2010–11 UEFA Champions League group stage

This article details the 2010–11 UEFA Champions League group stage.

The group stage features 32 teams: the 22 automatic qualifiers and the 10 winners of the play-off round (five through the Champions Path, five through the Non-Champions Path).

The teams are drawn into eight groups of four. The top two teams in each group advance to the first knockout round, while the third-placed teams drop down to the Europa League round of 32.

Seeding
The draw for the group stage was held in Monaco on 26 August 2010 at 6:00pm CEST (UTC+2).

Teams are seeded into four pots based on their 2010 UEFA club coefficients. The title holders, Internazionale, are automatically seeded into Pot 1. Teams from the same national association cannot be drawn against each other. Pot 1 held teams ranked 1–10, Pot 2 held teams ranked 11–29, Pot 3 held teams ranked 30–63, while Pot 4 held teams ranked 73–180 and unranked teams.

TH Title Holder c Qualified through Champions Path n Qualified through Non-Champions Path

On each matchday, four groups play their matches on Tuesday, while the other four groups play their matches on Wednesday, with the two sets of groups (A–D, E–H) alternating between each matchday. Based on this principle, the draw is controlled for clubs from the same association in order to split the teams evenly into the two sets of groups, with clubs from the same association "paired up" so that when one team is drawn into one set, the other team will be drawn into the other set. The following pairings were used for the draw: The fixtures are then decided after the draw. There are certain restrictions, e.g., teams from the same city (e.g. Milan and Internazionale, which also share a stadium) do not play at home on the same matchday (UEFA tries to avoid teams from the same city play at home on the same day or on consecutive days), and Russian teams do not play at home on the last matchday due to cold weather.
 * Italy: Internazionale and Milan
 * Spain: Barcelona and Real Madrid
 * England: Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur; Chelsea and Manchester United
 * Germany: Bayern Munich and Schalke 04
 * France: Lyon and Marseille
 * Russia: Rubin Kazan and Spartak Moscow
 * Portugal: Benfica and Braga
 * Netherlands: Ajax and Twente

Tie-breaking criteria
If two or more teams are equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following criteria will be applied to determine the rankings:
 * 1) higher number of points obtained in the group matches played among the teams in question;
 * 2) superior goal difference from the group matches played among the teams in question;
 * 3) higher number of goals scored away from home in the group matches played among the teams in question;
 * 4) superior goal difference from all group matches played;
 * 5) higher number of goals scored;
 * 6) higher number of coefficient points accumulated by the club in question, as well as its association, over the previous five seasons.

Groups
Times up to end of October are CEST (UTC+2), thereafter times are CET (UTC+1)

Group F










