| Tourney Name: | UEFA Champions League |
| Year: | 2008–09 |
| Size: | 275px |
| Dates: | Qualifying: 15 July – 27 August 2008 Competition proper: 16 September 2008 – 27 May 2009 |
| Num Teams: | Competition proper: 32 Total: 76 |
| Champion Other: | Barcelona |
| Count: | 3 |
| Second Other: | Manchester United |
| Matches: | 125 |
| Goals: | 329 |
| Attendance: | 5004467 |
| Top Scorer: | Lionel Messi (Barcelona) 9 goals |
| Prevseason: | 2007–08 |
| Nextseason: | 2009–10 |
The 2008–09 UEFA Champions League was the 54th edition of Europe's premier club football tournament and the 17th edition under the current UEFA Champions League format. The final was played at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, Italy, on 27 May 2009.[1] It was the eighth time the European Cup final has been held in Italy and the fourth time it has been held at the Stadio Olimpico. The final was contested by the defending champions, Manchester United, and Barcelona, who had last won the tournament in 2006. Barcelona won the match 2–0, with goals from Samuel Eto'o and Lionel Messi, securing The Treble in the process. In addition, both UEFA Cup finalists, Werder Bremen and Shakhtar Donetsk featured in the Champions League group stage.
Anorthosis of Cyprus and BATE Borisov of Belarus were the first teams from their respective countries to qualify for the group stage. Romanian side CFR Cluj and Russian champions Zenit Saint Petersburg also made their Champions League debuts.
A total of 76 teams from 52 UEFA associations (Liechtenstein organises no domestic league competition) participated in the 2008–09 Champions League. Countries are allocated places according to the 2007 UEFA league co-efficient ranking.
Below is the qualification scheme for the 2008–09 Champions League:
For the 2008–09 UEFA Champions League, the associations are allocated places according to their 2007 UEFA country coefficients, which takes into account their performance in European competitions from 2002–03 to 2006–07.[2]
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Since the title holders (Manchester United) qualified for the Champions League group stage through their domestic league, the group stage spot reserved for the title holders is vacated, and the following changes to the default access list are made:[3]
| Teams entering in this round | Teams advancing from previous round | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| First qualifying round (28 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: Title holders).[4]
| Phase | Round | Draw date | First leg | Second leg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Qualifying | First qualifying round | 1 July 2008 | 15–16 July 2008 | 22–23 July 2008 |
| Second qualifying round | 29–30 July 2008 | 5–6 August 2008 | ||
| Third qualifying round | 1 August 2008 | 12–13 August 2008 | 26–27 August 2008 | |
| Group stage | Matchday 1 | 28 August 2008 | 16–17 September 2008 | |
| Matchday 2 | 30 September–1 October 2008 | |||
| Matchday 3 | 21–22 October 2008 | |||
| Matchday 4 | 4–5 November 2008 | |||
| Matchday 5 | 25–26 November 2008 | |||
| Matchday 6 | 9–10 December 2008 | |||
| Knockout phase | Round of 16 | 19 December 2008 | 24–25 February 2009 | 10–11 March 2009 |
| Quarter-finals | 20 March 2009 | 7–8 April 2009 | 14–15 April 2009 | |
| Semi-finals | 28–29 April 2009 | 5–6 May 2009 | ||
| Final | 27 May 2009 at Stadio Olimpico, Rome | |||
See main article: 2008–09 UEFA Champions League qualifying rounds.
See main article: 2008–09 UEFA Champions League group stage.
The draw for the group stage took place on 28 August 2008 at the Grimaldi Forum, Monaco, prior to the 2008 UEFA Super Cup the following day.[5]
The top two teams in each group advanced to the knockout phase, and the third-placed teams entered the round of 32 of the UEFA Cup. Based on paragraph 6.05 in the UEFA regulations for the current season, if two or more teams are equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following criteria are applied to determine the rankings:
Zenit St. Petersburg, BATE Borisov, CFR Cluj and Anorthosis were making their debuts in the group stage.[6]
See main article: 2008–09 UEFA Champions League knockout phase. In the knockout stage, teams played against each other over two legs on a home-and-away basis, except for the one-match final.The mechanism of the draws for each round was as follows:
Statistics exclude qualifying rounds.
| Rank | Player | Team | Goals | Minutes played |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Lionel Messi | Barcelona | 9 | 982 |
| 2 | Steven Gerrard | Liverpool | 7 | 580 |
| Miroslav Klose | Bayern Munich | 680 | ||
| 4 | Lisandro López | Porto | 6 | 943 |
| 5 | Emmanuel Adebayor | Arsenal | 5 | 627 |
 Alessandro Del Piero | Juventus | 688 | ||
 Didier Drogba | Chelsea | 702 | ||
| Robin van Persie | Arsenal | 716 | ||
 Thierry Henry | Barcelona | 717 | ||
| Karim Benzema | Lyon | 731 |