The 2017–18 UEFA Champions League was the 63rd season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 26th season since it was renamed from the European Champion Clubs' Cup to the UEFA Champions League.
The final was played between Real Madrid and Liverpool at the NSC Olimpiyskiy in Kyiv, Ukraine.[5] Real Madrid beat Liverpool 3-1 to win a record-extending 13th title, their third title in a row and fourth in five seasons.
As winners, Real Madrid qualified as the UEFA representative for the 2018 FIFA Club World Cup in the United Arab Emirates, and also earned the right to play against the winners of the 2017–18 UEFA Europa League, Atlético Madrid, in the 2018 UEFA Super Cup, winning the former. Additionally, they would have been automatically qualified for the 2018–19 UEFA Champions League group stage,[6] but since they had already qualified through their league performance, the berth reserved was given to the champions of the 2017–18 Czech First League, the 11th-ranked association according to the 2018–19 access list.[7]
Association team allocation
79 teams from 54 of the 55 UEFA member associations participated (the exception being Liechtenstein, which did not organise a domestic league).[8] The association ranking based on the UEFA country coefficients was used to determine the number of participating teams for each association:[9]
Associations 1–3 each had four teams qualify.
Associations 4–6 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 2016–17 UEFA Champions League and 2016–17 UEFA Europa League were each given an additional entry if they did not qualify for the 2017–18 UEFA Champions League through their domestic league. Because a maximum of five teams from one association could enter the Champions League, if both the Champions League title holders and the Europa League title holders were from the same top three ranked association and finished outside the top four of their domestic league, the fourth-placed team of their association was moved to the Europa League.[10] For this season:
The winners of the 2016–17 UEFA Champions League, Real Madrid, qualified through their domestic league, meaning the additional entry for the Champions League title holders was not necessary.
The winners of the 2016–17 UEFA Europa League, Manchester United, did not qualify through their domestic league, meaning the additional entry for the Europa League title holders was necessary.
Kosovo, who became a UEFA member on 3 May 2016, made their debut in the UEFA Champions League.[11][12]
Association ranking
For the 2017–18 UEFA Champions League, the associations were allocated places according to their 2016 UEFA country coefficients, which took into account their performance in European competitions from 2011–12 to 2015–16.[13][14]
Apart from the allocation based on the country coefficients, associations could have additional teams participating in the Champions League, as noted below:
(UEL) – Additional berth for UEFA Europa League title holders
In the default access list, the Champions League title holders entered the group stage.[12] However, since Real Madrid already qualified for the group stage (as the champions of the 2016–17 La Liga), the Champions League title holders berth in the group stage was given to the Europa League title holders, Manchester United.[15][16][17][18] and the following changes to the default allocation system are made:
The third-placed teams of associations 4 (Italy) and 5 (Portugal) are promoted from the third qualifying round to the play-off round.
Teams entering in this round
Teams advancing from previous round
First qualifying round (10 teams)
10 champions from associations 46–55
Second qualifying round (34 teams)
29 champions from associations 16–45 (except Liechtenstein)
5 winners from the first qualifying round
Third qualifying round
Champions Route (20 teams)
3 champions from associations 13–15
17 winners from the second qualifying round
League Route (10 teams)
9 runners-up from associations 7–15
1 third-placed team from association 6
Play-off round
Champions Route (10 teams)
10 winners from the third qualifying round (Champions Route)
League Route (10 teams)
2 third-placed teams from associations 4–5
3 fourth-placed teams from associations 1–3
5 winners from the third qualifying round (League Route)
Group stage (32 teams)
Europa League title holders
12 champions from associations 1–12
6 runners-up from associations 1–6
3 third-placed teams from associations 1–3
5 winners from the play-off round (Champions Route)
5 winners from the play-off round (League Route)
Knockout 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. Manchester United qualified as Europa League title holders. (TH: Champions League title holders; EL: Europa League title holders).[19][20]
The schedule of the competition was as follows (all draws were held at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, unless stated otherwise).[12][21][22]
In the qualifying rounds and the play-off round, teams were divided into seeded and unseeded teams based on their 2017 UEFA club coefficients,[23][24][25] and then drawn into two-legged home-and-away ties. Teams from the same association could not be drawn against each other.
First qualifying round
The draw for the first qualifying round was held on 19 June 2017, 12:00 CEST.[26] The first legs were played on 27 and 28 June, and the second legs were played on 4 July 2017.
The draw for the second qualifying round was held on 19 June 2017, 12:00 CEST (after the completion of the first qualifying round draw).[26] The first legs were played on 11, 12 and 14 July, and the second legs were played on 18 and 19 July 2017.
The draw for the third qualifying round was held on 14 July 2017, 12:00 CEST.[27] The third qualifying round was split into two separate sections: Champions Route (for league champions) and League Route (for league non-champions). The losing teams in both sections entered the 2017–18 UEFA Europa League play-off round.
The first legs were played on 25 and 26 July, and the second legs were played on 1 and 2 August 2017.
The draw for the play-off round was held on 4 August 2017, 12:00 CEST.[28] The play-off round was split into two separate sections: Champions Route (for league champions) and League Route (for league non-champions). The losing teams in both sections entered the 2017–18 UEFA Europa League group stage.
The first legs were played on 15 and 16 August, and the second legs were played on 22 and 23 August 2017.
Location of teams of the 2017–18 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 24 August 2017, 18:00 CEST, at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco.[29] 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 (introduced starting 2015–16 season):[30][31]
Pot 1 contained the title holders and the champions of the top seven associations based on their 2016 UEFA country coefficients.[13][14] As the title holders, Real Madrid, were one of the champions of the top seven associations, the champions of the association ranked eighth (Ukraine's Shakhtar Donetsk) were also seeded into Pot 1 (regulations Article 13.05).[9]
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 2017–18 UEFA Europa League round of 32. The matchdays were 12–13 September, 26–27 September, 17–18 October, 31 October – 1 November, 21–22 November, and 5–6 December 2017.
The youth teams of the clubs that qualified for the group stage also participated in the 2017–18 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).
Seventeen national associations were represented in the group stage. Qarabağ and RB Leipzig made their debut appearances in the group stage. Qarabağ were the first team from Azerbaijan to play in the Champions League group stage.[32] For the first time since the 1997–98 edition, England's Arsenal did not qualify for the group stage.
Tiebreakers
Teams 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 17.01):[9]
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);
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.
The draw for the round of 16 was held on 11 December 2017, 12:00 CET.[33] The first legs were played on 13, 14, 20 and 21 February, and the second legs were played on 6, 7, 13 and 14 March 2018.
The draw for the quarter-finals was held on 16 March 2018, 12:00 CET.[34][35] The first legs were played on 3 and 4 April, and the second legs were played on 10 and 11 April 2018.
The draw for the semi-finals was held on 13 April 2018, 13:00 CEST.[36] The first legs were played on 24 and 25 April, and the second legs were played on 1 and 2 May 2018.
The final was played at the NSC Olimpiyskiy in Kyiv on 26 May 2018. The "home" team (for administrative purposes) was determined by an additional draw held after the semi-final draw.[36]
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 were announced on 9 August 2018.[40] The award winners were announced and presented during the 2018–19 UEFA Champions League group stage draw in Monaco on 30 August 2018.
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Real Madrid (13th title)
Liverpool 
