The 2004–05 UEFA Champions League group stage matches took take place between 14 September and 8 December 2004. The group stage featured teams qualified by their league positions and others who had come through qualifying.
Teams The 32 teams were divided into four pots. Pot 1 comprised the previous year's title holders Porto and the top seven clubs in the team ranking. Pot 2 contained the following eight clubs in the rankings and likewise for Pots 3 and 4. Each group contained one team from each pot. A team's seeding was determined by the UEFA coefficients.
Clubs from the same association were paired up to split the matchdays between Tuesday and Wednesday. Clubs with the same pairing letter would play on different days, ensuring that teams from the same city (e.g. Milan and Internazionale, who also share a stadium) did not play on the same day.
Group winners and runners-up advanced to the first knockout roundThird-placed teams entered the UEFA Cup at the round of 32
+Pot 1TeamNotes Porto 99.969 Real Madrid 146.350 Valencia 139.350 Barcelona 134.350 Manchester United 119.511 Bayern Munich 105.331 Deportivo La Coruña 104.350 Arsenal 103.511+Pot 2TeamNotes Milan 99.531 Liverpool 90.511 Juventus 84.531 Internazionale 82.531 Roma 78.531 Lyon 70.947 Chelsea 67.511 Panathinaikos 65.467+Pot 3TeamNotes PSV Eindhoven 65.247 Bayer Leverkusen 62.331 Celtic 60.600 Sparta Prague 54.914 Monaco 51.947 Anderlecht 49.528 Ajax 48.247 Paris Saint-Germain 45.947+Pot 4TeamNotes Rosenborg 42.226 Dynamo Kyiv 41.300 Olympiacos 40.467 Werder Bremen 37.331 Shakhtar Donetsk 17.300 Fenerbahçe 16.656 Maccabi Tel Aviv 14.012 CSKA Moscow 8.572
Notes
Format During the group stage, each team plays the other three teams in their group twice (home and away or at an alternative venue). The top two teams with the most points or who meet the tie-breaking criteria progress to the first knockout round. The third placed side entered the UEFA Cup in 2005.
Tie-breaking criteria Based on paragraph 4.05 in the UEFA 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.
Groups Times are CET/CEST, as listed by UEFA (local times, if different, are in parentheses).
Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Group E
Group F
Group G
Group H
Notes
References
External links at UEFA.com