The 2012–13 UEFA Champions League was the 58th season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 21st season since it was renamed from the European Champion Clubs' Cup to the UEFA Champions League.
The final was played at Wembley Stadium in London, England, in recognition of the 150th anniversary of the formation of England's Football Association, the world's oldest football association. It came just two years after Wembley hosted the final in 2011, making it the seventh occasion Wembley Stadium (current and old) had hosted the Champions League final. Bayern Munich, who had been runners-up in the previous season, beat Bundesliga rivals Borussia Dortmund 2–1 to win their fifth title in the competition. It was the first all-German final and the fourth final to feature two teams from the same association, after the finals of 2000, 2003 and 2008.
Chelsea were the defending champions, but were eliminated in the group stage, becoming the first title holders to leave the competition at this stage. They went on to win the 2013 UEFA Europa League final, and became the first team to win the Europa League as the holders of the Champions League.
Association team allocation A total of 76 teams from 52 of the 53 UEFA member associations participate in the 2012–13 UEFA Champions League (the exception being Liechtenstein, which do not organise a domestic league). The association ranking based on the UEFA country coefficients is used to determine the number of participating teams for each association: 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 Because the winners of the 2011–12 UEFA Champions League, Chelsea, failed to qualify for the 2012–13 UEFA Champions League through their domestic league (finishing sixth in the Premier League), and because of the restriction that no association can have more than four teams playing in the Champions League, Chelsea's entry in the 2012–13 UEFA Champions League as title holders came at the expense of Tottenham Hotspur, the fourth-placed team of the 2011–12 Premier League (who entered the Europa League instead).
Association ranking For the 2012–13 UEFA Champions League, the associations are allocated places according to their 2011 UEFA country coefficients, which takes into account their performance in European competitions from 2006–07 to 2010–11.
RankAssociationTeams185.7854282.329369.436460.5523553.678651.596744.7072843.883940.1291035.0501134.1661230.5501327.0001425.8241525.1411624.90011722.0001820.850RankAssociationTeams1920.70012018.1242117.8752216.1242316.0832415.9162514.4992614.3752714.2502814.125299.124308.966318.708328.500337.749347.708357.415366.957RankAssociationTeams376.1651386.124395.207404.957414.374424.0000433.8751443.874453.791462.790472.583482.416492.249501.416511.374521.000530.916
Distribution Tottenham Hotspur were due to enter the Champions League play-off round for non-champions, but instead entered the Europa League because Chelsea won the Champions League the previous season. As this spot in the play-off round was vacated, the following change to the default allocation system was made to compensate: The third-placed team of association 6 (Portugal) and the runners-up of association 7 (Russia) were promoted from the third qualifying round to the play-off round
Teams entering in this roundTeams advancing from previous roundFirst qualifying round(6 teams)6 champions from associations 48–53Second qualifying round(34 teams)31 champions from associations 16–47 (except Liechtenstein)3 winners from the first qualifying roundThird qualifying roundChampions(20 teams)3 champions from associations 13–1517 winners from the second qualifying roundNon-champions(8 teams)8 runners-up from associations 8–15Play-off roundChampions(10 teams)10 winners from the third qualifying round for championsNon-champions(10 teams)1 runner-up from association 7 3 third-placed teams from associations 4–6 2 fourth-placed teams from associations 1–3(minus the spot vacated by Tottenham Hotspur)4 winners from the third qualifying round for non-championsGroup stage(32 teams)Title holders 12 champions from associations 1–12 6 runners-up from associations 1–6 3 third-placed teams from associations 1–35 winners from the play-off round for champions 5 winners from the play-off round for non-championsKnockout 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 qualified via league position shown in parentheses. Chelsea qualified as title holders. (TH: Champions League title holders; EL: Europa League title holders).
Group stage Chelsea Valencia Montpellier Shakhtar Donetsk Manchester City Borussia Dortmund Paris Saint-Germain Ajax Bayern Munich Porto Galatasaray Arsenal Schalke 04 Benfica Olympiacos Real Madrid Juventus Zenit Saint Petersburg Nordsjælland Barcelona Milan Play-off roundChampionsNon-champions Málaga Udinese Braga Borussia Mönchengladbach Lille Spartak Moscow Third qualifying roundChampionsNon-champions Anderlecht Dynamo Kyiv Panathinaikos Vaslui CFR Cluj Feyenoord Copenhagen Motherwell Celtic Fenerbahçe Club Brugge Second qualifying round Basel Śląsk Wrocław Debrecen KR Ironi Kiryat Shmona Žilina Sheriff Tiraspol Shakhter Karagandy Slovan Liberec Molde Ekranas Budućnost Podgorica Red Bull Salzburg Partizan Ventspils Skënderbeu AEL Limassol Helsingborgs IF Zestaponi Flora Željezničar Neftçi The New Saints Dinamo Zagreb HJK Maribor Ulisses BATE Borisov Shamrock Rovers Vardar First qualifying round Valletta B36 Lusitanos Tre Penne Linfield F91 Dudelange
Notes
Round and draw dates All draws were held at UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland unless stated otherwise.
PhaseRoundDraw dateFirst legSecond legQualifyingFirst qualifying round25 June 20123–4 July 201210–11 July 2012Second qualifying round17–18 July 201224–25 July 2012Third qualifying round20 July 201231 July – 1 August 20127–8 August 2012Play-offPlay-off round10 August 201221–22 August 201228–29 August 2012Group stageMatchday 130 August 2012(Monaco)18–19 September 2012Matchday 22–3 October 2012Matchday 323–24 October 2012Matchday 46–7 November 2012Matchday 520–21 November 2012Matchday 64–5 December 2012Knockout phaseRound of 1620 December 201212–13 & 19–20 February 20135–6 & 12–13 March 2013Quarter-finals15 March 20132–3 April 20139–10 April 2013Semi-finals12 April 201323–24 April 201330 April – 1 May 2013Final25 May 2013 at Wembley Stadium, London
Qualifying rounds
In the qualifying rounds and the play-off round, teams were divided into seeded and unseeded teams based on their 2012 UEFA club coefficients, and then drawn into two-legged home-and-away ties. Teams from the same association could not be drawn against each other.
First qualifying round The draws for the first and second qualifying rounds were held on 25 June 2012. The first legs were played on 3 July and the second legs were played on 10 July 2012.
Second qualifying round The first legs were played on 17 and 18 July and the second legs were played on 24 and 25 July 2012.
Third qualifying round The third qualifying round was split into two separate sections: one for champions (Champions Route) and one for non-champions (League Route). The losing teams in both sections entered the Europa League play-off round.
The draw for the third qualifying round was held on 20 July 2012. The first legs were played on 31 July and 1 August and the second legs were played on 7 and 8 August 2012.
Play-off round
The play-off round was split into two separate sections: one for champions (Champions Route) and one for non-champions (League Route). The losing teams in both sections entered the Europa League group stage.
The draw for the play-off round was held on 10 August 2012. The first legs were played on 21 and 22 August, and the second legs were played on 28 and 29 August 2012.
Group stage
The draw for the group stage was held in Monaco on 30 August 2012. The 32 teams were allocated into four pots based on their 2012 UEFA club coefficients, with the title holders, Chelsea, being placed in Pot 1 automatically. They were drawn into eight groups of four, with the restriction that teams from the same association could not be drawn against each other.
In each group, teams played against each other home-and-away in a round-robin format. The matchdays were 18–19 September, 2–3 October, 23–24 October, 6–7 November, 20–21 November and 4–5 December 2012. The group winners and runners-up advanced to the round of 16, while the third-placed teams entered the Europa League round of 32.
A total of 17 national associations were represented in the group stage. Málaga, Montpellier and Nordsjælland made their debut appearances 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 phase, 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 is 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 onwards, there were no seedings, and teams from the same group or the same association could be drawn against each other
Bracket
Round of 16
Quarter-finals
Semi-finals
Final
Statistics Statistics exclude qualifying rounds and play-off round.
Top goalscorers RankPlayerTeamGoalsMinutes played1 Cristiano Ronaldo Real Madrid1210802 Robert Lewandowski Borussia Dortmund1010903 Burak Yılmaz Galatasaray8767 Lionel Messi Barcelona826 Thomas Müller Bayern Munich10456 Oscar Chelsea5449 Jonas Valencia451 Alan Braga492 Karim Benzema Real Madrid532 Ezequiel Lavezzi Paris Saint-Germain572
Squad of the season The UEFA technical observers selected the following 23 players as the squad of the tournament.
PlayerTeam Roman Weidenfeller Borussia Dortmund Manuel Neuer Bayern Munich Diego López Real Madrid Dani Alves Barcelona Leonardo Bonucci Juventus Philipp Lahm Bayern Munich Thiago Silva Paris Saint-Germain Dante Bayern Munich Sergio Ramos Real Madrid Mario Götze Borussia Dortmund İlkay Gündoğan Borussia Dortmund Andrés Iniesta Barcelona Andrea Pirlo Juventus Arjen Robben Bayern Munich Bastian Schweinsteiger Bayern Munich Zlatan Ibrahimović Paris Saint-Germain Thomas Müller Bayern Munich Robert Lewandowski Borussia Dortmund Cristiano Ronaldo Real Madrid Lionel Messi Barcelona Robin van Persie Manchester United Franck Ribéry Bayern Munich Gareth Bale Tottenham Hotspur
Prize money For the 2012–13 season, UEFA awarded €2.1 million to each team in the play-off round. For reaching the group stage, UEFA awarded a base fee of €8.6 million. A win in the group was awarded €1 million and a draw was worth €500,000. In addition, UEFA paid teams reaching the first knockout round €3.5 million, each quarter-finalist €3.9 million, €4.9 million for each semi-finalist, €6.5 million for the runners-up and €10.5 million for the winners.
Playoffs: €2,100,000 Base fee for group stage: €8,600,000 Group match victory: €1,000,000 Group match draw: €500,000 Round of 16: €3,500,000 Quarter-finals: €3,900,000 Semi-finals: €4,900,000 Losing finalist: €6,500,000 Winning the Final: €10,500,000