2014–15 UEFA Champions League group stage

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The group stage of the 2014–15 UEFA Champions League will be played from 16 September to 10 December 2014. A total of 32 teams compete in the group stage.

Draw

The draw will be held on 28 August 2014 at Monaco. The 32 teams are allocated into four pots based on their UEFA club coefficients at the beginning of the season, with the title holders being placed in Pot 1 automatically. They 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., 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 (with their 2014 UEFA club coefficients), grouped by their seeding pot. They include 22 teams which enter in this stage, and the 10 winners of the play-off round (5 in Champions Route, 5 in League Route).

Key to colours in group tables
Group winners and runners-up advance to the round of 16
Third-placed teams enter the Europa League round of 32

Pot 1 Team Club Coefficient Real Madrid 161.542 Barcelona 157.542 Bayern Munich 154.328 Chelsea 140.949 Benfica 129.459 Atlético Madrid 119.542

Pot 1 or 2 Team Coeff Schalke 04 95.328 Borussia Dortmund 82.328 Pot 2 Team Coeff Juventus 80.387 Paris Saint-Germain 80.300 Shakhtar Donetsk 78.193 Basel 75.645 Manchester City 72.949

Pot 2 or 3 Team Coeff Olympiacos 67.720 CSKA Moscow 66.899 Ajax 61.862 Pot 3 Team Coeff Liverpool 58.949 Sporting CP 58.459 Galatasaray 55.340

Pot 3 or 4 Team Coeff Anderlecht 50.260 Roma 39.887 Pot 4 Team Coeff Monaco 11.300

Notes

Possible entrants

Play-off round (Champions Route)

Seeded team	Coeff	Unseeded team	Coeff
Celtic	36.813	Maribor	16.200
Red Bull Salzburg	46.185	Malmö FF	6.265
APOEL	37.650	AaB	5.260
Steaua București	39.451	Ludogorets Razgrad	18.125
BATE Borisov	33.725	Slovan Bratislava	8.700

Play-off round (League Route)

Seeded team	Coeff	Unseeded team	Coeff
Arsenal	112.949	Beşiktaş	32.840
Zenit Saint Petersburg	73.899	Standard Liège	38.260
Bayer Leverkusen	70.328	Copenhagen	45.260
Porto	105.459	Lille	45.300
Napoli	61.387	Athletic Bilbao	54.542

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;
5. 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;
6. superior goal difference from all group matches played;
7. higher number of goals scored from all group matches played;
8. 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 16–17 September, 30 September–1 October, 21–22 October, 4–5 November, 25–26 November, and 9–10 December 2014. The match kickoff times are 20:45 CEST/CET, except for matches in Russia which are 18:00 CEST/CET. Times up to 25 October 2014 (matchdays 1–3) are CEST (UTC+2), thereafter (matchdays 4–6) times are CET (UTC+1).

Key to colours in group tables
Group winners and runners-up advance to the round of 16
Third-placed teams enter the Europa League round of 32

External links

• UEFA Champions League (official website)