How Does The Champions League Work?
It is kinda confusing. 1) What happens after the 2009-10 UEFA Champions League group stage has been declared? I know they will start to play on the dates they’ve announced on the official site. 2) What happens afterwards? Can someone explain it in simple English?
ANSWER:
The 2009-2010 UEFA Champions’ League group stage features 8 groups with 4 teams drawn in each group. All the teams in the same group play each other twice – home & away. The top two teams from each group will progress to the 1st knock-out stage of the competition while the 3rd place team enters the 1st knock-out stage of the UEFA Europa League – UEFA’s second football club competition.
The 16 teams which qualify as the top two teams from the group stage will again be drawn against each other for a two leg knock-out match. the matches will feature the group winners against the other group runners-up.
In this stage, there is the country protection for the draw which means that teams from the same country cannot be drawn together & teams qualified from the same group stage will not be drawn together either. The 1st round of the knock-out stage will be played as home & away ties with the 1st leg match hosted by the group runners-up. The return leg will be played at the home of the group winners.
The teams which score the most goals or the highest aggregate scores will progress to the quarter-finals. If the aggregate scores are level after 90 minutes or the extra time, the first tiebreaker will be the away goals scored & the teams which scored more away goals than the other team will be the winner of this match-ups. Penalty shoot-outs are used to decided the winner if the aggregate scores & the away goals scored are still level.
8 teams left in the competition will then again be drawn against each other in a two leg quarter-final & semi-finals matches. In this stage, any team can be drawn against each other which means that there could be a potential matches featuring teams from the same country. The first team drawn will host the 1st leg. The teams which score the most goals or the highest aggregate scores will progress to the semi-finals. (as above)
The 2009-2010 UEFA Champions’ League final will be played at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu in Madrid, Spain on Saturday, 22 May 2009, kick-off is 20:45 Central European Time (CET). this is the first time that the UEFA Champions’ League will be played on Saturday.
Click Here To Go To The Champions League Ticket Order Page (as we’re based in Spain we’re very optimistic about getting hold of tickets for the final!)