The 2024–25 UEFA Champions League league phase began on 17 September 2024 and ended on 29 January 2025. A total of 36 teams competed in the league phase to decide the 24 places in the knockout phase of the 2024–25 UEFA Champions League.
Aston Villa, Bologna, Brest, Girona and Slovan Bratislava made their debut appearances in the Champions League since the introduction of the group stage. Brest and Girona also made their debut appearances in European football. A total of 16 national associations were represented in the league phase.
This was the first season with the single-league format, which replaced the group format used until the previous season.[1] With the format change, the number of matches prior to the knockout phase increased from 96 to 144. Juventus' Kenan Yıldız was the first-ever goalscorer of the competition's league phase.[2]
Each team played eight matches, four at home and four away, against eight different opponents, with all 36 teams ranked in a single league table. Teams were separated into four pots based on their 2024 UEFA club coefficients, and each team played two teams from each of the four pots – one at home and one away. The top eight ranked teams received a bye to the round of 16. The teams ranked from 9th to 24th will contest the knockout phase play-offs, with the teams ranked from 9th to 16th seeded for the draw. Teams ranked from 25th to 36th were eliminated from all competitions, with no access to the 2024–25 UEFA Europa League.
Teams were ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If two or more teams were equal on points upon completion of the league phase, the following tiebreaking criteria were applied, in the order given, to determine their rankings:[3]
Goal difference;
Goals scored;
Away goals scored;
Wins;
Away wins;
Higher number of points obtained collectively by league phase opponents;
Superior collective goal difference of league phase opponents;
Higher number of goals scored collectively by league phase opponents;
Lower disciplinary points total (direct red card = 3 points, yellow card = 1 point, expulsion for two yellow cards in one match = 3 points);
During the league phase, criteria 1 to 5 were used to rank teams who had an equal number of points. Should any teams have been equal on points and tied on the first five criteria, they were considered equal in position and sorted alphabetically. Criteria 6 to 10 was only used to break ties upon completion of all matches.[4]
The 36 teams were divided into four pots of nine teams each, with the Champions League title holders automatically placed as the top seed of pot 1.[5] All remaining teams were allocated to pots based on their 2024 UEFA club coefficients.[6] The participants included:
The draw for the league phase pairings was held at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco on 29 August 2024, 18:00 CEST.[7][8][9] All 36 teams were manually drawn using physical balls. For every team manually drawn, a guest on stage pressed the button for the automated software to digitally draw their opponents at random, determining which of their matches were at home and which ones away. Each team faced two opponents from each of the four pots, one of which they faced at home and one away. Teams could not face opponents from their own association, and could only be drawn against a maximum of two sides from the same association. The draw started with Pot 1, assigning opponents to all teams, one after the other, and continued with the other pots in ascending order until all teams were assigned their opponents.[10][11][12]
The switch to a primarily computer-based draw was made due to issues with the complexity and duration required by a manual draw.[13] The draw software, developed by AE Live, guaranteed total randomness within the framework of the draw conditions and prevented any deadlock situations. The software was reviewed by external auditor Ernst & Young, which also provided review and control of the manual and digital draw operations on-site.[10]
The fixture list was announced on 31 August 2024, two days after the draw.[15][16][17] This was to ensure no calendar clashes with teams in Europa League and Conference League playing in the same cities.[10]
In principle, each team did not play more than two home matches or two away matches in a row, and played one home match and one away match across both the first and last two matchdays. The matches were played on 17–19 September (exclusive week),[note 1] 1–2 October, 22–23 October, 5–6 November, 26–27 November, 10–11 December 2024, 21–22 January and 29 January 2025. All matches were played on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, except for the competition's exclusive week, which also included Thursday fixtures. The scheduled kick-off times were 18:45 (two matches on each day) and 21:00 (remaining matches) CET/CEST. The only exception was the final matchday, where all fixtures were played simultaneously at 21:00.[19][20]
Times are CET or CEST,[note 2] as listed by UEFA (local times, if different, are in parentheses).
French
Deutsch
Liverpool 
Barcelona 
Inter Milan 
Bayer Leverkusen 
Lille 
PSV Eindhoven 
Benfica 
Celtic 
Club Brugge 
Dinamo Zagreb 
Shakhtar Donetsk 
Red Star Belgrade 
Sturm Graz 
Sparta Prague 
Slovan Bratislava 
Young Boys 
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