The 2008–09 UEFA Champions League was the 54th edition of Europe's premier club football tournament and the 17th edition under the current UEFA Champions League format. The final was played at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, Italy, on 27 May 2009. It was the eighth time the European Cup final has been held in Italy and the fourth time it has been held at the Stadio Olimpico. The final was contested by the defending champions, Manchester United, and Barcelona, who had last won the tournament in 2006. Barcelona won the match 2–0, with goals from Samuel Eto'o and Lionel Messi, securing The Treble in the process. In addition, both UEFA Cup finalists, Werder Bremen and Shakhtar Donetsk featured in the Champions League group stage.
Anorthosis Famagusta 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-efficient ranking.
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.
RankAssociationCoeff.Teams176.8914268.540366.088453.6563544.364642.749740.1652839.379936.1251030.5001129.4751229.0751326.8251426.6411525.4971624.58211723.8501819.725RankAssociationCoeff.Teams1919.20812018.9582118.5752218.5002317.0002414.1652510.8322610.7082710.5822810.541299.915309.665318.664327.332337.331347.166356.498366.164RankAssociationCoeff.Teams376.0000385.8311394.999404.665413.832423.665433.498443.166452.332462.165471.998481.665491.665501.665510.000520.000530.000
Distribution 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: 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 roundTeams advancing from previous roundFirst qualifying round(28 teams)28 champions from associations 25–53Second 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)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 1–314 winners from the second qualifying roundGroup stage(32 teams)10 champions from associations 1–10 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 League positions of the previous season shown in parentheses (TH: Title holders). Group stage Real Madrid (1st) Internazionale (1st) Bayern Munich (1st) CFR Cluj (1st) Villarreal (2nd) Roma (2nd) Werder Bremen (2nd) PSV Eindhoven (1st) Manchester United (1st)TH Lyon (1st) Porto (1st) Zenit Saint Petersburg (1st) Chelsea (2nd) Bordeaux (2nd) Sporting CP (2nd) Celtic (1st)Third qualifying round Barcelona (3rd) Fiorentina (4th) Twente (PO) Slavia Prague (1st) Atlético Madrid (4th) Marseille (3rd) Spartak Moscow (2nd) Galatasaray (1st) Arsenal (3rd) Schalke 04 (3rd) Shakhtar Donetsk (1st) Olympiacos (1st) Liverpool (4th) Vitória de Guimarães (3rd) Standard Liège (1st) Levski Sofia (2nd) Juventus (3rd) F.C. Steaua București (2nd)Second qualifying round Rangers (2nd) Fenerbahçe (2nd) Beitar Jerusalem (1st) Rapid Wien (1st) Dynamo Kyiv (2nd) Panathinaikos (PO) Partizan (1st) Wisła Kraków (1st) Anderlecht (2nd) Basel (1st) AaB (1st) MTK Budapest (1st) Sparta Prague (2nd) Brann (1st)First qualifying round Artmedia Petržalka (1st) Kaunas (1st) BATE Borisov (1st) Llanelli (1st) Dinamo Zagreb (1st) Tampere United (1st) Dinamo Tirana (1st) NSÍ (1st) Anorthosis Famagusta (1st) Sheriff Tiraspol (1st) Levadia Tallinn (1st) F91 Dudelange (1st) IFK Göteborg (1st) Drogheda United (1st) Pyunik (1st) Valletta (1st) Domžale (1st) Dinamo Tbilisi (1st) Inter Baku (1st) FC Santa Coloma (1st) Modriča Maxima (1st) Rabotnicki (1st) Aktobe (1st) Murata (1st) Ventspils (1st) Valur (1st) Linfield (1st) Budućnost Podgorica (1st) Notes
Round and draw dates Phase Round Draw date First leg Second leg Qualifying First qualifying round 1 July 2008 15–16 July 2008 22–23 July 2008 Second qualifying round 29–30 July 2008 5–6 August 2008 Third qualifying round 1 August 2008 12–13 August 2008 26–27 August 2008 Group stage Matchday 1 28 August 2008 16–17 September 2008 Matchday 2 30 September–1 October 2008 Matchday 3 21–22 October 2008 Matchday 4 4–5 November 2008 Matchday 5 25–26 November 2008 Matchday 6 9–10 December 2008 Knockout phase Round of 16 19 December 2008 24–25 February 2009 10–11 March 2009 Quarter-finals 20 March 2009 7–8 April 2009 14–15 April 2009 Semi-finals 28–29 April 2009 5–6 May 2009 Final 27 May 2009 at Stadio Olimpico, Rome
Qualifying rounds
First qualifying round
Second qualifying round
Third qualifying round
Group stage
The draw for the group stage took place on 28 August 2008 at the Grimaldi Forum, Monaco, prior to the 2008 UEFA Super Cup the following day.
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 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.
Anorthosis Famagusta, BATE Borisov, CFR Cluj and Zenit Saint Petersburg made their debuts 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 Lionel Messi Barcelona99822 Steven Gerrard Liverpool7580 Miroslav Klose Bayern Munich6804 Lisandro López Porto69435 Emmanuel Adebayor Arsenal5627 Alessandro Del Piero Juventus688 Didier Drogba Chelsea702 Robin van Persie Arsenal716 Thierry Henry Barcelona717 Karim Benzema Lyon731 Squad of the season UEFA's Technical Team selected the following 21 players for the 2008–09 UEFA Champions League Technical Team Selection.
PlayerTeam Petr Čech Chelsea Edwin van der Sar Manchester United Víctor Valdés Barcelona Nemanja Vidić Manchester United Dani Alves Barcelona John Terry Chelsea Carles Puyol Barcelona Rio Ferdinand Manchester United Gerard Piqué Barcelona Steven Gerrard Liverpool Yaya Touré Barcelona Frank Lampard Chelsea Xavi Barcelona Cesc Fàbregas Arsenal Andrés Iniesta Barcelona Fernando Torres Liverpool Thierry Henry Barcelona Franck Ribéry Bayern Munich Samuel Eto'o Barcelona Cristiano Ronaldo Manchester United Lionel Messi Barcelona
See also 2008–09 UEFA Cup 2008 UEFA Intertoto Cup 2009 UEFA Super Cup 2009 FIFA Club World Cup 2008–09 UEFA Women's Cup
References
External links
2008–09 All matches – season at UEFA website All scorers 2008–09 UEFA Champions League (excluding qualifying round) according to protocols UEFA + all scorers qualifying round 2008/09 UEFA Champions League - results and line-ups (archive) 2008-09 UEFA Champions League dates