The 2017–18 UEFA Youth League was the fifth season of the UEFA Youth League, a European youth club football competition organised by UEFA.
Barcelona won their second Youth League title following a win over Chelsea in the final.
Red Bull Salzburg were the defending champions, but were eliminated in the round of 16. Starting from this season, the UEFA Youth League title holders were given an automatic berth in the Domestic Champions path if there was a vacancy.
Teams A total of 64 teams from 43 of the 55 UEFA member associations entered the tournament, with Albania, Latvia and Luxembourg entering for the first time. They were split into two sections: The youth teams of the 32 clubs which qualified for the 2017–18 UEFA Champions League group stage entered the UEFA Champions League Path. If there was a vacancy (youth teams not entering), it was filled by a team defined by UEFA. The youth domestic champions of the top 32 associations according to their 2016 UEFA country coefficients entered the Domestic Champions Path. If there was a vacancy (associations with no youth domestic competition, as well as youth domestic champions already included in the UEFA Champions League path), it was first filled by the title holders should they have not yet qualified, and then by the youth domestic champions of the next association in the UEFA ranking.
RankAssociationTeamsUEFA Champions League PathDomestic Champions Path1234Internazionale 56Bordeaux 7Krasnodar 8Shakhtar DonetskDynamo Kyiv 9Anderlecht 10FeyenoordAjax 11BeşiktaşBursaspor 12Basel 13Sparta Prague 14Olympiacos 15Dinamo București 16Red Bull Salzburg 17Lokomotiva Zagreb 18Legia Warsaw 19APOEL 20Shakhtyor Soligorsk 21Hammarby IF 22Molde 23Maccabi Haifa 24Esbjerg 25Celtic 26Qarabağ 27Brodarac 28Kairat 29Ludogorets Razgrad 30Maribor 31Nitra 33Honvéd 34Zimbru Chișinău 35Breiðablik 36Saburtalo Tbilisi 37KäPa 38Željezničar 39Vllaznia 40Shkëndija 41UCD 42Liepāja 43F91 Dudelange 44Sutjeska Associations which did not enter a team(no teams can qualify for UEFA Champions League group stage, and association either not ranked high enough or no youth domestic competition)32No youth domestic competition4546474849505152535455
Notes
Squads Players had to be born on or after 1 January 1999, with a maximum of three players per team born between 1 January 1998 and 31 December 1998 allowed.
Round and draw dates The schedule of the competition was as follows (all draws were held at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, unless stated otherwise).
PhaseRoundDraw dateFirst legSecond legUEFA Champions League PathGroup stageMatchday 124 August 2017(Monaco)12–13 September 2017Matchday 226–27 September 2017Matchday 317–18 October 2017Matchday 431 October – 1 November 2017Matchday 521–22 November 2017Matchday 65–6 December 2017Domestic Champions PathFirst round29 August 201727 September 201718 October 2017Second round1 November 201722 November 2017Knockout phaseKnockout round play-offs11 December 20176–7 February 2018Round of 169 February 201820–21 February 2018Quarter-finals13–14 March 2018Semi-finals20 April 2018 at Colovray Stadium, NyonFinal23 April 2018 at Colovray Stadium, Nyon
Notes For the UEFA Champions League Path group stage, in principle the teams played their matches on Tuesdays and Wednesdays of the matchdays as scheduled for UEFA Champions League, and on the same day as the corresponding senior teams; however, matches could also be played on other dates, including Mondays and Thursdays. For the Domestic Champions Path first and second rounds, in principle matches were played on Wednesdays (first round on matchdays 2 and 3, second round on matchdays 4 and 5, as scheduled for UEFA Champions League); however, matches could also be played on other dates, including Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. For the play-offs, round of 16 and quarter-finals, in principle matches were played on Tuesdays and Wednesdays of the matchdays as scheduled; however, matches could also be played on other dates, provided they were completed before the following dates: Play-offs: 8 February 2018 Round of 16: 28 February 2018 Quarter-finals: 16 March 2018
UEFA Champions League Path
For the UEFA Champions League Path, the 32 teams were drawn into eight groups of four. There was no separate draw held, with the group compositions identical to the draw for the 2017–18 UEFA Champions League group stage, which was held on 24 August 2017, 18:00 CEST, at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco.
In each group, teams played against each other home-and-away in a round-robin format. The eight group winners advanced to the round of 16, while the eight runners-up advanced to the play-offs, where they were joined by the eight second round winners from the Domestic Champions Path.
The matchdays were 12–13 September, 26–27 September, 17–18 October, 31 October – 1 November, 21–22 November, and 5–6 December 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 14.03): 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; Away 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; Away goals scored in all group matches; Wins in all group matches; Away wins in all group matches; Disciplinary points (red card = 3 points, yellow card = 1 point, expulsion for two yellow cards in one match = 3 points); Drawing of lots.
Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Group E
Group F
Group G
Group H
Domestic Champions Path
First round
Second round
Knockout phase
Bracket
Knockout round play-offs
Round of 16
Quarter-finals
Semi-finals
Final
Statistics Notes
Top goalscorers RankPlayerTeamGoalsTotal1 Ivan Ignatyev Krasnodar—100102 Dani Gómez Real Madrid7—07 Carles Pérez Barcelona4—3 Aleksandr Rudenko Spartak Moscow6—15 Jens Odgaard Internazionale—516 Andrea Pinamonti Internazionale—607 Nabil Alioui Monaco4—15 Curtis Jones Liverpool4—1 Orkun Kökçü Feyenoord3—2 Rafael Leão Sporting CP4—1 Luke McCormick Chelsea4—1 Manuel Wintzheimer Bayern Munich5—0
Top assists RankPlayerTeamAssists1 Magomed-Shapi Suleymanov Krasnodar6 Dominik Szoboszlai Red Bull Salzburg3 Moussa Diaby Paris Saint-Germain5 Achraf El Bouchataoui Feyenoord João Filipe Benfica Juan Miranda Barcelona
References
External links
UEFA Youth League (official website) UEFA Youth League history: 2017/18