The 2023–24 UEFA Youth League was the tenth season of the UEFA Youth League, a European youth club football competition organised by UEFA.
The title holders were AZ, who defeated Hajduk Split 5–0 in the previous edition's final, but they were eliminated in the round of 16. Olympiacos beat Milan 3–0 in the final held at the Colovray Stadium in Nyon, Switzerland, to secure their first title in the competition and become the first Greek team to ever win a UEFA club competition (the club's senior team won the 2024 UEFA Europa Conference League final five weeks later).
Teams A total of 64 teams from 35 of the 55 UEFA member associations entered the tournament. They were split into two sections, each with 32 teams.
UEFA Champions League Path: The youth teams of the 32 clubs which qualified for the 2023–24 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. Domestic Champions Path: The youth domestic champions of the top 32 associations according to their 2023 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.
Antwerp, Braga, Dinamo Minsk, Famalicão, İstanbul Başakşehir, Klaipėda, Lazio, Lecce, Lens, Mainz, Newcastle, Pafos, Partizan, Sarajevo, Union Berlin, and Universitatea Craiova made their tournament debuts.
+Qualified teams for 2023–24 UEFA Youth LeagueRankAssociationTeamsUEFA Champions League PathDomestic Champions Path123Lecce 4Mainz 05 5Nantes 6Famalicão 7AZ 8Red Bull Salzburg 9CelticHamilton Academical 11Red Star BelgradePartizan 12Shakhtar DonetskRukh Lviv 13AntwerpGent 14Young BoysBasel 15Olympiacos 16Sparta Prague 17Molde 18CopenhagenMidtjylland 19Dinamo Zagreb 20Galatasarayİstanbul Başakşehir 21Pafos 22Maccabi Haifa 23Malmö FF 24Ludogorets Razgrad 25Universitatea Craiova 26Gabala 27Puskás Akadémia 28Lech Poznań 29Turan 30Žilina 31Maribor 32Dinamo Minsk 33Sheriff Tiraspol 34Klaipėda 35Sarajevo 36HJK +Associations without any participating teams(no teams qualified for UEFA Champions League group stage, and either with no youth domestic competition or not ranked high enough for a vacancy)RankAssociation10373839404142RankAssociation43444546474849RankAssociation505152535455 Notes
Round and draw dates The schedule of the competition was as follows.
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.
+Schedule for 2023–24 UEFA Youth LeaguePhaseRoundDraw dateFirst legSecond legUEFA Champions League PathGroup stageMatchday 131 August 202319–20 September 2023Matchday 23–4 October 2023Matchday 324–25 October 2023Matchday 47–8 November 2023Matchday 528–29 November 2023Matchday 612–13 December 2023Domestic Champions PathFirst round5 September 20234 October 202325 October 2023Second round8 November 202329 November 2023Knockout phaseKnockout round play-offs19 December 20236–7 February 2024Round of 169 February 202427–28 February 2024Quarter-finals12–13 March 2024Semi-finals19 April 2024 at Colovray Stadium, NyonFinal22 April 2024 at Colovray Stadium, Nyon
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 2023–24 UEFA Champions League group stage, which was held on 31 August 2023.
In each group, teams played against each other home-and-away in a round-robin format. The group winners advanced to the round of 16, while the eight runners-up advanced to the play-offs, where they would be joined by the eight second round winners from the Domestic Champions Path.
Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Group E
Group F
Group G
Group H
Domestic Champions Path
For the Domestic Champions Path, the 32 teams were drawn into two rounds of two-legged home-and-away ties. The draw for both the first round and second round was held on 5 September 2023.
The eight second round winners advanced to the play-offs, where they were joined by the eight group runners-up from the UEFA Champions League Path (group stage).
First round
Second round
Knockout phase
Bracket
Knockout round play-offs
Round of 16
Quarter-finals
Semi-finals
Final
Top goalscorers RankPlayerTeamGoalsMatches played1 Amin Chiakha Copenhagen78 Rodrigo Mora Porto93 Christos Mouzakitis Olympiacos68 Anhá Candé Porto95 Yoël van den Ban AZ56 Yannick Eduardo RB Leipzig7 Charalampos Kostoulas Olympiacos8 Diego Sia Milan10 Vladimír Vaľko Žilina510Twelve players4
See also Under-20 Intercontinental Cup 2023–24 UEFA Champions League
References
External links