The 2007–08 UEFA Champions League is the 16th season of UEFA's premier European club football tournament, the UEFA Champions League, since it was rebranded in 1992, and the 53rd tournament overall.
76 teams participated in the 2007–08 UEFA Champions League from UEFA's 53 member associations. Each association enters a certain number of clubs to the Champions League based on its league coefficient; associations with a higher league coefficients may enter more clubs than
associations with a lower league coefficient, but no association may enter more than four teams. All UEFA associations are guaranteed to have at least one team qualify, with the exception of Liechtenstein, which competes in the Swiss league system, but has no team in the Swiss Super League. One new nation entered their league champion in this year's tournament: Montenegro, following the dissolution of Serbia and Montenegro. The champions from San Marino and Andorra also entered from this year onwards. Below is the qualification scheme for the 2007–08 Champions League:[1]
Associations 1-3 (Spain, Italy, and England): 4 teams
Associations 4-6 (France, Germany, and Portugal): 3 teams
Associations 7-15: 2 teams
Associations 16-53: 1 team
First qualifying round: (28 teams)
28 champions from associations 25-53 (not including Liechtenstein)
Second qualifying round: (28 teams)
14 winners from the first qualifying round
8 champions from associations 17-24 (Bulgaria, Israel, Norway, Austria, Serbia, Poland, Denmark, and Hungary)
6 runners-up from associations 10-15
Third qualifying round: (32 teams)
14 winners from the second qualifying round
7 champions from associations 10-16 (Romania, Scotland, Belgium, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Turkey, Switzerland)
3 runners-up from associations 7-9 (Netherlands, Greece, Russia)
6 third-place finishers from associations 1-6
2 fourth-place finishers from associations 1-3 (Milan, the fourth-place finishers from Italy, as holders, qualify automatically for the group stage.)
2 As both Milan and Internazionale use the Stadio San Siro as their home pitch, and both were scheduled to play at home for the second leg of the first knockout round, Internazionale's home leg against Liverpool was postponed by one week to 11 March2008.
Qualifying rounds
First qualifying round
The draw was held on Friday, 29 June2007 in Nyon, Switzerland. The draw was conducted by UEFA General Secretary David Taylor and Michele Centenaro, UEFA's head of club competitions. The first leg matches were played on 17 July and 18 July, while the second legs were played on 24 July and 25 July2007.
The draw was held on Friday, 29 June2007 in Nyon, Switzerland. The draw was conducted by UEFA General Secretary David Taylor and Michele Centenaro, UEFA's head of club competitions. The first leg matches were played on 31 July and 1 August, while the second legs were played on 7 August and 8 August2007.
The draw was held on Friday, 3 August2007 in Nyon, Switzerland. The draw was conducted by UEFA General Secretary David Taylor and Giorgio Marchetti, UEFA's director of professional football. The first leg matches were played on 14 August and 15 August, while the second legs were played on 28 August and 29 August2007. Winners in this round qualified for the group stage, while the losing clubs entered the first round of the UEFA Cup. Due to the death of Antonio Puerta, the second leg of Sevilla's game against AEK Athens was postponed until 3 September.
The draw was held on Thursday, 30 August2007 at Grimaldi Forum in Monaco. The draw was hosted by Pedro Pinto and conducted by UEFA General Secretary David Taylor and Michele Centenaro, UEFA's head of club competitions. The matches were played between 18 September and 12 December2007.
Tie-breaking criteria
Based on paragraph 6.05 in the UEFA regulations for the current season, if two or more teams are equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following criteria are applied to determine the rankings:
higher number of points obtained in the group matches played among the teams in question;
superior goal difference from the group matches played among the teams in question;
higher number of goals scored away from home in the group matches played among the teams in question;
superior goal difference from all group matches played;
higher number of goals scored in all group matches played;
higher number of coefficient points accumulated by the club in question, as well as its association, over the previous five seasons.
From the last 16 through to the semi-finals, clubs play two matches against each other on a home and away basis with the same rules as the qualifying rounds applied. In the last 16, group winners play runners-up other than teams from their own pool or nation.
The draw for the first knockout round was held on Friday, 21 December2007 in Nyon, Switzerland. The draw was conducted by UEFA General Secretary David Taylor and Giorgio Marchetti, UEFA's director of professional football.
The draws for the quarter-finals and semi-finals were both held on Friday, 14 March2008 in Nyon, Switzerland. The draw was conducted by UEFA General Secretary David Taylor and Rinat Dasayev, the ambassador for the final in Moscow. Unlike the first knockout round, teams from the same group or country may be drawn together from the quarter-finals onwards.
Manchester United won the match 6–5 on penalties after the game had ended in a 1–1 draw. Cristiano Ronaldo had given the eventual victors the lead after 26 minutes, only for Frank Lampard to equalise immediately before half-time. Didier Drogba was sent off for a slap on Nemanja Vidić mid-way through extra time.
2007–08 marks the first season in the competition's history that four teams from the same country have reached the quarter-final stage, following the progression of Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United into the final stages.
Liverpool and Arsenal played each other three times in a week in April 2008; they first played each other in the Champions League quarter-final first leg on 2 April, before a league game on 5 April, both at the Emirates Stadium. The teams then moved up to Liverpool to play the Champions League quarter-final second leg.
Liverpool and Chelsea played each other in the semi-finals of the Champions League for the third time in four years (the other two matchups occured during the 2004-05 and 2006-07 seasons). It is also the fourth time in four years that the two teams have been drawn together in the Champions League, including the group stage in 2005-06.
The same three English sides (Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United) played in the semi-finals for the second season in a row. The only team that was not in the previous season's semi-finals was Barcelona. This semi-final line-up meant that there would be an English team in the final for the fourth season in a row.
The final between Chelsea and Manchester United is the first all-English final in the history of the European Cup and the third final between two teams from the same country. The others were in 2000 and 2003.
Chelsea reached the Champions League final for the first time in their history.
Coincidentally, while two English teams (Manchester United and Chelsea) will be contesting the Champions League final in Moscow, Russia, a Russian team (Zenit St. Petersburg) won the UEFA Cup final in Manchester, England. Also, Chelsea FC is owned by a Russian.
For the first time in Champions League history, none of the English teams were eliminated by a non-English team. Arsenal were eliminated by Liverpool, who were eliminated by Chelsea, who were eliminated by Manchester United in the final.