| Tourney Name: | UEFA Champions League |
| Year: | 1997–98 |
| Size: | 300px |
| Dates: | Qualifying: 23 July – 27 August 1997 Competition proper: 17 September 1997 – 20 May 1998 |
| Num Teams: | Competition proper: 24 Total: 55 |
| Champion Other: | Real Madrid |
| Count: | 7 |
| Second Other: | Juventus |
| Matches: | 85 |
| Goals: | 239 |
| Attendance: | 2868568 |
| Top Scorer: | Alessandro Del Piero (Juventus) 10 goals |
| Prevseason: | 1996–97 |
| Nextseason: | 1998–99 |
The 1997–98 UEFA Champions League was the 43rd season of the UEFA Champions League, UEFA's premier club football tournament, and the sixth since its re-branding from the "European Champion Clubs' Cup" or "European Cup". The tournament was won by Real Madrid, winning for the first time in 32 years, beating 1–0 Juventus who were playing in a third consecutive final. It started a run of three victories in five seasons for the Spanish club.
This season was the first to have six groups, instead of previous four, which meant that only two group runners-up qualified for the quarter-finals as opposed to all the second-placed teams. It was also the first to have two qualifying rounds instead of just one. After three years of entering the UEFA Cup, champions of smaller nations returned to the Champions League. For the first time, the runners-up of eight domestic leagues entered into the competition.[1] With Borussia Dortmund being the title holders but finishing third in their domestic league the previous season, Germany became the first association to provide three teams to the premier European competition.
Borussia Dortmund, the defending champions, were eliminated in the semi-finals by eventual winners Real Madrid.
Armenia, Azerbaijan, Slovakia and the Republic of Macedonia all entered their champions for the first time, while the champion of Yugoslavia returned to this competition for the first time since 1991–92 season after the UN ban was lifted.
Number of teams per country as well as the starting round for each club and seeding were based on UEFA association coefficients.[2]
For the 1997–98 UEFA Champions League, the associations were allocated places according to their 1997 UEFA association coefficients, which took into account their performance in European competitions from 1992–93 to 1996–97.[2] [3]
Apart from the allocation based on the association coefficients, an association could have an additional team participating in the Champions League, as noted below:
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| Teams entering in this round | Teams advancing from previous round | |||
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| First qualifying round (30 teams) |
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| Second qualifying round (32 teams) |
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| Group stage (24 teams) |
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| Knockout phase (8 teams) |
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55 teams entered the competition: the national champions of each of the top 48 nations in the UEFA coefficient rankings (except Liechtenstein and Albania), plus the runners-up from each of the top eight nations and UEFA Champions League holders, Borussia Dortmund. The national champions of the associations ranked 1–7 (Italy, Spain, France, Germany, Netherlands, Portugal and England), plus the title holders, all received a bye to the group stage, while the national champions of the associations ranked 8–16 and the runners-up of the associations ranked 1–8 all entered in the second qualifying round. The remaining national champions from the associations ranked 17–48 entered in the first qualifying round.
The schedule of the competition is as follows (all draws are held in Geneva, Switzerland, unless stated otherwise).
| Phase | Round | Draw date | First leg | Second leg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Qualifying | First qualifying round | 9 July 1997 | 23 July 1997 | 30 July 1997 |
| Second qualifying round | 13 August 1997 | 27 August 1997 | ||
| Group stage | Matchday 1 | 29 August 1997 | 17 September 1997 | |
| Matchday 2 | 1 October 1997 | |||
| Matchday 3 | 22 October 1997 | |||
| Matchday 4 | 5 November 1997 | |||
| Matchday 5 | 26–27 November 1997 | |||
| Matchday 6 | 10 December 1997 | |||
| Knockout phase | Quarter-finals | 17 December 1997 | 4 March 1998 | 18 March 1998 |
| Semi-finals | 20 March 1998 (Lausanne) | 1 April 1998 | 15 April 1998 | |
| Final | 20 May 1998 at Amsterdam Arena, Amsterdam | |||
See main article: 1997–98 UEFA Champions League qualifying rounds.
See main article: 1997–98 UEFA Champions League group stage.
Bayer Leverkusen, Beşiktaş, Košice, Feyenoord, Lierse, Newcastle United, Olympiacos, Parma, Sparta Prague (who already qualified for the 1991-92 European Cup group stage) and Sporting CP made their debut in the group stage. Košice lost all six of their group stage matches and thus became the first team to finish a Champions League group stage with no points. They were also first team from Slovakia to play in group stage.
See main article: 1997–98 UEFA Champions League knockout stage.
