2022–23 UEFA Champions League explained

Tourney Name:	UEFA Champions League
Year:	2022–23
Size:	300
Dates:	Qualifying: 21 June – 24 August 2022 Competition proper: 6 September 2022 – 10 June 2023
Num Teams:	Competition proper: 32 Total: 78
Associations:	53
Champion Other:	Manchester City
Count:	1
Second Other:	Inter Milan
Matches:	125
Goals:	372
Top Scorer:	12 goals
Player:
Young Player:
Prevseason:	2021–22
Nextseason:	2023–24

The 2022–23 UEFA Champions League was the 68th season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 31st season since it was renamed from the European Champion Clubs' Cup to the UEFA Champions League.

The final was played at the Atatürk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul, Turkey, on 10 June 2023.^[1] The stadium was originally appointed to host the 2020 UEFA Champions League final, but both this and the 2021 editions, which had been subsequently re-allocated to the Atatürk, were moved due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2023 final was contested by English club Manchester City and Italian club Inter Milan, with the former winning 1–0 via a second-half goal by Rodri, who was named man of the match by UEFA. For Manchester City, this was their first-ever European Cup, and first European trophy since 1970. Having earlier won the Premier league and FA Cup titles, they achieved a unique continental treble.^{[2] [3]} As winners, Manchester City earned the right to play against Sevilla, the winners of the 2022–23 UEFA Europa League, in the 2023 UEFA Super Cup, as well as qualifying for both the 2023 and 2025 FIFA Club World Cups in Saudi Arabia and the United States, respectively.

Real Madrid were the defending champions, having won a record-extending fourteenth European Cup title in the previous edition, but they were eliminated by eventual champions Manchester City in the semi-finals.

Association team allocation

A total of 78 teams from 53 of the 55 UEFA member associations participated in the 2022–23 UEFA Champions League (the exceptions being Russia, who were banned from participating due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and Liechtenstein, which did not organise a domestic league). The association ranking based on the UEFA association coefficients was used to determine the number of participating teams for each association:^[4]

• Associations 1–4 each had four teams qualify.
• Associations 5–6 each had three teams qualify.
• Associations 7–15 (except Russia) each had two teams qualify.
• Associations 16–55 (except Liechtenstein) each had one team qualify.
• The winners of the 2021–22 UEFA Champions League and 2021–22 UEFA Europa League were each given an additional entry if they did not qualify for the 2022–23 UEFA Champions League through their domestic league.

Association ranking

For the 2022–23 UEFA Champions League, the associations were allocated places according to their 2021 UEFA association coefficients, which took into account their performance in European competitions from 2016–17 to 2020–21.^[5]

Apart from the allocation based on the association coefficients, associations could have additional teams participating in the Champions League, as noted below:

• – Additional berth for UEFA Europa League title holders

Association ranking for 2022–23 UEFA Champions League

Rank Association Coeff. Teams Notes 1 100.569 align=center rowspan=4 4 2 97.855 3 75.438 4 73.570 5 56.081 align=center rowspan=2 3 6 48.549 7 39.200 2 8 38.382 0 9 36.500 align=center rowspan=7 2 10 35.825 11 33.375 12 33.100 13 30.100 14 27.875 15 27.750 16 26.750 align=center rowspan=4 1 17 26.600 18 26.275 19 26.225

Rank Association Coeff. Teams Notes 20 26.000 align=center rowspan=13 1 21 24.375 22 21.000 23 20.500 24 20.375 25 18.200 26 16.875 27 15.625 28 15.500 29 15.250 30 15.125 31 14.250 32 13.625 33 9.000 0 34 8.750 align=center rowspan=5 1 35 8.250 36 8.000 37 7.875 38 7.625

Rank Association Coeff. Teams Notes 39 7.375 align=center rowspan=17 1 40 7.375 41 7.250 42 6.958 43 6.875 44 6.875 45 6.875 46 6.375 47 6.125 48 5.833 49 5.666 50 5.000 51 5.000 52 4.875 53 4.750 54 3.331 55 1.166

Distribution

The following is the access list for this season.^[6]

Access list for 2022–23 UEFA Champions League

		Teams entering in this round	Teams advancing from previous round
Preliminary round (4 teams)		4 champions from associations 52–55
First qualifying round (30 teams)		29 champions from associations 22–51 (except Liechtenstein)	1 winner from the preliminary round
Second qualifying round (24 teams)	Champions Path (20 teams)	5 champions from associations 17–21	15 winners from the first qualifying round
	League Path (4 teams)	4 runners-up from associations 12–15
Third qualifying round (20 teams)	Champions Path (12 teams)	2 champions from associations 15–16	10 winners from the second qualifying round (Champions Path)
	League Path (8 teams)	4 runners-up from associations 7–11 (except Russia) 2 third-placed teams from associations 5–6	2 winners from the second qualifying round (League Path)
Play-off round (12 teams)	Champions Path (8 teams)	2 champions from associations 13–14	6 winners from the third qualifying round (Champions Path)
	League Path (4 teams)		4 winners from the third qualifying round (League Path)
Group stage (32 teams)		Europa League title holder 11 champions from associations 1–12 (except Russia) 6 runners-up from associations 1–6 4 third-placed teams from associations 1–4 4 fourth-placed teams from associations 1–4	4 winners from the play-off round (Champions Path) 2 winners from the play-off round (League Path)
Knockout phase (16 teams)			8 group winners from the group stage 8 group runners-up from the group stage

Due to the suspension of Russia for the 2022–23 European season, the following changes to the access list were made:^[7]

• The champions of association 11 (Scotland) enter the group stage instead of the play-off round (Champions Path).
• The champions of association 13 (Turkey) enter the play-off round instead of the third qualifying round (Champions Path).
• The champions of association 15 (Cyprus) enter the third qualifying round instead of the second qualifying round (Champions Path).
• The champions of associations 18 (Croatia) and 19 (Switzerland) enter the second qualifying round instead of the first qualifying round (Champions Path).
• The runners-up of associations 10 (Austria) and 11 (Scotland) enter the third qualifying round instead of the second qualifying round (League Path).

Since the Champions League title holders (Real Madrid) qualified via their domestic league, the following changes to the access list were made:^[7]

• The champions of association 12 (Ukraine) enter the group stage instead of the play-off round (Champions Path).
• The champions of association 14 (Denmark) enter the play-off round instead of the third qualifying round (Champions Path).
• The champions of association 16 (Serbia) enter the third qualifying round instead of the second qualifying round (Champions Path).
• The champions of associations 20 (Greece) and 21 (Israel) enter the second qualifying round instead of the first qualifying round (Champions Path).

Teams

The labels in the parentheses show how each team qualified for the place of its starting round:

• TH: Champions League title holders
• EL: Europa League title holders
• 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc.: League positions of the previous season
• Abd-: League positions of abandoned season as determined by the national association; all teams were subject to approval by UEFA

The second qualifying round, third qualifying round and play-off round were divided into Champions Path (CH) and League Path (LP).

CC: 2022 UEFA club coefficients.^[8]

Notes

Schedule

The schedule of the competition was as follows. All matches were played on Tuesdays and Wednesdays apart from the preliminary round final and the final. Scheduled kick-off times starting from the play-off round were 18:45 and 21:00 CEST/CET.^[9]

As the 2022 FIFA World Cup took place in Qatar between 20 November and 18 December 2022, the group stage commenced in the first week of September 2022 and concluded in the first week of November 2022 to make way for the World Cup.

The draws for the qualifying round started at 12:00 CEST/CET and were held at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.^[10] The group stage draw took place in Istanbul, Turkey.^[11]

Schedule for 2022–23 UEFA Champions League^{[12] [13]}

Phase	Round	Draw date	First leg	Second leg
Qualifying	Preliminary round	7 June 2022	21 June 2022 (semi-finals)	24 June 2022 (final)
	First qualifying round	14 June 2022	5–6 July 2022	12–13 July 2022
	Second qualifying round	15 June 2022	19–20 July 2022	26–27 July 2022
	Third qualifying round	18 July 2022	2–3 August 2022	9 August 2022
Play-offs	Play-off round	2 August 2022	16–17 August 2022	23–24 August 2022
Group stage	Matchday 1	25 August 2022	6–7 September 2022
	Matchday 2		13–14 September 2022
	Matchday 3		4–5 October 2022
	Matchday 4		11–12 October 2022
	Matchday 5		25–26 October 2022
	Matchday 6		1–2 November 2022
Knockout phase	Round of 16	7 November 2022	14–15 & 21–22 February 2023	7–8 & 14–15 March 2023
	Quarter-finals	17 March 2023	11–12 April 2023	18–19 April 2023
	Semi-finals		9–10 May 2023	16–17 May 2023
	Final		10 June 2023 at Atatürk Olympic Stadium, Istanbul

Qualifying rounds

Third qualifying round

Group stage

See main article: 2022–23 UEFA Champions League group stage.

The draw for the group stage was held on 25 August 2022. The 32 teams were drawn into eight groups of four. For the draw, the teams were seeded into four pots, each of eight teams, based on the following principles:

• Pot 1 contained the Champions League and Europa League title holders, and the champions of the top six associations based on their 2021 UEFA country coefficients. Since the Champions League title holders, Real Madrid, were also the champions of Association 2 (Spain), the champions of Association 7 (Netherlands), Ajax, were seeded into Pot 1.
• Pots 2, 3 and 4 contained the remaining teams, seeded based on their 2022 UEFA club coefficients (CC).^[14]

Teams from the same association could not be drawn into the same group.

Eintracht Frankfurt made their debut appearance in the group stage (and first appearance in the European Cup since their loss in the 1960 final) after winning the 2021–22 UEFA Europa League and, as a result, this was the first time that five German clubs played in the group stage.

A total of 15 national associations were represented in the group stage. This season was the first since the 1995–96 edition in which a Turkish side failed to qualify for the group stage. It was also the first time since the 2007–08 season that two Scottish sides qualified for the group stage.

Group H

Knockout phase

See main article: 2022–23 UEFA Champions League knockout phase.

In the knockout phase, teams played against each other over two legs on a home-and-away basis, except for the one-match final.

Final

Statistics

Statistics exclude qualifying rounds and play-off round.

Top goalscorers

Rank^[15]	Player	Team	Goals	Minutes played
1	Erling Haaland	Manchester City	12	845
2	Mohamed Salah	Liverpool	8	624
3	Kylian Mbappé	Paris Saint-Germain	7	651
	Vinícius Júnior	Real Madrid		975
5	João Mário	Benfica	6	865
6	Victor Osimhen	Napoli	5	424
	Robert Lewandowski	Barcelona		442
	Mehdi Taremi	Porto		613
	Rodrygo	Real Madrid		824
	Rafa Silva	Benfica		826
	Olivier Giroud	Milan		939

Team of the season

The UEFA technical study group selected the following players as the team of the tournament.^[16]

	Player	Team
	Thibaut Courtois	Real Madrid
	Kyle Walker	Manchester City
	Rúben Dias	Manchester City
	Alessandro Bastoni	Inter Milan
	Federico Dimarco	Inter Milan
	John Stones	Manchester City
	Kevin De Bruyne	Manchester City
	Rodri	Manchester City
	Bernardo Silva	Manchester City
	Erling Haaland	Manchester City
	Vinícius Júnior	Real Madrid

Player of the Season

• Rodri (Manchester City)^[17]

Young Player of the Season

• Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (Napoli)^[18]

See also

• 2022–23 UEFA Europa League
• 2022–23 UEFA Europa Conference League
• 2023 UEFA Super Cup
• 2022–23 UEFA Women's Champions League
• 2022–23 UEFA Youth League

Notes and References

1. International match calendar and access list for 2022/23 . UEFA Circular Letter . Union of European Football Associations . 51/2021 . 19 July 2021 . 5 November 2021.
2. Web site: Man City win Champions League: Rodri goal secures victory against Inter and completes treble . UEFA . 10 June 2023 . 10 June 2023 . 11 June 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230611095758/https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/65845807 . live .
3. Web site: Man City 1–0 Inter Milan in Champions League final to claim Treble . . 10 June 2023 . 10 June 2023.
4. Web site: 2022 . Regulations of the UEFA Champions League, 2022/23 Season . 30 April 2021 . . Nyon.
5. Web site: Association coefficients 2020/21 . UEFA.com . Union of European Football Associations . 20 August 2021 . 29 November 2021 . 2 November 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20211102093931/https://www.uefa.com/memberassociations/uefarankings/country/#/yr/2021 . live .
6. Web site: Access list 2021–24 . UEFA.com . Union of European Football Associations . 16 February 2020 . 4 December 2018 . https://web.archive.org/web/20181204074949/https://www.uefa.com/MultimediaFiles/Download/uefaorg/General/02/58/61/42/2586142_DOWNLOAD.pdf . live .
7. UEFA decisions for upcoming competitions relating to the ongoing suspension of Russian national teams and clubs . UEFA. Nyon. 2 May 2022 . 2 May 2022.
8. Web site: Club coefficients 2021/22 . UEFA.com . Union of European Football Associations .
9. Web site: Format change for 2020/21 UEFA Nations League . UEFA.com . Union of European Football Associations . 24 September 2019 . 17 February 2020 . 26 September 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190926223650/https://www.uefa.com/insideuefa/about-uefa/news/newsid=2625412.html . live .
10. News: 2022 European football calendar: Match and draw dates for all UEFA competitions . UEFA.com . Union of European Football Associations. 1 January 2022 . 6 January 2022.
11. News: Venues appointed for club competition finals . UEFA.com . Union of European Football Associations . 16 July 2021 . 16 July 2021.
12. International match calendar and access list for 2022/23 . UEFA Circular Letter . Union of European Football Associations . 51/2021 . 19 July 2021 . 5 November 2021.
13. Web site: Champions league fixtures. Lootrs. 12 Jan 2023. Mahesh. Patel. 12 Jan 2023.
14. Web site: UEFA 5-year Club Ranking 2022. kassiesa.net. Union of European Football Associations. 5 August 2022.
15. Web site: UEFA Champions League – Top Scorers. UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 10 June 2023.
16. News: 2022/23 UEFA Champions League Team of the Season. UEFA.com . Union of European Football Associations . 11 June 2023. 11 June 2023.
17. News: 11 June 2023. Rodri named 2022/23 UEFA Champions League Player of the Season. 11 June 2023. UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations.
18. News: 11 June 2023. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia named 2022/23 UEFA Champions League Young Player of the Season. 11 June 2023. UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations.