The 2007-08 UEFA Champions League is the 53rd edition of the European championship football tournament and the 16th edition under the current UEFA Champions League format.
The final is scheduled to be played at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow on 21 May2008. However, due to an upcoming review of venues eligible to host the Champions League Final (announced by UEFAPresidentMichel Platini on 6 June2007) this decision could be reversed, and a stadium with enhanced turnstile and ticketing technology chosen instead.[1]
76 teams will participate in the 2007-2008 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 1 team qualify, with the exception of Liechtenstein, which organizes no league competition. One new nation will enter their league champion in this year's tournament: Montenegro, following the dissolution of Serbia and Montenegro. The champions from San Marino and Andorra are also entered from this year onwards. Below is the qualification scheme for the 2007-2008 Champions League:[2]
Associations 1-3 (Spain, Italy, and England): 4 teams
Associations 4-6 (France, Germany, and Portugal): 3 teams
Associations 7-15 (Netherlands, Greece, Russia, Romania, Scotland, Belgium, Ukraine, Czech Republic, and Turkey): 2 teams
Associations 16-53: 1 team
First qualifying round: (28 teams)
28 champions from associations 25-53
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
3 runners-up from associations 7-9
6 third-place finishers from associations 1-6
2 fourth-place finishers from associations 1-3 (AC Milan, the fourth-place finishers from Italy, as holders, qualify automatically for the group stage.)
The draw was held on Friday, 29 June2007 at 12:00 CET in Nyon, Switzerland. The draw was conducted by UEFA General Secretary David Taylor and Michele Centenaro, UEFA's head of club competitions. The matches were played on 17/18 July and 24/25 July2007.
The draw was held on Friday, 29 June2007 at 12:00 CET in Nyon, Switzerland. The draw was conducted by UEFA General Secretary David Taylor and Michele Centenaro, UEFA's head of club competitions. The matches were played on 31 July/1 August and 7/8 August2007.
The draw was held on Friday, 3 August2007 at 12:00 CET in Nyon, Switzerland. The draw was conducted by UEFA General Secretary David Taylor and Giorgio Marchetti, UEFA's director of professional football. The matches were played on 14/15 August and 28/29 August2007. Winners in this round qualify for the group stage, while the losing clubs will be entered in 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 16:00 CET 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 will be 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. For the draw of the quarter-finals and semi-finals clubs are seeded based on the results in the group and first knockout stage of the current season (eight matches).
S.S. Lazio goalkeeper Marco Ballotta became the oldest player to ever play in the Champions League. Aged 43, he is 3 years older than the previous record owner, Alessandro Costacurta, who was 40 when playing for A.C. Milan against AEK Athens in November 2006. Ballotta keeps extending the record every time he is fielded in Lazio's group C matches.
Filippo Inzaghi surpassed Gerd Müller as the all-time highest scorer in European competitions when he scored his 63rd European club competition goal, in AC Milan's 1–0 victory over Celtic on 4 December2007. He is also currently the highest-scoring Italian player in the history of European competition, having scored 34 of his 63 European competition goals for his current club AC Milan.
Liverpool's 8–0 victory over Beşiktaş JK at Anfield on 6 November2007 became the highest scoring win (excluding qualifying or preliminary rounds) in the Champions League era.
Dinamo Zagreb
BATE Borisov
Rànger's
HB Tórshavn
Ventspils
Levadia Tallinn
Astana
FBK Kaunas
Tampere United
MŠK Žilina
Elfsborg
Pyunik
FK Sarajevo
SK Tirana
Shakhtar Donetsk
Steaua
Red Bull Salzburg
Rosenborg
Beitar Jerusalem
Slavia Prague
Levski Sofia
Liverpool
AEK Athens
Porto (group winner) & 
Liverpool
Schalke 04
Real Madrid (group winner) & 
Olympiacos
AC Milan (group winner) & 
Celtic
Didier Drogba
Lionel Messi
Robinho
Frédéric Kanouté
Óscar Cardozo
