What is the UEFA Champions League?
Top football clubs from throughout Europe compete in the UEFA Champions League, UEFA's elite club tournament, with the chance to be named European champions.
In the first season of the competition, which was then known as the European Cup, 16 teams participated. In 1992, it underwent a name change to become the Champions League and has since grown with 78 clubs expected to participate in 2023.
Source: The Drum
How the Champions League Works:
Group Stage
There are 78 different clubs participating in the Champions League this season. Out of the 32 slots available for the group stage, a total of 26 clubs automatically qualified by finishing well enough in their league campaigns the previous season. In order to qualify for the last six group stage berths throughout the summer, the other 52 teams compete in their own knockout competition.
The field was divided into four groups of eight clubs once the 32 teams were determined. The former Champions League champions, the Europa League champions, and the top seven league winners are placed in group one.
The teams' UEFA club coefficients determine the order of groups two, three, and four. The eight top-ranked teams are placed in Group Two, the next-highest in Group Three, and the eight bottom-ranked teams are placed in Group Four. This system is known as the UEFA coefficient and is used to rank European clubs based on their performance in UEFA international tournaments. A group is formed by selecting one team from each group.
In the group stage, each team competes in six matches—one at home and one on the road—against the other three teams in its division. The scoring is standard: three points for a victory, one point for a tie, and no points for a defeat. The competition's next phase is where the top two clubs from each group advance, with the third-place team dropping down to the Europa League. The fourth-place squad gets disqualified from the European tournament.
Knockout Stage
Each group's top two teams advance to the knockout stages. The first round is the Round of 16, this is when each group's champion plays a runner-up from a different group and a different nation. The eight winners are matched up against the eight runner-ups.
Two matches between the two teams are playing, one at each team's home ground. Following the two games, the side with the advantage in goals scored overall or on aggregate is declared the victor. If the aggregate scores after the second leg's full time are tied, a 30-minute overtime period will be played. After that, if the score is still tied, the game advances to a penalty shootout. The quarterfinals, semifinals, and Round of 16 all use this method.
The top eight finishers move on to the quarterfinal round and enter yet another pool where clubs are paired against one another. From this point on, teams from the same group and the same nation might be drawn to play each other since it counts for both the quarterfinals and semifinals. The semifinal round is reached by the four winners from the two legs.
When competing against different opponents, as Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid in the 2016 semifinals, two clubs from the same city are not permitted to play their home matches on the same day. When one is performing, the other is performing somewhere, and vice versa. The Champions League Final is reached by the two semifinal round winners.
The Final
The Champions League Final host venue is mainly chosen years in advance. The final host cities have already been chosen through 2025. The final has occasionally been hosted at a participant club's home stadium due to how long in advance it is scheduled. The last time this happened was in 2012, when Bayern Munich hosted Chelsea at the Allianz Arena in Munich.
The Champions League Final is an exclusive contest, in contrast to the first three elimination stages. The strategy we previously described will be used if the final match is tied after 90 minutes. If a tie still exists after a 30-minute overtime session, the game will go to a penalty shootout.
UEFA Champions League Recent Results and Schedules:
In the 2022 final, Real Madrid defeated Liverpool by a score of 1-0 in Paris to become the current champions. After a victory over Manchester City in the championship game, Chelsea was awarded the 2020–21 Champions League.
Here are the dates for the 2022-23 Champions League. The final will be played on June 10, 2023, in Istanbul, Turkey. You can watch it all on Paramount+ in the U.S.