The 2020–21 UEFA Champions League group stage began on 20 October 2020 and ended on 9 December 2020.[1] A total of 32 teams competed in the group stage to decide the 16 places in the knockout phase of the 2020–21 UEFA Champions League.
Krasnodar, Midtjylland, İstanbul Başakşehir and Rennes made their debut appearances in the group stage. Istanbul became the first city to provide four different participating teams in the group stage. This group stage was also the first in Champions League history to include three Russian teams.
The draw was held at the RTS Studios in Geneva, Switzerland on 1 October 2020 at 17:00 CEST.[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 (Regulations Article 13.06):
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.[4]
Moreover, for associations with two or more teams, teams were paired in order to split them into two sets of four groups (A–D, E–H) for maximum television coverage. The following pairings were announced by UEFA after the group stage teams were confirmed:[5]
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 fixtures were decided after the draw, using a computer draw not shown to public, with the following match sequence (Regulations Article 16.02):[2]
| Matchday | Dates | |
|---|---|---|
| Matchday 1 | 20–21 October 2020 | |
| Matchday 2 | 27–28 October 2020 | |
| Matchday 3 | 3–4 November 2020 | |
| Matchday 4 | 24–25 November 2020 | |
| Matchday 5 | 1–2 December 2020 | |
| Matchday 6 | 8–9 December 2020 |
Below were the participating teams (with their 2020 UEFA club coefficients),[6] 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 |
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Notes
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). If two or more teams were tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria were applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (see Article 17 Equality of points – group stage, Regulations of the UEFA Champions League):[7]
The matchdays were 20–21 October, 27–28 October, 3–4 November, 24–25 November, 1–2 December, and 8–9 December 2020. 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 were CET/CEST, as listed by UEFA (local times, if different, are in parentheses).