The 2017–18 UEFA Women's Champions League was the 17th season of the European women's club football championship organised by UEFA, and the ninth since being rebranded as the UEFA Women's Champions League.
The final was held at the Valeriy Lobanovskyi Dynamo Stadium in Kyiv, Ukraine on 24 May 2018, two days before the final of the men's tournament played at the NSC Olimpiyskiy Stadium in the same city.
In the final, Lyon defeated Wolfsburg to win a record fifth title, and also became the first team to win three titles in a row.
Association team allocation A maximum of 68 teams from 55 UEFA member associations were eligible to participate in the 2017–18 UEFA Women's Champions League. The association ranking based on the UEFA league coefficient for women is used to determine the number of participating teams for each association: Associations 1–12 each have two teams qualify. All other associations, should they enter, each have one team qualify. The winners of the 2016–17 UEFA Women's Champions League are given an additional entry if they do not qualify for the 2017–18 UEFA Women's Champions League through their domestic league. Since the title holders Lyon qualified through their domestic league, the additional entry for the Champions League title holders was not necessary for this season.
Association ranking For the 2017–18 UEFA Women's Champions League, the associations are allocated places according to their 2016 UEFA league coefficients for women, which takes into account their performance in European competitions from 2011–12 to 2015–16.
RankAssociationCoeff.Teams1 Germany89.50022 France77.0003 Sweden65.5004 England51.0005 Spain41.5006 Russia40.5007 Italy38.5008 Denmark38.5009 Czech Republic35.00010 Austria30.50011 Scotland30.00012 Norway28.50013 Switzerland28.000114 Netherlands20.00015 Kazakhstan19.00016 Cyprus18.00017 Belgium17.00018 Poland16.50019 Iceland16.500RankAssociationCoeff.Teams20 Romania16.000121 Serbia15.00022 Hungary13.50023 Finland13.00024 Turkey11.50025 Republic of Ireland11.00026 Bosnia and Herzegovina11.00027 Portugal10.50028 Lithuania10.50029 Belarus10.00030 Ukraine10.00031 Slovenia9.00032 Croatia9.00033 Greece8.50034 Israel8.00035 Bulgaria6.50036 Estonia6.00037 Slovakia5.500RankAssociationCoeff.Teams38 Northern Ireland3.000139 Faroe Islands3.00040 Macedonia3.00041 Wales2.00042 Albania1.50043 Latvia1.00044 Montenegro1.00045 Malta0.50046 Moldova0.00047 Luxembourg0.000 Georgia0.000 Kosovo Andorra0 Armenia Azerbaijan Gibraltar Liechtenstein San Marino Notes – Additional berth for title holders – Did not enter – No rank (association did not enter in the five seasons used for computing coefficients)
Distribution The format of the competition remained unchanged from previous years, starting from the qualifying round (played as mini-tournaments with four teams in each group), followed by the knockout phase starting from the round of 32 (played as home-and-away two-legged ties except for the one-match final).
Unlike the men's Champions League, not every association enters a team, and so the exact number of teams entering in each round (qualifying round and round of 32) can not be determined until the full entry list is known. In general, the title holders, the champions of the top 12 associations, plus the runners-up of highest-ranked associations (exact number depending on the number of entries) receive a bye to the round of 32. All other teams (runners-up of lowest-ranked associations plus champions of associations starting from 13th) enter the qualifying round, with the group winners plus a maximum of two best runners-up advancing to the round of 32.
Teams A record total of 61 teams from 49 associations entered this season's competition. Two associations had no league as of 2016–17 (Liechtenstein, San Marino). Andorra's league was not played eleven-a-side. The champions of Armenia (Yerevan LH), Azerbaijan (Gabala) and Gibraltar (Lincoln Red Imps) did not enter. Georgia entered a team for the first time since 2010–11, while Luxembourg returned after a one-year absence.
Among the entrants, 21 teams entered the round of 32: the champions and runners-up from associations 1–9 (including title holders Lyon) and the champions from associations 10–12. The remaining 40 teams entered the qualifying round: the runners-up from associations 10–12 and the champions from the 37 associations ranked 13 or lower.
Legend TH: Women's Champions League title holders CH: Domestic league champions RU: Domestic league runners-up Round of 32 (Champions from associations 1–12 + Runners-up from associations 1–9) Wolfsburg Bayern Munich Lyon TH Montpellier Linköping Rosengård Manchester City Chelsea Atlético Madrid Barcelona Rossiyanka Zvezda Perm Fiorentina Brescia Brøndby Fortuna Hjørring Slavia Praha Sparta Praha St. Pölten Glasgow City Lillestrøm Qualifying round (Runners-up from associations 10–12 + Champions from associations 13–49) Sturm Graz Hibernian Avaldsnes Zürich Ajax BIIK Kazygurt Apollon Limassol Standard Liège Medyk Konin Stjarnan Olimpia Cluj Spartak Subotica MTK Hungária PK-35 Vantaa Konak Belediyespor Shelbourne SFK 2000 Sporting CP Gintra Universitetas FC Minsk Zhytlobud-2 Kharkiv Olimpija Ljubljana Osijek PAOK Kiryat Gat NSA Sofia Pärnu Partizán Bardejov Linfield KÍ Klaksvík Istatov Swansea City Vllaznia Rīgas FS Breznica Pljevlja Birkirkara Noroc Nimoreni Bettembourg Hajvalia Martve Notes
Round and draw dates UEFA has scheduled the competition as follows (all draws are held at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland).
Round Draw First leg Second leg Qualifying round 23 June 2017 22–28 August 2017 Round of 32 1 September 2017 4–5 October 2017 11–12 October 2017 Round of 16 16 October 2017 8–9 November 2017 15–16 November 2017 Quarter-finals 24 November 2017 21–22 March 2018 28–29 March 2018 Semi-finals 21–22 April 2018 28–29 April 2018 Final 24 May 2018 at Valeriy Lobanovskyi Dynamo Stadium, Kyiv
Qualifying round
The draw of the qualifying round was held on 23 June 2017, 13:30 CEST, at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland. The 40 teams were allocated into four seeding positions based on their UEFA club coefficients at the beginning of the season. They were drawn into ten groups of four containing one team from each of the four seeding positions. First, the ten teams which were pre-selected as hosts were drawn from their own designated pot and allocated to their respective group as per their seeding positions. Next, the remaining 30 teams were drawn from their respective pot which were allocated according to their seeding positions.
In each group, teams played against each other in a round-robin mini-tournament at the pre-selected hosts. The ten group winners and the runners-up with the best record against the teams finishing first and third in their group advanced to the round of 32 to join the 21 teams which received a bye.
The matches were played on 22, 25 and 28 August 2017.
TiebreakersTeams were ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss), and if tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria were applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Articles 14.01 and 14.02): Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams; Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams; Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams; If more than two teams are tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams are still tied, all head-to-head criteria above are reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams; Goal difference in all group matches; Goals scored in all group matches; Penalty shoot-out if only two teams have the same number of points, and they met in the last round of the group and are tied after applying all criteria above (not used if more than two teams have the same number of points, or if their rankings are not relevant for qualification for the next stage); Disciplinary points (red card = 3 points, yellow card = 1 point, expulsion for two yellow cards in one match = 3 points); UEFA club coefficient.
To determine the best runner-up, the results against the teams in fourth place were discarded. The following criteria were applied (Regulations Article 14.03): Points; Goal difference; Goals scored; Disciplinary points; UEFA club coefficient.
Group 1
Group 2
Group 3
Group 4
Group 5
Group 6
Group 7
Group 8
Group 9
Group 10
Ranking of second-placed teams To determine the best second-placed team from the qualifying round which advanced to the knockout phase, only the results of the second-placed teams against the first and third-placed teams in their group were taken into account, while results against the fourth-placed team were not included. As a result, two matches played by each second-placed team counted for the purposes of determining the ranking.
Knockout phase
Bracket
Round of 32
Round of 16
Quarter-finals
Semi-finals
Final
Statistics Notes
Top goalscorers Qualifying goals count towards the topscorer award. The 15 goals scored by Ada Hegerberg was a new competition record.
RankPlayerTeamGoalsTotal1 Ada Hegerberg Lyon—15152 Pernille Harder Wolfsburg—883 Katrín Ásbjörnsdóttir Stjarnan5274 Camille Abily Lyon—66 Zenatha Coleman Gintra Universitetas33 Sara Björk Gunnarsdóttir Wolfsburg—6 Kader Hançar Konak Belediyespor6— Tamila Khimich FC Minsk429 Rosella Ayane Apollon Limassol505 Donna-Kay Henry Stjarnan50 Kateřina Svitková Slavia Praha—5
Squad of the season The UEFA technical study group selected the following 18 players as the squad of the tournament:
PlayerTeam Sandra Paños Barcelona Almuth Schult VfL Wolfsburg Lucy Bronze Lyon Steph Houghton Manchester City Amel Majri Lyon Griedge Mbock Bathy Lyon Wendie Renard Lyon Amandine Henry Lyon Ji So-yun Chelsea Saki Kumagai Lyon Dzsenifer Marozsán Lyon Georgia Stanway Manchester City Pernille Harder VfL Wolfsburg Ada Hegerberg Lyon Fran Kirby Chelsea Lieke Martens Barcelona Eugénie Le Sommer Lyon Ewa Pajor VfL Wolfsburg
See also 2017–18 UEFA Champions League
References
External links Official website UEFA Women's Champions League history: 2017/18 European league standings