Champions league viertelfinale 2016
How Real Madrid made it back-to-back triumphs with victory in Cardiff. Official in-depth guide to UEFA Champions League 2016/17, including results, stats and video highlights.2016–17 UEFA Champions League
62nd season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA
International football competition
The 2016–17 UEFA Champions League was the 62nd season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 25th season since it was renamed from the European Champion Clubs' Cup to the UEFA Champions League.
The final was played between Juventus and Real Madrid at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Wales.[5][6] It was the second time that the two teams faced each other in the competition's decisive match, having previously met in the 1998 final. Real Madrid, the defending champions, beat Juventus 4–1 to win a record-extending 12th title. With this victory, Real Madrid became the first team to successfully defend their title in the Champions League era, and the first to successfully defend a European Cup since Milan in 1990.
As winners, Real Madrid qualified as the UEFA representative for the 2017 FIFA Club World Cup in the United Arab Emirates, and also earned the right to play against the winners of the 2016–17 UEFA Europa League, Manchester United, in the 2017 UEFA Super Cup, ultimately triumphing in both competitions.
Association team allocation
A total of 78 teams from 53 of the 55 UEFA member associations were expected to participate in the 2016–17 UEFA Champions League (the exceptions being Liechtenstein, which did not organise a domestic league, and Kosovo, whose participation was not accepted in their first attempt as UEFA members). The association ranking based on the UEFA country coefficients was used to determine the number of participating teams for each association:[7]
- 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 16–54 (except Liechtenstein) each had one team qualify.
- The winners of the 2015–16 UEFA Champions League and 2015–16 UEFA Europa League were each given an additional entry if they did not qualify for the 2016–17 UEFA Champions League through their domestic league. Because a maximum of five teams from one association can 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 finish outside the top four of their domestic league, the fourth-placed team of their association would be moved to the Europa League.[8] For this season:
- The winners of the 2015–16 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 2015–16 UEFA Europa League, Sevilla, did not qualify through their domestic league, meaning the additional entry for the Europa League title holders was necessary.
Association ranking
For the 2016–17 UEFA Champions League, the associations were allocated places according to their 2015 UEFA country coefficients, which took into account their performance in European competitions from 2010–11 to 2014–15.[9][10]
Apart from the allocation based on the country coefficients, associations could have additional teams participating in the Champions League, as noted below:
- (EL) – Additional berth for Europa League title holders
- Notes
- ^
Kosovo (KOS):Kosovo became a UEFA member on 3 May 2016.[11] UEFA decided that their domestic champions could participate in the 2016–17 UEFA Champions League only if they could meet licensing criteria under article 15 of the UEFA Club Licensing & Financial Fair Play regulations, which would be confirmed following the assessment made by the UEFA administration within the deadline of 31 May 2016.[12] However, Kosovo's entry, Feronikeli (as the champions of the 2015–16 Football Superleague of Kosovo), was denied by UEFA in June due to the club failing licensing requirements, and also because the club could not provide a suitable stadium and UEFA did not allow them to play their home matches in a foreign country.[13][14]
Distribution
In the default access list, the Champions League title holders enter the group stage.[7][15] However, since Real Madrid already qualified for the group stage (as the runners-up of the 2015–16 La Liga), the Champions League title holders berth in the group stage is given to the Europa League title holders, Sevilla.[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 (8 teams) |
| ||
| Second qualifying round (34 teams) |
|
| |
| Third qualifying round | Champions Route (20 teams) |
|
|
| League Route (10 teams) |
| ||
| Play-off round | Champions Route (10 teams) |
| |
| League Route (10 teams) |
|
| |
| Group stage (32 teams) |
|
| |
| Knockout phase (16 teams) |
| ||
Teams
League positions of the previous season qualified via league position shown in parentheses. Sevilla qualified as Europa League title holders. (TH: Champions League title holders; EL: Europa League title holders).[19][20][21]
- Notes
- ^
Albania (ALB):Skënderbeu would have qualified for the Champions League second qualifying round as the champions of the 2015–16 Albanian Superliga, but were excluded from participating in the 2016–17 European competitions by UEFA for match-fixing.[22][23] They appealed the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, and UEFA agreed to suspend the exclusion and Skënderbeu were included in the second qualifying round draw.[24] The final decision to exclude Skënderbeu was made by the Court of Arbitration for Sport on 6 July 2016, before the second qualifying round was played.[25][26] As a result, the berth was given to the runners-up Partizani.[27]
- ^
France (FRA):Monaco are a club based in Monaco (which is not a UEFA member), but participate in the Champions League through one of the berths for France as they finished third in the 2015–16 Ligue 1 (any coefficient points they earn count toward France).
Round and draw dates
The schedule of the competition was as follows (all draws were held at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, unless stated otherwise).[7][28][29]
| Phase | Round | Draw date | First leg | Second leg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Qualifying | First qualifying round | 20 June 2016 | 28–29 June 2016 | 5–6 July 2016 |
| Second qualifying round | 12–13 July 2016 | 19–20 July 2016 | ||
| Third qualifying round | 15 July 2016 | 26–27 July 2016 | 2–3 August 2016 | |
| Play-off | Play-off round | 5 August 2016 | 16–17 August 2016 | 23–24 August 2016 |
| Group stage | Matchday 1 | 25 August 2016 (Monaco) | 13–14 September 2016 | |
| Matchday 2 | 27–28 September 2016 | |||
| Matchday 3 | 18–19 October 2016 | |||
| Matchday 4 | 1–2 November 2016 | |||
| Matchday 5 | 22–23 November 2016 | |||
| Matchday 6 | 6–7 December 2016 | |||
| Knockout phase | Round of 16 | 12 December 2016 | 14–15 & 21–22 February 2017 | 7–8 & 14–15 March 2017 |
| Quarter-finals | 17 March 2017 | 11–12 April 2017 | 18–19 April 2017 | |
| Semi-finals | 21 April 2017 | 2–3 May 2017 | 9–10 May 2017 | |
| Final | 3 June 2017 at Millennium Stadium, Cardiff | |||
Qualifying rounds
Main article: 2016–17 UEFA Champions League qualifying phase
In the qualifying rounds and the play-off round, teams were divided into seeded and unseeded teams based on their 2016 UEFA club coefficients,[30][31][32] 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 draws for the first and second qualifying rounds were held on 20 June 2016.[33][34] The first legs were played on 28 June, and the second legs were played on 5 and 6 July 2016.