| Tourney Name: | UEFA Champions League |
| Year: | 2004–05 |
| Size: | 300px |
| Dates: | Qualifying: 13 July – 25 August 2004 Competition proper: 14 September 2004 – 25 May 2005 |
| Num Teams: | Competition proper: 32 Total: 72 |
| Champion Other: | Liverpool |
| Count: | 5 |
| Second Other: |  Milan |
| Matches: | 125 |
| Goals: | 335 |
| Attendance: | 4945419 |
| Top Scorer: | Ruud van Nistelrooy (Manchester United) 8 goals |
| Prevseason: | 2003–04 |
| Nextseason: | 2005–06 |
The 2004–05 UEFA Champions League was the 50th season of UEFA's premier European club football tournament, and the 13th since it was rebranded as the UEFA Champions League in 1992. The competition was won by Liverpool, who beat Milan on penalties in the final, having come back from 3–0 down at half-time. Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard was named as UEFA's Footballer of the Year for his key role in the final and throughout the Champions League season. The final, played at the Atatürk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul, Turkey, is often regarded as one of the best in the history of the tournament.[1] [2] [3]
As it was their fifth European Cup title, Liverpool were awarded the trophy permanently, and received the UEFA Badge of Honour.[4] [5] A new trophy was made for the 2005–06 season.
Porto were the defending champions, but were eliminated by Milan's cross-city rival Internazionale in the first knockout round.
A total of 72 teams from 48 of the 52 UEFA member associations participated in the 2004–05 UEFA Champions League (the exception being Liechtenstein, which does not organise a domestic league, Andorra and San Marino). Kazakhstan also did not participate this year as none of their clubs were able to obtain UEFA license. The association ranking based on the UEFA country coefficients was used to determine the number of participating teams for each association:[6]
For the 2004–05 UEFA Champions League, the associations are allocated places according to their 2003 UEFA country coefficients, which takes into account their performance in European competitions from 1998–1999 to 2002–03.[7]
Apart from the allocation based on the country coefficients, associations may have additional teams participating in the Champions League, as noted below:
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Since the title holders (Porto) qualified for the Champions League group stage through their domestic league, and the group stage spot reserved for the title holders is vacated, while no team from Kazakhstan was admitted, the following changes to the default access list are made:[8]
| Teams entering in this round | Teams advancing from previous round | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First qualifying round (20 teams) |
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| Second qualifying round (28 teams) |
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| Third qualifying round (32 teams) |
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| Group stage (32 teams) |
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| Knockout phase (16 teams) |
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League positions of the previous season shown in parentheses (TH: Champions League title holders).
The schedule of the competition is as follows (all draws are held at UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, unless stated otherwise).[9]
| Phase | Round | Draw date | First leg | Second leg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Qualifying | First qualifying round | 25 June 2004 | 13–14 July 2004 | 21 July 2004 |
| Second qualifying round | 27–28 July 2004 | 4 August 2004 | ||
| Third qualifying round | 30 July 2004 | 10–11 August 2004 | 24–25 August 2004 | |
| Group stage | Matchday 1 | 26 August 2004 (Monaco) | 14–15 September 2004 | |
| Matchday 2 | 28–29 September 2004 | |||
| Matchday 3 | 19–20 October 2004 | |||
| Matchday 4 | 2–3 November 2004 | |||
| Matchday 5 | 23–24 November 2004 | |||
| Matchday 6 | 7–8 December 2004 | |||
| Knockout phase | Round of 16 | 17 December 2004 | 22–23 February 2005 | 8–9 March 2005 |
| Quarter-finals | 18 March 2005 | 5–6 April 2005 | 12–13 April 2005 | |
| Semi-finals | 26–27 April 2005 | 3–4 May 2005 | ||
| Final | 25 May 2005 at Atatürk Olympic Stadium, Istanbul | |||
See main article: 2004–05 UEFA Champions League qualifying rounds.
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See main article: 2004–05 UEFA Champions League group stage.
16 winners from the third qualifying round, 10 champions from countries ranked 1–10, and six second-placed teams from countries ranked 1–6 were drawn into eight groups of four teams each. The top two teams in each group will advance to the Champions League play-offs, while the third-placed teams will advance to the third round of the UEFA Cup.
Tiebreakers, if necessary, are applied in the following order:
Maccabi Tel Aviv made their debut appearance in the group stage.
See main article: 2004–05 UEFA Champions League knockout stage.
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See main article: 2005 UEFA Champions League final. As winners of the competition, Liverpool went on to represent UEFA at the 2005 FIFA Club World Cup.
Statistics exclude qualifying rounds.
| Rank | Player | Team | Goals | Minutes played |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ruud van Nistelrooy | Manchester United | 8 | 528 |
| 2 |  Adriano | Internazionale | 7 | 548 |
| Roy Makaay | Bayern Munich | 702 | ||
| 4 |  Sylvain Wiltord | Lyon | 6 | 606 |
 Hernán Crespo | Milan | 612 | ||
 Andriy Shevchenko | Milan | 869 | ||
| 7 | Ivan Klasnić | Werder Bremen | 5 | 431 |
 Obafemi Martins | Internazionale | 510 | ||
 Tuncay | Fenerbahçe | 525 | ||
 Didier Drogba | Chelsea | 688 | ||
| Thierry Henry | Arsenal | 720 | ||
 Michael Essien | Lyon | 930 | ||
 Luis García | Liverpool | 972 |
