The 2005–06 UEFA Champions League was the 51st season of UEFA's premier European club football tournament, the UEFA Champions League and the 14th since it was rebranded from the European Cup in 1992. 74 teams from 50 football associations took part, starting with the first qualifying round played on 12 July 2005.
The final was played on 17 May 2006 at Stade de France, Saint-Denis between Barcelona and Arsenal. In the 18th minute, Arsenal goalkeeper Jens Lehmann became the first player to be sent off in a European Cup final. Despite the disadvantage, Sol Campbell gave the English side the lead in the 37th minute. Samuel Eto'o brought Barcelona back on level terms in the 76th minute, before Juliano Belletti scored the winning goal five minutes later.
The defending champions were Liverpool and as they did not qualify by their league position, UEFA gave them special dispensation and allowed them to defend their title from the first qualifying round of the competition. They made the group stage and progressed but were eliminated by Benfica in the first knockout round. From the following season, UEFA reserved a berth in the group stage for the defending champions regardless of their league position.
Association team allocation A total of 74 teams from 49 of the 52 UEFA member associations participated in the 2005–06 UEFA Champions League (the exception being Liechtenstein, which does not organise a domestic league, Andorra and San Marino). The association ranking based on the UEFA country coefficients was 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 16–50 (except Liechtenstein) each have one team qualify. As the winners of the 2004–05 UEFA Champions League, Liverpool gained entry an additional entry despite not qualifying through their domestic league position. They were, however, entered into the 1st qualifying round due to finishing the 2004–05 FA Premier League outside the top four.
Association ranking For the 2005–06 UEFA Champions League, the associations are allocated places according to their 2004 UEFA country coefficients, which takes into account their performance in European competitions from 1999–2000 to 2003–04.
Apart from the allocation based on the country coefficients, associations may have additional teams participating in the Champions League, as noted below: – Additional berth for the 2004–05 UEFA Champions League winners RankAssociationCoeff.TeamsNotes179.8514262.153 +1 359.186449.4893548.326642.333734.7482834.081933.0751032.2911132.1251228.8751322.3751422.1251521.9001621.75011721.2491821.125RankAssociationCoeff.TeamsNotes1920.16512019.9982119.9162217.4502317.3752416.7162515.2902614.7902712.832289.165298.998306.832315.998325.874335.499344.999354.830364.165RankAssociationCoeff.TeamsNotes373.5821383.332393.331403.164412.831422.332432.0000441.8311451.665461.665471.498481.165490.832500.666510.0000520.000
Distribution Because the title holders, Liverpool, entered the competition in the first qualifying round rather than the group stage, the following changes to the default access list were made: The champions of association 10 (Turkey) were promoted from the third qualifying round to the group stage. The champions of association 16 (Poland) were promoted from the second qualifying round to the third qualifying round. The champions of association 26 (Romania) were promoted from the first qualifying round to the second qualifying round.
Teams entering in this roundTeams advancing from previous roundFirst qualifying round(24 teams)23 champions from associations 27–50 (except Liechtenstein) 1 current Champions League title holder (Liverpool)Second qualifying round(28 teams)10 champions from associations 17–26 6 runners-up from associations 10–1512 winners from the first qualifying roundThird qualifying round(32 teams)6 champions from associations 11–16 3 runners-up from associations 7–9 6 third-place finishers from associations 1–6 3 fourth-place finishers from associations 1–314 winners from the second qualifying roundGroup stage(32 teams)10 champions from associations 1–10 6 runners-up from associations 1–616 winners from the third qualifying roundKnockout 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. Liverpool qualified as title holders. (TH: Champions League title holders).
Group stage Barcelona Juventus Lyon Olympiacos Real Madrid Milan Lille PSV Eindhoven Chelsea Bayern Munich Benfica Sparta Prague Arsenal Schalke 04 Porto Fenerbahçe Third qualifying round Villarreal Udinese Ajax Basel Real Betis Werder Bremen Slavia Prague Shakhtar Donetsk Manchester United Monaco Rangers Rosenborg Everton Sporting CP Club Brugge Wisła Kraków Internazionale Panathinaikos Second qualifying round Trabzonspor Dynamo Kyiv Partizan Hajduk Split Anderlecht Vålerenga CSKA Sofia Malmö FF Celtic Maccabi Haifa Lokomotiv Moscow Debrecen Thun Rapid Wien Brøndby Steaua București First qualifying round Liverpool Haka FH Glentoran Artmedia Bratislava Zrinjski Mostar Sliema Wanderers Levadia Tallinn HIT Gorica Dinamo Tbilisi Shelbourne F91 Dudelange Anorthosis Famagusta Rabotnicki Pyunik Neftçi Sheriff Tiraspol Kaunas Total Network Solutions HB Skonto Dinamo Minsk Tirana Kairat
Round and draw dates The schedule of the competition was as follows (all draws were held at UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, unless stated otherwise).
PhaseRoundDraw dateFirst legSecond legQualifyingFirst qualifying round24 June 200512–13 July 200519–20 July 2005Second qualifying round26–27 July 20052–3 August 2005Third qualifying round29 July 20059–10 August 200523–24 August 2005Group stageMatchday 125 August 2005(Monaco)13–14 September 2005Matchday 227–28 September 2005Matchday 318–19 October 2005Matchday 41–2 November 2005Matchday 522–23 November 2005Matchday 66–7 December 2005Knockout phaseRound of 1616 December 200521–22 February 20067–8 March 2006Quarter-finals10 March 200628–29 March 20064–5 April 2006Semi-finals18–19 April 200625–26 April 2006Final17 May 2006 at Stade de France, Saint-Denis Notes
Qualifying rounds
First qualifying round
Second qualifying round
Third qualifying round
Group stage
16 winners from the third qualifying round, 10 champions from countries ranked 1–10, and 6 second-placed teams from countries ranked 1–6 were drawn into 8 groups of 4 teams each. Normally two teams from the same association cannot be drawn in the same group. The only exception is Liverpool because of their abnormal qualification as title holders because not having finished in the top four of the English league, Liverpool were given no "association protection" in the tournament. For the group stage, the only team from the same association they could be drawn with was Chelsea, as the rest were in the same seeding pot. The top 2 teams in each group advanced to the Champions League knock-out stage, while the third-placed teams advanced to the Round of 32 in the UEFA Cup.
Tiebreakers are applied in the following order: Points earned in head-to-head matches between the tied teams. Total goals scored in head-to-head matches between the tied teams. Away goals scored in head-to-head matches between the tied teams. Cumulative goal difference in all group matches. Total goals scored in all group matches. Higher UEFA coefficient going into the competition.
Artmedia Bratislava, Real Betis, Thun, Udinese and Villarreal 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
Bracket
Round of 16
Quarter-finals
Semi-finals
Final
Statistics Statistics exclude qualifying rounds.
Top goalscorers RankPlayerTeamGoalsMinutes played1 Andriy Shevchenko Milan99502 Ronaldinho Barcelona710783 David Trezeguet Juventus6733 Samuel Eto'o Barcelona9785 Adriano Internazionale5679 Johan Micoud Werder Bremen720 Thierry Henry Arsenal931 Kaká Milan9869 Julio Cruz Internazionale4370 Filippo Inzaghi Milan394 Vincenzo Iaquinta Udinese434 John Carew Lyon623 Peter Løvenkrands Rangers656 Juninho Lyon691 Squad of the season UEFA's Technical Study Group selected the following 21 players for the 2005–06 UEFA Champions League Team of the Tournament.
PlayerTeam Grégory Coupet Lyon Jens Lehmann Arsenal Víctor Valdés Barcelona Carles Puyol Barcelona Gianluca Zambrotta Juventus Kolo Touré Arsenal Emmanuel Eboué Arsenal John Terry Chelsea Gonzalo Rodríguez Villarreal Deco Barcelona Juan Román Riquelme Villarreal Steven Gerrard Liverpool Kaká AC Milan Frank Lampard Chelsea Cesc Fàbregas Arsenal Juninho Pernambucano Lyon Samuel Eto'o Barcelona Andriy Shevchenko AC Milan Simão Sabrosa Benfica Thierry Henry Arsenal Ronaldinho Barcelona
See also 2005–06 UEFA Cup 2005–06 UEFA Women's Cup
References
External links
2005–06 All matches – season at UEFA website 2005–06 season at UEFA website European Club Results at RSSSF All scorers 2005–06 UEFA Champions League (excluding qualifying round) according to protocols UEFA + all scorers qualifying round - results and line-ups (archive) 2005–06 UEFA Champions League List of participants