The 2016–17 UEFA Champions League group stage began on 13 September and ended on 7 December 2016. A total of 32 teams competed in the group stage to decide the 16 places in the knockout phase of the 2016–17 UEFA Champions League.
Draw The draw was held on 25 August 2016, 18:00 CEST, at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco. The 32 teams were drawn into eight groups of four, with the restriction that teams from the same association could not be drawn against each other. For the draw, the teams were seeded into four pots based on the following principles: Pot 1 contained the title holders and the champions of the top seven associations based on their 2015 UEFA country coefficients. Pots 2, 3 and 4 contained the remaining teams, seeded based on their 2016 UEFA club coefficients.
Moreover, the draw was controlled for teams from the same association in order to split the teams evenly into the two sets of groups (A–D, E–H) for maximum television coverage.
The fixtures were decided after the draw. On each matchday, four groups play their matches on Tuesday, while the other four groups play their matches on Wednesday, with the two sets of groups (A–D, E–H) alternating between each matchday. There are other restrictions: for example, teams from the same city (e.g., Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid) in general do not play at home on the same matchday (UEFA tries to avoid teams from the same city playing at home on the same day or on consecutive days, due to logistics and crowd control), and teams in certain countries (e.g., Belarus, Russia, Kazakhstan) do not play at home on the last matchday (due to cold weather and simultaneous kick-off times).
On 17 July 2014, the UEFA emergency panel ruled that Ukrainian and Russian clubs would not be drawn against each other "until further notice" due to the political unrest between the countries. Therefore, Ukrainian club Dynamo Kyiv (Pot 3) and Russian clubs CSKA Moscow (Pot 1) and Rostov (Pot 4) could not be drawn into the same group.
Teams Below are the participating teams (with their 2016 UEFA club coefficients), grouped by their seeding pot. They included 22 teams which entered in this stage, and the 10 winners of the play-off round (5 in Champions Route, 5 in League Route).
Key to coloursGroup winners and runners-up advanced to the round of 16Third-placed teams entered the Europa League round of 32
+Pot 1 (by association rank)TeamNotes— Real Madrid 176.1421 Barcelona 159.1422 Leicester City 15.2563 Bayern Munich 163.0354 Juventus 107.0875 Benfica 116.6166 Paris Saint-Germain 112.5497 CSKA Moscow 48.716+Pot 2TeamNotes Atlético Madrid 144.142 Borussia Dortmund 110.035 Arsenal 105.256 Manchester City 99.256 Sevilla 95.642 Porto 92.616 Napoli 90.087 Bayer Leverkusen 89.035+Pot 3TeamNotes Basel 87.755 Tottenham Hotspur 74.256 Dynamo Kyiv 65.976 Lyon 63.049 PSV Eindhoven 57.112 Sporting CP 51.616 Club Brugge 43.000 Borussia Mönchengladbach 42.035+Pot 4TeamNotes Celtic 40.460 Monaco 36.549 Beşiktaş 34.920 Legia Warsaw 28.000 Dinamo Zagreb 25.775 Ludogorets Razgrad 25.625 Copenhagen 24.720 Rostov 11.716
Notes
Format In each group, teams played against each other home-and-away in a round-robin format. The group winners and runners-up advanced to the round of 16, while the third-placed teams entered the Europa League round of 32.
Tiebreakers The teams were ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If two or more teams were equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following criteria were applied in the order given to determine the rankings (regulations Article 17.01): 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 in 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; if, after having applied criteria 1 to 4, teams still had an equal ranking, criteria 1 to 4 were reapplied exclusively to the matches between the teams in question to determine their final rankings. If this procedure did not lead to a decision, criteria 6 to 12 applied; superior goal difference in all group matches; higher number of goals scored in all group matches; higher number of away goals scored in all group matches; higher number of wins in all group matches; higher number of away wins in all group matches; lower disciplinary points total based only on yellow and red cards received in all group matches (red card = 3 points, yellow card = 1 point, expulsion for two yellow cards in one match = 3 points); higher club coefficient.
Groups The matchdays were 13–14 September, 27–28 September, 18–19 October, 1–2 November, 22–23 November, and 6–7 December 2016. The match kickoff times are 20:45 CEST/CET, except for matchday 5 in Russia which are 18:00 CET. The match kickoff times for matchdays 4 and 5 in Turkey were changed from 20:45 CET to 18:45 CET due to the decision of the Turkish government to use the UTC+3 time zone all year round starting from September 2016.
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 2016–17 UEFA Champions League