2019%E2%80%9320_UEFA_Champions_League

2019–20 UEFA Champions League

2019–20 UEFA Champions League

65th season of the UEFA club football tournament


The 2019–20 UEFA Champions League was the 65th season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 28th season since it was renamed from the European Champion Clubs' Cup to the UEFA Champions League.

Quick Facts Tournament details, Dates ...

Bayern Munich defeated Paris Saint-Germain in the final, played at the Estádio da Luz in Lisbon, Portugal, 1–0 and became the first European Cup winners to win all their matches during the tournament. In addition, the Germans secured their second continental treble, becoming only the second European club to do so, and became the first team to claim any European competition with a 100% winning record. As winners, they earned the right to play against Sevilla, the winners of the 2019–20 UEFA Europa League, in the 2020 UEFA Super Cup, and also qualified for the 2020 FIFA Club World Cup in Qatar. They would go on to win both competitions. Since they had already qualified for the 2020–21 UEFA Champions League group stage through their league performance, the berth originally reserved for the Champions League title holders was given to the team that was top of the 2019–20 Eredivisie (Ajax), the 11th-ranked association according to next season's access list, when it was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the tournament was suspended in mid-March 2020 and resumed in August. The quarter-finals onwards were played as single-match knockout ties at neutral venues in Lisbon, Portugal (Estádio da Luz and Estádio José Alvalade) behind closed doors from 12 to 23 August.[5] In keeping with its introduction the campaign prior, the video assistant referee (VAR) system was in use from the play-off round onwards.[6]

Liverpool were the defending champions,[7] but were eliminated in the round of 16 by Atlético Madrid.

Association team allocation

A total of 79 teams from 54 of the 55 UEFA member associations participated in the 2019–20 UEFA Champions League (the exception being Liechtenstein, which did not organise a domestic league). The association ranking based on the UEFA country coefficients was used to determine the number of participating teams for each association:[8]

  • Associations 1–4 each had four teams qualify.
  • Associations 5–6 each had three teams qualify.
  • Associations 7–15 each had two teams qualify.
  • Associations 16–55 (except Liechtenstein) each had one team qualify.
  • The winners of the 2018–19 UEFA Champions League and 2018–19 UEFA Europa League were each given an additional entry if they did not qualify for the 2019–20 UEFA Champions League through their domestic leagues. However, both qualified through their domestic leagues, meaning the additional entries were not necessary.

Association ranking

For the 2019–20 UEFA Champions League, the associations were allocated places according to their 2018 UEFA country coefficients, which took into account their performance in European competitions from 2013–14 to 2017–18.[9]

Apart from the allocation based on the country coefficients, associations could have additional teams participating in the Champions League, as noted below:

  • (UCL) – Additional berth for UEFA Champions League title holders
  • (UEL) – Additional berth for UEFA Europa League title holders
More information Rank, Association ...

Distribution

The following is the access list for this season.[10]

More information Teams entering in this round, Teams advancing from previous round ...

Changes were made to the default access list, if the Champions League and/or Europa League title holders qualified for the tournament via their domestic leagues. In any case where a spot in the Champions League was vacated, teams of the highest-ranked associations in earlier rounds of the appropriate path were promoted accordingly.

  • In the default access list, the Champions League title holders qualified for the group stage. However, since the Champions League title holders (Liverpool) qualified via their domestic league (as second place in the 2018–19 Premier League), the following changes to the access list were made:
    • The champions of association 11 (Austria) entered the group stage instead of the play-off round.
    • The champions of association 13 (Czech Republic) entered the play-off round instead of the third qualifying round.
    • The champions of association 15 (Greece) entered the third qualifying round instead of the second qualifying round.
    • The champions of associations 18 (Israel) and 19 (Cyprus) entered the second qualifying round instead of the first qualifying round.
  • In the default access list, the Europa League title holders qualified for the group stage. However, since the Europa League title holders (Chelsea) qualified for the group stage via their domestic league (as third place in the 2018–19 Premier League), the following changes to the access list were made:
    • The third-placed team of association 5 (France) entered the group stage instead of the third qualifying round.
    • The runners-up of associations 10 (Turkey) and 11 (Austria) entered the third qualifying round instead of the second qualifying round.

Teams

League positions of the previous season shown in parentheses (TH: Champions League title holders; EL: Europa League title holders).[10]

More information Champions Path, League Path ...
More information Champions Path, League Path ...
More information Champions Path, League Path ...
Qualified teams for 2019–20 UEFA Champions League (by entry round)
Group stage
England LiverpoolTH (2nd) England Tottenham Hotspur (4th) Germany RB Leipzig (3rd) Portugal Benfica (1st)
England ChelseaEL (3rd) Italy Juventus (1st) Germany Bayer Leverkusen (4th) Ukraine Shakhtar Donetsk (1st)
Spain Barcelona (1st) Italy Napoli (2nd) France Paris Saint-Germain (1st) Belgium Genk (1st)
Spain Atlético Madrid (2nd) Italy Atalanta (3rd) France Lille (2nd) Turkey Galatasaray (1st)
Spain Real Madrid (3rd) Italy Inter Milan (4th) France Lyon (3rd) Austria Red Bull Salzburg (1st)
Spain Valencia (4th) Germany Bayern Munich (1st) Russia Zenit Saint Petersburg (1st)
England Manchester City (1st) Germany Borussia Dortmund (2nd) Russia Lokomotiv Moscow (2nd)
First qualifying round
Romania CFR Cluj (1st) Kazakhstan Astana (1st) North Macedonia Shkëndija (1st) Georgia (country) Saburtalo Tbilisi (1st)
Poland Piast Gliwice (1st) Norway Rosenborg (1st) Finland HJK (1st) Armenia Ararat-Armenia (1st)
Sweden AIK (1st) Slovenia Maribor (1st) Republic of Ireland Dundalk (1st) Malta Valletta (1st)
Azerbaijan Qarabağ (1st) Slovakia Slovan Bratislava (1st) Bosnia and Herzegovina Sarajevo (1st) Luxembourg F91 Dudelange (1st)
Bulgaria Ludogorets Razgrad (1st) Moldova Sheriff Tiraspol (1st) Latvia Riga (1st) Northern Ireland Linfield (1st)
Serbia Red Star Belgrade (1st) Albania Partizani (1st) Estonia Nõmme Kalju (1st) Wales The New Saints (1st)
Scotland Celtic (1st) Iceland Valur (1st) Lithuania Sūduva (1st) Faroe Islands HB Tórshavn (1st)
Belarus BATE Borisov (1st) Hungary Ferencváros (1st) Montenegro Sutjeska Nikšić (1st)
Preliminary round
Gibraltar Lincoln Red Imps (1st) Andorra FC Santa Coloma (1st) San Marino Tre Penne (1st) Kosovo Feronikeli (1st)

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).[11]

The competition was suspended on 17 March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe.[12] A working group was set up by UEFA to decide the calendar of the remainder of the season.[13] On 17 June 2020, UEFA announced the revised schedule for the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final of the competition, to be played in single-leg matches.[5]

More information Phase, Round ...

The original schedule of the competition, as planned before the pandemic, was as follows.

More information Phase, Round ...

Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic

The round of 16 ties were to be played across four weeks, with the first legs being played across two weeks in February and the second legs across two weeks in March. Because of this, the first leg ties were unaffected by the pandemic, but the second leg ties were affected in different ways. All of the four matches in the first week of fixtures went ahead but due to the increased severity of the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain and France, Valencia's and PSG's home games were played behind closed doors.[14][15] On 15 March, UEFA announced a halt to the competition meaning that the remaining second leg games would be postponed indefinitely.[16][12] A taskforce was convened to reschedule the rest of the season.[13] On 23 March, it was announced that the Atatürk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul, Turkey would no longer host the competition final, originally scheduled for 30 May, but would host the 2021 final instead.[17] This was later postponed further to 2023.[18]

On 17 June, it was announced that the Champions League would return on 7 August and conclude on 23 August,[5] with the rest of the tournament to be held in Portugal, with the exception of the four unplayed round of 16 second legs, which would be played at their original venues.[19] The last 8 of the competition would be played as a mini tournament, with the remaining fixtures to be played as single-legged ties. All remaining ties of the competition were played behind closed doors due to the remaining presence of the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe.[20]

Final tournament venues

More information Lisbon ...

Qualifying rounds

In the qualifying rounds and the play-off round, teams were divided into seeded and unseeded teams based on their 2019 UEFA club coefficients,[21] and then drawn into two-legged home-and-away ties.

Preliminary round

In the preliminary round, teams were divided into seeded and unseeded teams based on their 2019 UEFA club coefficients,[21] and then drawn into one-legged semi-final and final ties. The losers of both semi-final and final rounds entered the 2019–20 UEFA Europa League second qualifying round. The draw for the preliminary round was held on 11 June 2019, 12:00 CEST, to determine the matchups of the semi-finals and the administrative "home" team of each semi-final and final.[22] The semi-final round was played on 25 June, and the final round on 28 June 2019, both at the Fadil Vokrri Stadium in Pristina, Kosovo.

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More information Team 1, Score ...

First qualifying round

The losers entered the 2019–20 UEFA Europa League second qualifying round, except one team who was drawn to receive a bye to the 2019–20 UEFA Europa League third qualifying round. The draw for the first qualifying round was held on 18 June 2019, 14:30 CEST.[23] The first legs were played on 9 and 10 July, and the second legs on 16 and 17 July 2019.

Notes

  1. Following a mistake with the original draw not following the correct procedure, UEFA performed a re-draw to establish the home team for each leg in the Ferencváros-Ludogorets Razgrad tie. As a result, the order of legs was reversed. The error did not affect any other tie.[24]
  2. Order of legs reversed after original draw.
  3. Losers drawn to receive a bye to the Europa League third qualifying round.

Second qualifying round

The second qualifying round was split into two separate sections: Champions Path (for league champions) and League Path (for league non-champions). The losers from both Champions Path and League Path entered the 2019–20 UEFA Europa League third qualifying round. The draw for the second qualifying round was held on 19 June 2019, 12:00 CEST.[25] The first legs were played on 23 and 24 July, and the second legs on 30 and 31 July 2019.

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More information Team 1, Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score ...

Third qualifying round

The third qualifying round was split into two separate sections: Champions Path (for league champions) and League Path (for league non-champions). The losers from the Champions Path entered the 2019–20 UEFA Europa League play-off round, while the losers from the League Path entered the 2019–20 UEFA Europa League group stage. The draw for the third qualifying round was held on 22 July 2019, 12:00 CEST.[26] The first legs were played on 6 and 7 August, and the second legs on 13 August 2019.

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More information Team 1, Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score ...

Play-off round

The play-off round was split into two separate sections: Champions Path (for league champions) and League Path (for league non-champions). The losers from both Champions Path and League Path entered the 2019–20 UEFA Europa League group stage. From this stage, the video assistant referee was used. The draw for the play-off round was held on 5 August 2019, 12:00 CEST.[27] The first legs were played on 20 and 21 August, and the second legs on 27 and 28 August 2019.

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Group stage

Location of teams of the 2019–20 UEFA Champions League group stage.
Brown: Group A; Red: Group B; Orange: Group C; Yellow: Group D;
Green: Group E; Blue: Group F; Purple: Group G; Pink: Group H.

The draw for the group stage was held on 29 August 2019, 18:00 CEST, at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco.[28] 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:[29][30]

  • Pot 1 contained the Champions League and Europa League title holders, and the champions of the top six associations based on their 2018 UEFA country coefficients. If one or both title holders were one of the champions of the top six associations, the champions of the next highest ranked association(s) were also seeded into Pot 1.
  • Pot 2, 3 and 4 contained the remaining teams, seeded based on their 2019 UEFA club coefficients.[21]

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 2019–20 UEFA Europa League round of 32. The matchdays were 17–18 September, 1–2 October, 22–23 October, 5–6 November, 26–27 November, and 10–11 December 2019.

The youth teams of the clubs that qualified for the group stage also participated in the 2019–20 UEFA Youth League on the same matchdays, where they competed in the UEFA Champions League Path (the youth domestic champions of the top 32 associations competed in a separate Domestic Champions Path until the play-offs).

A total of sixteen national associations were represented in the group stage. Atalanta made their debut appearance in the group stage.

More information Tiebreakers ...

Group A

More information Pos, Pld ...
Source: UEFA

Group B

More information Pos, Pld ...
Source: UEFA

Group C

More information Pos, Pld ...
Source: UEFA

Group D

More information Pos, Pld ...
Source: UEFA

Group E

More information Pos, Pld ...
Source: UEFA

Group F

More information Pos, Pld ...
Source: UEFA

Group G

More information Pos, Pld ...
Source: UEFA
Notes:
  1. Tied on head-to-head points (3). Head-to-head goal difference: Benfica +1, Zenit Saint Petersburg −1.

Group H

More information Pos, Pld ...
Source: UEFA
Notes:
  1. Head-to-head points: Valencia 4, Chelsea 1.

Knockout phase

In the knockout phase, teams played against each other over two legs on a home-and-away basis, except for the one-match final. The mechanism of the draws for each round was as follows:

  • In the draw for the round of 16, the eight group winners were seeded, and the eight group runners-up were unseeded. The seeded teams were drawn against the unseeded teams, with the seeded teams hosting the second leg. Teams from the same group or the same association could not be drawn against each other.
  • In the draws for the quarter-finals onwards, there were no seedings, and teams from the same group or the same association could be drawn against each other. As the draws for the quarter-finals and semi-finals were held together before the quarter-finals were played, the identity of the quarter-final winners was not known at the time of the semi-final draw. A draw was also held to determine which semi-final winner was designated as the "home" team for the final (for administrative purposes as it was played at a neutral venue).

For the quarter-finals and semi-finals, teams from the same city were not to be scheduled to play at home on the same day or on consecutive days, due to logistics and crowd control.[31] To avoid such scheduling conflict, if the two teams were drawn to play at home for the same leg, the order of legs of the tie involving the team which were not titleholders of Champions League or Europa League, or the team with the lower domestic ranking in the qualifying season (if neither team were continental title holder) was to be reversed from the original draw.[32]

On 17 June 2020, UEFA announced that due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe, the final stages of the competition would feature a format change: the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final would be played in a single-leg format from 12 to 23 August 2020 at the Estádio da Luz and Estádio José Alvalade in Lisbon, Portugal. The matches were played behind closed doors, through the decisions of the national and local government.

Following the competition restart in August 2020, a maximum of five substitutions were allowed, with a sixth allowed in extra time. However, each team was only given three opportunities to make substitutions, with a fourth opportunity in extra time, excluding substitutions made at half-time, before the start of extra time and at half-time in extra time. This followed a proposal from FIFA and approval by IFAB to lessen the impact of fixture congestion.[33]

Bracket

 
Round of 16Quarter-finalsSemi-finalsFinal
 
                      
 
 
 
 
England Tottenham Hotspur000
 
 
 
Germany RB Leipzig134
 
Germany RB Leipzig2
 
 
 
Spain Atlético Madrid1
 
Spain Atlético Madrid (a.e.t.)134
 
 
 
England Liverpool022
 
Germany RB Leipzig0
 
 
 
France Paris Saint-Germain3
 
Italy Atalanta448
 
 
 
Spain Valencia134
 
Italy Atalanta1
 
 
 
France Paris Saint-Germain2
 
Germany Borussia Dortmund202
 
23 August – Lisbon (Luz)
 
France Paris Saint-Germain123
 
France Paris Saint-Germain0
 
 
 
Germany Bayern Munich1
 
Spain Real Madrid112
 
 
 
England Manchester City224
 
England Manchester City1
 
 
 
France Lyon3
 
France Lyon (a)112
 
 
 
Italy Juventus022
 
France Lyon0
 
 
 
Germany Bayern Munich3
 
Italy Napoli112
 
 
 
Spain Barcelona134
 
Spain Barcelona2
 
 
 
Germany Bayern Munich8
 
England Chelsea011
 
 
Germany Bayern Munich347
 

Round of 16

The draw for the round of 16 was held on 16 December 2019, 12:00 CET.[34] The first legs were played as scheduled on 18, 19, 25 and 26 February, as were the first set of second legs on 10 and 11 March 2020. Due to concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe, the second set of second leg matches were postponed by UEFA on 13 March 2020.[16] On 17 June 2020, UEFA announced that the second legs would be played on 7–8 August 2020, with the venue to be decided between the home team's stadium and a neutral stadium in Portugal (at the Estádio do Dragão in Porto and the Estádio D. Afonso Henriques in Guimarães).[35] On 9 July 2020, UEFA announced that the remaining second legs would be held at the venues originally proposed.[36]

The first leg of the Atalanta v Valencia tie was retrospectively blamed by local civic and medical authorities for contributing to the extremely high concentration of coronavirus cases in Atalanta's home city of Bergamo. Several fans and players of Valencia also had positive diagnoses after returning from the game.[37][38][39] The second leg of the Atlético Madrid v Liverpool tie was similarly blamed for the sharp increase in coronavirus-related deaths in North West England.[40]

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Quarter-finals

The draw for the quarter-finals took place on 10 July 2020.[16][41] The matches were played from 12 to 15 August 2020.

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Semi-finals

The draw for the semi-finals took place on 10 July 2020 (after the quarter-final draw). The matches were played on 18 and 19 August 2020.

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Final

The final was played at the Estádio da Luz in Lisbon. The "home" team (for administrative purposes) was determined by an additional draw held after the quarter-final and semi-final draws.[41]

More information Paris Saint-Germain, 0–1 ...

Statistics

Statistics exclude qualifying rounds and play-off round.

Top goalscorers

Bayern Munich's Robert Lewandowski finished the tournament as the top goalscorer and joint top assist provider, having scored 15 goals and assisting 6.

Notes

  1. Erling Haaland played for Red Bull Salzburg in the group stage and for Borussia Dortmund in the knockout stage, after his transfer during the January transfer window.[44]

Top assists

Paris Saint-Germain's Ángel Di María finished the tournament as the joint top assist provider, having assisted 6 goals.

Squad of the season

The UEFA technical study group selected the following 23 players as the squad of the tournament.[45]

Notes

  1. Angeliño played for Manchester City in the group stage and for RB Leipzig in the knockout stage, after his transfer during the January transfer window.[44]

Players of the season

Votes were cast for players of the season by coaches of the 32 teams in the group stage, together with 55 journalists selected by the European Sports Media (ESM) group, representing each of UEFA's member associations. The coaches were not allowed to vote for players from their own teams. Jury members selected their top three players, with the first receiving five points, the second three and the third one. The shortlist of the top three players was announced on 16 September 2020.[46] The award winners were announced and presented during the 2020–21 UEFA Champions League group stage draw in Switzerland on 1 October 2020.

More information Rank, Player ...
More information Rank, Player ...

See also

Notes

  1. The remainder of the competition, held in August 2020, was played behind closed doors due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe.[20]

References

  1. "Manuel Neuer: Champions League Goalkeeper of the Season". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 1 October 2020. Retrieved 1 October 2020.
  2. "Joshua Kimmich: Champions League Defender of the Season". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 1 October 2020. Retrieved 1 October 2020.
  3. "Kevin De Bruyne: Champions League Midfielder of the Season". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 1 October 2020. Retrieved 1 October 2020.
  4. "Robert Lewandowski: Champions League Forward of the Season". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 1 October 2020. Retrieved 1 October 2020.
  5. "VAR to be introduced in 2019/20 UEFA Champions League". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 27 September 2018. Retrieved 27 September 2018.
  6. "Country coefficients 2017/18". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 10 August 2018. Retrieved 10 August 2018.
  7. "Champions League and Europa League changes next season". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 27 February 2018. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
  8. "UEFA postpones EURO 2020 by 12 months". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 17 March 2020. Retrieved 17 March 2020.
  9. "Resolution of the European football family on a coordinated response to the impact of the COVID-19 on competitions". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 17 March 2020. Retrieved 17 March 2020.
  10. "All of this week's UEFA matches postponed". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 15 March 2020. Retrieved 15 March 2020.
  11. "UEFA Club Finals postponed". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 23 March 2020. Retrieved 23 March 2020.
  12. "Istanbul to host 2023 Champions League final, Munich moved to 2025". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 16 July 2021. Retrieved 3 July 2022.
  13. "Venues for Round of 16 matches confirmed". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 9 July 2020. Retrieved 10 July 2020.
  14. "Club coefficients 2018/19". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 10 August 2018. Retrieved 10 August 2018.
  15. "Why Manchester United's UEFA Champions League home leg vs Barcelona has been reversed". Manchester Evening News. 15 March 2019. Retrieved 15 March 2019.
  16. "Champions League quarter-final and semi-final draws: all you need to know". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 13 March 2019. Retrieved 16 March 2019.
  17. "UEFA Champions League round of 16 draw". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 16 December 2019.
  18. "UEFA competitions to resume in August". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 17 June 2020. Retrieved 17 June 2020.
  19. "Champions League round of 16 venues confirmed". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 9 July 2020. Retrieved 10 July 2020.
  20. Azzoni, Tales; Dampf, Andrew (25 March 2020). "Game Zero: Spread of virus linked to Champions League match". Associated Press. Retrieved 25 March 2020.
  21. Giuffrida, Angela (24 March 2020). "Bergamo mayor says football match escalated infections in Italian province". The Guardian. Retrieved 25 March 2020.
  22. "UEFA Champions League quarter-final, semi-final and final draws". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 10 July 2020.
  23. "Full Time Report Final – Paris Saint-Germain v Bayern Munich" (PDF). UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 23 August 2020. Retrieved 23 August 2020.
  24. "UEFA Champions League – Statistics". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. Archived from the original on 24 August 2020. Retrieved 23 August 2020.
  25. "Champions League squad changes: Fantasy managers, take note". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 5 February 2020.
  26. "UEFA Champions League Squad of the Season". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 28 August 2020. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
  27. "Champions League positional awards nominees announced". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 16 September 2020. Retrieved 17 September 2020.

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