2023–24 UEFA Women's Champions League qualifying rounds explained

The 2023–24 UEFA Women's Champions League qualifying rounds began on 6 September and ended on 18 October 2023.[1]

A total of 66 teams competed in the group stage qualifying rounds of the 2023–24 UEFA Women's Champions League, which included two rounds, with 44 teams in the Champions Path and 22 teams in the League Path. The 12 winners in the round 2 (seven from Champions Path, five from League Path) advanced to the group stage, to join the four teams that entered in that round.

Times are CEST (UTC+2), as listed by UEFA (local times, if different, are in parentheses).

Teams

Champions Path

The Champions Path included all league champions which do not qualified directly for the group stage, and consisted of the following rounds:

Below are the participating teams of the Champions Path (with their 2023 UEFA club coefficients),[2] grouped by the starting rounds.

Round 2
width=200Teamwidth=50
Slavia Prague39.233
Rosengård33.399
Roma21.000
Round 1
width=200Teamwidth=50
St. Pölten30.050
Glasgow City29.100
BIIK Shymkent25.700
Benfica22.800
Zürich22.250
Ajax18.400
Vllaznia16.800
Spartak Subotica16.800
Anderlecht14.400
SFK 200013.800
Køge12.150
Vorskla Poltava12.000
Apollon Ladies11.800
Gintra11.400
Valur10.200
Ferencváros9.900
U Olimpia Cluj9.600
Mura9.000
Dinamo Minsk7.200
Breznica7.200
Brann7.100
PAOK6.400
Osijek6.100
Flora5.600
Racing Union5.400
KuPS5.200
Birkirkara4.800
Kiryat Gat4.600
SFK Rīga4.200
3.600
Agarista Anenii Noi3.600
Shelbourne3.500
Spartak Myjava3.300
EP-COM Hajvalia2.900
Lokomotiv Stara Zagora2.800
Samegrelo2.000
Katowice1.900
Ljuboten1.600
Fomget Gençlik1.500
Cardiff City1.100
Cliftonville0.900

League Path

The League Path included all league non-champions and consisted of the following rounds:

Below are the participating teams of the League Path (with their 2022 UEFA club coefficients),[2] grouped by the starting rounds.

Round 2
width=200Teamwidth=50
VfL Wolfsburg104.333
Paris Saint-Germain97.166
Real Madrid37.233
Sparta Prague27.233
BK Häcken22.399
Manchester United12.366
Round 1
width=200Teamwidth=50
Arsenal56.366
Juventus43.000
Brøndby29.650
FC Minsk22.200
Paris FC18.166
Eintracht Frankfurt17.333
Levante17.233
Twente15.400
Linköping13.399
Vålerenga12.100
Slovácko7.233
Sturm Graz6.550
Okzhetpes5.700
Celtic5.100
Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih4.000
Stjarnan3.700

Format

Round 1 consisted of mini-tournaments with two semi-finals, a final and a third-place play-off hosted by one of the participating teams. If the score was level at the end of normal time, extra time would have been played, and if the same number of goals was scored by both teams during extra time, the tie would have been decided by a penalty shoot-out. Round 2 was played over two legs, with each team playing one leg at home. The team that scored more goals on aggregate over the two legs advance to the next round. If the aggregate score was level at the end of normal time of the second leg, extra time would have been played, and if the same number of goals was scored by both teams at the end of normal time, the tie would have been decided by a penalty shoot-out. An additional preliminary round consisting of two-legged home-and-away matches would have been played by the champions from the lowest-ranked associations if more than 50 associations had entered the tournament and the title holders had not qualified through league position. Since only 50 associations entered, this round was skipped.[1]

In the draws for each round, teams were seeded based on their UEFA club coefficients at the beginning of the season, with the teams divided into seeded and unseeded pots containing the same number of teams. Prior to the draws, UEFA may form "groups" in accordance with the principles set by the Club Competitions Committee, but they were purely for convenience of the draw and did not resemble any real groupings in the sense of the competition. Teams from associations with political conflicts as decided by UEFA were not drawn into the same tie. After the draws, the order of legs of a tie could have been reversed by UEFA due to scheduling or venue conflicts.

Schedule

The schedule of the competition was as follows (all draws were held at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland).[3]

RoundDraw dateFirst legSecond leg
Round 130 June 20236 September 2023 (semi-finals)9 September 2023 (third-place play-off & final)
Round 215 September 202310–11 October 202318–19 October 2023

Round 1

Seeding

The draw for Round 1 was held on 30 June 2023.[4]

Seeding of teams for the semi-final round was based on their 2023 UEFA club coefficients,[2] with 22 seeded teams and 19 unseeded teams in the Champions Path, and eight seeded teams and eight unseeded teams in the League Path. Teams were drawn into two semi-finals within each four team group and, for the groups with three teams, the team with the highest coefficient was given a bye to the final. In the semi-finals, seeded teams were considered the "home" team, while in the third-place play-offs and finals, the teams with the highest coefficients were considered the "home" team for administrative purposes. Due to political reasons, teams from the following associations could not be drawn into the same group: Kosovo / Bosnia and Herzegovina; Kosovo / Serbia; Kosovo / Russia; Ukraine / Belarus.

Champions Path
width=50%Seededwidth=50%Unseeded
valign=topvalign=top
League Path
width=50%Seededwidth=50%Unseeded
valign=topvalign=top

Champions Path

Tournament 1

Bracket

Hosted by U Olimpia Cluj.

Semi-finals

----

Final

Tournament 2

Bracket

Hosted by SFK 2000.

Semi-finals

----

Final

Tournament 3

Bracket

Hosted by Mura.

Semi-finals

----

Final

Tournament 4

Bracket

Hosted by Køge.

Semi-finals

----

Final

Tournament 5

Bracket

Hosted by Katowice.

Semi-finals

----

Final

Tournament 6

Bracket

Hosted by Benfica.

Semi-finals

----

Final

Tournament 7

Bracket

Hosted by Vllaznia.

Semi-finals

----

Final

Tournament 8

Bracket

Hosted by Gintra.

Semi-finals

----

Final

Tournament 9

Bracket

Hosted by St. Pölten.

Final

Tournament 10

Bracket

Hosted by Agarista Anenii Noi.

Final

Tournament 11

Bracket

Hosted by Birkirkara.

Final

League Path

Tournament 1

Bracket

Hosted by Twente.

Semi-finals

----

Final

Tournament 2

Bracket

Hosted by Eintracht Frankfurt.

Semi-finals

----

Final

Tournament 3

Bracket

Hosted by Linköping.

Semi-finals

----

Final

Tournament 4

Bracket

Hosted by Vålerenga.

Semi-finals

----

Final

Round 2

Seeding

A total of 24 teams played in Round 2. The draw took place on 15 September 2023.[5] [6]

Seeding of teams was based on their 2023 UEFA club coefficients,[2] with seven seeded and unseeded teams in the Champions Path, and five seeded and unseeded teams in the League Path. Teams were drawn into two-legged-ties, where the first drawn team played the first leg at home and teams from the same association could not be drawn against each other.

Champions Path
width=50%Seededwidth=50%Unseeded
valign=topvalign=top
League Path
width=50%Seededwidth=50%Unseeded
valign=topvalign=top

Summary

The first legs were played on 10 and 11 October, and the second legs on 18 October 2023.

The winners of the ties advanced to the group stage.

|+Champions Path|}|+League Path|}

Champions Path

Benfica won 11–0 on aggregate.----Ajax won 8–0 on aggregate.----Roma won 9–1 on aggregate.----St. Pölten won 4–1 on aggregate.----Slavia Prague won 11–0 on aggregate.----Brann won 6–0 on aggregate.----Rosengård won 7–2 on aggregate.

League Path

BK Häcken won 4–3 on aggregate.----Real Madrid won 5–1 on aggregate.----Eintracht Frankfurt won 8–0 on aggregate.----Paris FC won 5–3 on aggregate.----Paris Saint-Germain won 4–2 on aggregate.

Notes and References

  1. Web site: 2023/24 Women's Champions League: Dates, provisional access list, full guide. UEFA. 2 November 2022.
  2. Web site: Women's association club coefficients 2022/23 . UEFA . 28 June 2023. 28 June 2023.
  3. Web site: 3 May 2022. Womens Champions league dates access list full guide. UEFA.
  4. Web site: Women's Champions League round 1 draw. UEFA. 30 June 2023.
  5. Web site: Women's Champions League round 2 draw: 15 September. UEFA. 9 September 2022.
  6. Web site: Women's Champions League round 2 draw. UEFA. 15 September 2022.