The 2007–08 UEFA Champions League was the 16th season of UEFA's premier European club football tournament, the UEFA Champions League, since it was rebranded in 1992, and the 53rd tournament overall.
The final was played on 21 May 2008 at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, Russia, where Manchester United played against Chelsea, making it an all-English final for the first time in the history of the European Cup. Manchester United won the match 6–5 on penalties, following a 1–1 draw after extra time.
Milan were the defending champions, but were eliminated by Arsenal in the first knockout round.
Association team allocation 76 teams participated in the 2007–08 UEFA Champions League from 52 UEFA member associations (not including Liechtenstein). Each association enters a certain number of clubs to the Champions League based on its league coefficient which takes into account the performance of its clubs in European competitions from 2001–02 to 2005–06.; associations with a higher league coefficients may enter more clubs than associations with a lower league coefficient, but no association may enter more than four teams. All UEFA associations are guaranteed to have at least one team qualify, with the exception of Liechtenstein, which competes in the Swiss league system, but has no team in the Swiss Super League. One new nation entered their league champion in this year's tournament: Montenegro, following the dissolution of Serbia and Montenegro. The champions from San Marino and Andorra also entered from this year onwards. Below is the qualification scheme for the 2007–08 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 2007–08 UEFA Champions League, the associations are allocated places according to their 2006 UEFA country coefficients, which takes into account their performance in European competitions from 2001–02 to 2005–06.
RankAssociationCoeff.Teams172.7484266.731363.486450.7813548.364644.041741.3312832.081931.8331031.4571130.3751230.2501326.6001426.5751526.1661625.87511724.2901821.541RankAssociationCoeff.Teams1920.97512020.3752119.9992218.5002316.9502414.6652514.0832613.2492712.3322810.1652910.165308.165317.373327.164336.832346.331355.832365.331RankAssociationCoeff.Teams374.8321384.5000394.4151404.331413.665422.998432.665442.665452.332462.332471.999481.832491.666501.665510.000520.000530.000
Distribution Since the title holders (Milan) qualified for the Champions League third qualifying round through their domestic league and entered the group stage automatically, their spot in the third qualifying round is vacated, and the following changes to the default access list are made: The champions of association 16 (Switzerland) are promoted from the second qualifying round to the third qualifying round. The champions of associations 23 and 24 (Denmark and Hungary) are promoted from the first qualifying round to the second qualifying round.
Teams entering in this roundTeams advancing from previous roundFirst qualifying round(28 teams)28 champions from associations 25–53 (except Liechtenstein)Second qualifying round(28 teams)8 champions from associations 17–24 6 runners-up from associations 10–1514 winners from the first qualifying roundThird qualifying round(32 teams)7 champions from associations 10–16 3 runners-up from associations 7–9 6 third-place finishers from associations 1–6 2 fourth-place finishers from associations 1–3 (except title holders Milan)14 winners from the second qualifying roundGroup stage(32 teams)1 current Champions League holder 9 champions from associations 1–9 6 runners-up from associations 1–616 winners from the third qualifying roundKnockout phase(16 teams)8 group winners from the group stage 8 group runners-up from the group stage
Teams Group stage Real Madrid (1st) Milan (4th)TH Marseille (2nd) Sporting CP (2nd) Barcelona (2nd) Manchester United (1st) VfB Stuttgart (1st) PSV Eindhoven (1st) Internazionale (1st) Chelsea (2nd) Schalke 04 (2nd) Olympiacos (1st) Roma (2nd) Lyon (1st) Porto (1st) CSKA Moscow (1st)Third qualifying round Sevilla (3rd) Toulouse (3rd) Spartak Moscow (2nd) Dynamo Kyiv (1st) Valencia (4th) Werder Bremen (3rd) Dinamo București (1st) Sparta Prague (1st) Lazio (3rd) Benfica (3rd) Celtic (1st) Fenerbahçe (1st) Liverpool (3rd) Ajax (PO) Anderlecht (1st) Zürich (1st) Arsenal (4th) AEK Athens (2nd)Second qualifying round F.C. Steaua București (2nd) Slavia Prague (2nd) Rosenborg (1st) Zagłębie Lubin (1st) Rangers (2nd) Beşiktaş (2nd) Red Bull Salzburg (1st) Copenhagen (1st) Genk (2nd) Levski Sofia (1st) Red Star Belgrade (1st) Debrecen (1st) Shakhtar Donetsk (2nd) Beitar Jerusalem (1st)First qualifying round Dinamo Zagreb (1st) Ventspils (1st) Derry City (2nd) Khazar Lankaran (1st) IF Elfsborg (1st) Sheriff Tiraspol (1st) Tirana (1st) F91 Dudelange (1st) Žilina (1st) Olimpi Rustavi (1st) Pyunik (1st) Astana (1st) APOEL (1st) Kaunas (1st) Levadia Tallinn (1st) HB (1st) Domžale (1st) Pobeda (1st) Marsaxlokk (1st) Rànger's (1st) Sarajevo (1st) FH (1st) The New Saints (1st) Murata (1st) Tampere United (1st) BATE Borisov (1st) Linfield (1st) Zeta (1st) Notes
Round and draw dates The calendar shows the dates of the rounds and draw.
Phase Round Draw date First leg Second leg Qualifying First qualifying round 29 June 2007 17–18 July 2007 24–25 July 2007 Second qualifying round 31 July–1 August 2007 7–8 August 2007 Third qualifying round 3 August 2007 14–15 August 2007 28–29 August 2007 Group stage Matchday 1 30 August 2007 18–19 September 2007 Matchday 2 2–3 October 2007 Matchday 3 23–24 October 2007 Matchday 4 6–7 November 2007 Matchday 5 27–28 November 2007 Matchday 6 4 & 11–12 December 2007 Knockout phase Round of 16 21 December 2007 19–20 February 2008 4–5 & 11 March 2008 Quarter-finals 14 March 2008 1–2 April 2008 8–9 April 2008 Semi-finals 22–23 April 2008 29–30 April 2008 Final 21 May 2008 at Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow Notes
Qualifying rounds
First qualifying round
Second qualifying round
Third qualifying round
Group stage
The draw was held on Thursday, 30 August 2007 at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco. The draw was hosted by Pedro Pinto and conducted by UEFA General Secretary David Taylor and Michele Centenaro, UEFA's head of club competitions. The matches were played between 18 September and 12 December 2007.
The top two teams in each group advanced to the knockout stage, and the third-placed teams entered the round of 32 of the UEFA Cup. Based on paragraph 6.05 in the 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.
Sevilla and Slavia Prague made their debut appearance in the group stage.
Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Group E
Group F
Group G
Group H
Knockout phase
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).
Bracket
Round of 16
Quarter-finals
Semi-finals
Final
Statistics Statistics exclude qualifying rounds.
Top goalscorers RankPlayerTeamGoalsMinutes played1 Cristiano Ronaldo Manchester United81,0622 Lionel Messi Barcelona6755 Fernando Torres Liverpool905 Didier Drogba Chelsea1,071 Steven Gerrard Liverpool1,1446 Ryan Babel Liverpool5619 Zlatan Ibrahimović Internazionale625 Frédéric Kanouté Sevilla714 Raúl Real Madrid715 Deivid Fenerbahçe844 Dirk Kuyt Liverpool892 Squad of the season UEFA's Technical Team selected the following 21 players for the 2007–08 UEFA Champions League Team of the Tournament.
PlayerTeam Edwin van der Sar Manchester United Petr Čech Chelsea Manuel Neuer Schalke 04 Nemanja Vidić Manchester United John Terry Chelsea Rio Ferdinand Manchester United Philippe Mexès Roma Carles Puyol Barcelona Jamie Carragher Liverpool Michael Essien Chelsea Alex Fenerbahçe Paul Scholes Manchester United Frank Lampard Chelsea Steven Gerrard Liverpool Cesc Fàbregas Arsenal Wayne Rooney Manchester United Emmanuel Adebayor Arsenal Fernando Torres Liverpool Didier Drogba Chelsea Cristiano Ronaldo Manchester United Lionel Messi Barcelona
See also 2007–08 UEFA Cup 2007 UEFA Intertoto Cup 2008 UEFA Super Cup 2008 FIFA Club World Cup 2007–08 UEFA Women's Cup
References
External links
2007–08 All matches – season at UEFA website Champions League at uefa.com All scorers 2007–08 UEFA Champions League (excluding qualifying round) according to protocols UEFA + all scorers qualifying round - results and line-ups (archive)