The 2002–03 UEFA Champions League first group stage matches took place between 17 September and 13 November 2002. The draw for the group stage was made on 29 August 2002 in Monaco.

The group stage featured the 16 automatic qualifiers and the 16 winners of the third qualifying round. Each team was drawn into one of eight groups but avoided teams from their own country. All four teams in the group played home and away matches against each other to determine the winner and runner-up in the group.

At the completion of the group stage, the top two teams in each group advanced to play in a second group stage, while the third-placed teams dropped down to the UEFA Cup.

Teams 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. Key to colorsTeams advance to the second group stageTeams enter the UEFA Cup round of 32

+Pot 1TeamNotes Real Madrid 147.223 Bayern Munich 133.495 Barcelona 116.233 Manchester United 111.899 Valencia 106.233 Juventus 91.334 Arsenal 90.729 Internazionale 88.334

+Pot 2TeamNotes Deportivo La Coruña 82.233 Bayer Leverkusen 81.495 Liverpool 79.729 Galatasaray 78.362 Roma 77.334 Lyon 74.176 Borussia Dortmund 73.495 Feyenoord 70.082

+Pot 3TeamNotes Milan 69.334 PSV Eindhoven 63.082 Dynamo Kyiv 59.979 Spartak Moscow 59.645 Lokomotiv Moscow 57.645 Olympiacos 55.058 AEK Athens 52.058 Ajax 48.082

+Pot 4TeamNotes Rosenborg 47.737 Lens 44.176 Newcastle United 43.729 Club Brugge 41.762 Auxerre 32.176 Genk 21.762 Maccabi Haifa 18.666 Basel 14.312

Notes

Tie-breaking criteria Based on Article 7.06 in the UEFA regulations, if two or more teams are equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following criteria will be 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; 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