2008. Retrieved 16 June 2008.
^"UEFA sets Monaco agenda". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 5 August 2008. Archived from the original on 29 August 2008. Retrieved 13 August 2008.
