The 2016–17 UEFA Champions League group stage began on 13 September and ended on 7 December 2016. A total of 32 teams competed in the group stage to decide the 16 places in the knockout phase of the 2016–17 UEFA Champions League.[1]
The draw was held on 25 August 2016, 18:00 CEST, at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco.[2] The 32 teams were drawn into eight groups of four, with the restriction that teams from the same association could not be drawn against each other. For the draw, the teams were seeded into four pots based on the following principles:[3] [1]
Moreover, the draw was controlled for teams from the same association in order to split the teams evenly into the two sets of groups (A–D, E–H) for maximum television coverage.
The fixtures were decided after the draw. On each matchday, four groups play their matches on Tuesday, while the other four groups play their matches on Wednesday, with the two sets of groups (A–D, E–H) alternating between each matchday. There are other restrictions: for example, teams from the same city (e.g., Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid) in general do not play at home on the same matchday (UEFA tries to avoid teams from the same city playing at home on the same day or on consecutive days, due to logistics and crowd control), and teams in certain countries (e.g., Belarus, Russia, Kazakhstan) do not play at home on the last matchday (due to cold weather and simultaneous kick-off times).
On 17 July 2014, the UEFA emergency panel ruled that Ukrainian and Russian clubs would not be drawn against each other "until further notice" due to the political unrest between the countries.[9] Therefore, Ukrainian club Dynamo Kyiv (Pot 3) and Russian clubs CSKA Moscow (Pot 1) and Rostov (Pot 4) could not be drawn into the same group.
Below are the participating teams (with their 2016 UEFA club coefficients),[10] [11] grouped by their seeding pot.[12] They included 22 teams which entered in this stage, and the 10 winners of the play-off round (5 in Champions Route, 5 in League Route).
| Key to colours | |
|---|---|
| Group winners and runners-up advanced to the round of 16 | |
| Third-placed teams entered the Europa League round of 32 |
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In each group, teams played against each other home-and-away in a round-robin format. The group winners and runners-up advanced to the round of 16, while the third-placed teams entered the Europa League round of 32.[1]
The 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 on completion of the group matches, the following criteria were applied in the order given to determine the rankings (regulations Article 17.01):[1]
The matchdays were 13–14 September, 27–28 September, 18–19 October, 1–2 November, 22–23 November, and 6–7 December 2016.[13] The match kickoff times are 20:45 CEST/CET, except for matchday 5 in Russia which are 18:00 CET.[14] The match kickoff times for matchdays 4 and 5 in Turkey were changed from 20:45 CET to 18:45 CET due to the decision of the Turkish government to use the UTC+3 time zone all year round starting from September 2016.[15]
Times are CET/CEST, as listed by UEFA (local times are in parentheses).
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