The 2018–19 UEFA Champions League group stage began on 18 September and ended on 12 December 2018.[1] A total of 32 teams competed in the group stage to decide the 16 places in the knockout phase of the 2018–19 UEFA Champions League.[2]
The draw for the group stage was held on 30 August 2018, 18:00 CEST, at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco.[3]
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 (Regulations Article 13.06):[2]
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.[6]
Moreover, the draw was controlled for teams from the same association in order to split the teams evenly into the two sets of four groups (A–D, E–H) for maximum television coverage. On each matchday, one set of four groups played their matches on Tuesday, while the other set of four groups played their matches on Wednesday, with the two sets of groups alternating between each matchday. The following pairings were announced by UEFA after the group stage teams were confirmed:[3] [7]
The fixtures were decided after the draw, using a computer draw not shown to public, with the following match sequence (Regulations Article 16.02):[2]
Note: Positions for scheduling do not use the seeding pots, e.g. Team 1 is not necessarily the team from Pot 1 in the draw.
| Matchday | Dates | Matches | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Matchday 1 | 18–19 September 2018 | 2 v 3, 4 v 1 | |
| Matchday 2 | 2–3 October 2018 | 1 v 2, 3 v 4 | |
| Matchday 3 | 23–24 October 2018 | 3 v 1, 2 v 4 | |
| Matchday 4 | 6–7 November 2018 | 1 v 3, 4 v 2 | |
| Matchday 5 | 27–28 November 2018 | 3 v 2, 1 v 4 | |
| Matchday 6 | 11–12 December 2018 | 2 v 1, 4 v 3 |
There were scheduling restrictions: for example, teams from the same city (e.g. Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid) in general were not scheduled to play at home on the same matchday (to avoid them playing at home on the same day or on consecutive days, due to logistics and crowd control), and teams from "winter countries" (e.g. Russia) were not scheduled to play at home on the last matchday (due to cold weather).
Below were the participating teams (with their 2018 UEFA club coefficients),[5] grouped by their seeding pot. They included:
| Key to colours | |
|---|---|
| Group winners and runners-up advanced to round of 16 | |
| Third-placed teams entered Europa League round of 32 |
|
|
|
|
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.
Teams were ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss), and if tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria were applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Articles 17.01):[2]
The matchdays were 18–19 September, 2–3 October, 23–24 October, 6–7 November, 27–28 November, and 11–12 December 2018.[1] The scheduled kickoff times were 21:00 CET/CEST, with two matches on each Tuesday and Wednesday scheduled for 18:55 CET/CEST.[8]
Times are CET/CEST, as listed by UEFA (local times, if different, are in parentheses).