2013–14 UEFA Champions League group stage

The group stage of the 2013–14 UEFA Champions League is played from 17 September to 11 December 2013, to decide the 16 teams which play in the knockout phase.

Draw
Thirty-two teams play in the group stage: 22 teams which enter in this stage, and the 10 winners of the play-off round (5 in Champions Route, 5 in League Route). The draw was held on 29 August 2013, 17:45 CEST (UTC+2), at the Grimaldi Forum, Monaco.

The 32 teams are allocated into four pots based on their 2013 UEFA club coefficients, with the title holders being placed in Pot 1 automatically. The 32 teams are drawn into eight groups of four containing one team from each of the four seeding pots, with the restriction that teams from the same national association cannot be drawn against each other. Moreover, the draw is controlled for teams from the same association in order to split the teams evenly into the two sets of groups (A–D, E–H) for maximum television coverage.

The fixtures are decided after the draw. 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. There are other restrictions, e.g., teams from the same city (e.g., Chelsea and Arsenal or Manchester United and Manchester City or Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid) in general do not play at home on the same matchday (UEFA tries to avoid teams from the same city playing 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.

Teams
Below are the 32 teams which qualified for the group stage.


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Format
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 Europa League round of 32.

Tiebreakers
The teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a tie, 0 points for a loss). If two or more teams are equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following criteria are 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 in the group matches played among the teams in question;
 * 4) higher number of goals scored away from home in the group matches played among the teams in question;
 * If, after applying criteria 1) to 4) to several teams, two teams still have an equal ranking, criteria 1) to 4) are reapplied exclusively to the matches between the two teams in question to determine their final rankings. If this procedure does not lead to a decision, criteria 6) to 8) apply;
 * 1) superior goal difference from all group matches played;
 * 2) higher number of goals scored from all group matches played;
 * 3) higher number of coefficient points accumulated by the club in question, as well as its association, over the previous five seasons.

Groups
The matchdays are 17–18 September, 1–2 October, 22–23 October, 5–6 November, 26–27 November, and 10–11 December 2013. The match kickoff times are 20:45 CEST/CET, except for matches in Russia which are 18:00 CEST/CET. Times up to 26 October 2013 (matchdays 1–3) are CEST (UTC+2), thereafter (matchdays 4–6) times are CET (UTC+1).

Group A

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Group B

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Group C

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Group D

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Group E

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Group F

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Group G

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Group H

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