2012–13 UEFA Champions League

The 2012–13 UEFA Champions League was the 58th season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 21st season since it was renamed from the European Champion Clubs' Cup to the UEFA Champions League.

The final was played at Wembley Stadium in London, England, in recognition of the 150th anniversary of the formation of England's Football Association, the world's oldest football association. It came just two years after Wembley hosted the final in 2011, making it the seventh occasion Wembley Stadium (current and old) had hosted the Champions League final. Bayern Munich, who had been runners-up in the previous season, beat Bundesliga rivals Borussia Dortmund 2–1 to win their fifth title in the competition. It was the first all-German final and the fourth final to feature two teams from the same association, after the finals of 2000, 2003 and 2008.

The defending champions, Chelsea, were eliminated in the group stage, becoming the first title holders to leave the competition at this stage. They went on to win the 2013 UEFA Europa League final, and became the first team to win the Europa League as the holders of the Champions League.

Association team allocation
A total of 76 teams from 52 of the 53 UEFA member associations participate in the 2012–13 UEFA Champions League (the exception being Liechtenstein, which do not organise a domestic league). The association ranking based on the UEFA country coefficients is used to determine the number of participating teams for each association: Because the winners of the 2011–12 UEFA Champions League, Chelsea, failed to qualify for the 2012–13 UEFA Champions League through their domestic league (finishing sixth in the Premier League), and because of the restriction that no association can have more than four teams playing in the Champions League, Chelsea's entry in the 2012–13 UEFA Champions League as title holders came at the expense of Tottenham Hotspur, the fourth-placed team of the 2011–12 Premier League (who entered the Europa League instead).
 * Associations 1–3 each have four teams qualify
 * Associations 4–6 each have three teams qualify
 * Associations 7–15 each have two teams qualify
 * Associations 16–53 (except Liechtenstein) each have one team qualify

Association ranking
For the 2012–13 UEFA Champions League, the associations are allocated places according to their 2011 UEFA country coefficients, which takes into account their performance in European competitions from 2006–07 to 2010–11.

Distribution
Tottenham Hotspur were due to enter the Champions League play-off round for non-champions, but instead entered the Europa League because Chelsea won the Champions League the previous season. As this spot in the play-off round was vacated, the following change to the default allocation system was made to compensate:
 * The third-placed team of association 6 (Portugal) and the runners-up of association 7 (Russia) were promoted from the third qualifying round to the play-off round

Teams
League positions of the previous season qualified via league position shown in parentheses. Chelsea qualified as title holders. (TH: Champions League title holders; EL: Europa League title holders).


 * Notes

Round and draw dates
All draws were held at UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland unless stated otherwise.

Qualifying rounds
In the qualifying rounds and the play-off round, teams were divided into seeded and unseeded teams based on their 2012 UEFA club coefficients,  and then drawn into two-legged home-and-away ties. Teams from the same association could not be drawn against each other.

First qualifying round
The draws for the first and second qualifying rounds were held on 25 June 2012. The first legs were played on 3 July and the second legs were played on 10 July 2012.

Second qualifying round
The first legs were played on 17 and 18 July and the second legs were played on 24 and 25 July 2012.

Third qualifying round
The third qualifying round was split into two separate sections: one for champions (Champions Route) and one for non-champions (League Route). The losing teams in both sections entered the Europa League play-off round.

The draw for the third qualifying round was held on 20 July 2012. The first legs were played on 31 July and 1 August and the second legs were played on 7 and 8 August 2012.

Play-off round
The play-off round was split into two separate sections: one for champions (Champions Route) and one for non-champions (League Route). The losing teams in both sections entered the Europa League group stage.

The draw for the play-off round was held on 10 August 2012. The first legs were played on 21 and 22 August, and the second legs were played on 28 and 29 August 2012.

Group stage
The draw for the group stage was held in Monaco on 30 August 2012. The 32 teams were allocated into four pots based on their 2012 UEFA club coefficients,  with the title holders, Chelsea, being placed in Pot 1 automatically. They were drawn into eight groups of four, with the restriction that teams from the same association could not be drawn against each other.

In each group, teams played against each other home-and-away in a round-robin format. The matchdays were 18–19 September, 2–3 October, 23–24 October, 6–7 November, 20–21 November and 4–5 December 2012. The group winners and runners-up advanced to the round of 16, while the third-placed teams entered the Europa League round of 32.

A total of 17 national associations were represented in the group stage. Montpellier, Nordsjælland and Málaga made their debut appearances in the group stage.

See here for tiebreakers if two or more teams are equal on points

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. The mechanism of the draws for each round is as follows:
 * In the draw for the round of 16, the eight group winners were seeded and the eight group runners-up were unseeded. The seeded teams were drawn against the unseeded teams, with the seeded teams hosting the second leg. Teams from the same group or the same association could not be drawn against each other
 * In the draws for the quarter-finals onwards, there were no seedings, and teams from the same group or the same association could be drawn against each other

Round of 16
The draw for the round of 16 was held on 20 December 2012. The first legs were played on 12, 13, 19 and 20 February, and the second legs were played on 5, 6, 12 and 13 March 2013.


 * }

Quarter-finals
The draw for the quarter-finals was held on 15 March 2013. The first legs were played on 2 and 3 April, and the second legs were played on 9 and 10 April 2013.


 * }

Semi-finals
The draw for the semi-finals and final (to determine the "home" team for administrative purposes) was held on 12 April 2013. The first legs were played on 23 and 24 April, and the second legs were played on 30 April and 1 May 2013.


 * }

Final
The final was played on 25 May 2013 at Wembley Stadium in London, England.

Statistics
Statistics exclude qualifying rounds and play-off round.

Top goalscorers
Source:

Prize money
For the 2012–13 season, UEFA awarded €2.1 million to each team in the play-off round. For reaching the group stage, UEFA awarded a base fee of €8.6 million. A win in the group was awarded €1 million and a draw was worth €500,000. In addition, UEFA paid teams reaching the first knockout round €3.5 million, each quarter-finalist €3.9 million, €4.9 million for each semi-finalist, €6.5 million for the runners-up and €10.5 million for the winners.


 * Playoffs: €2,100,000
 * Base fee for group stage: €8,600,000
 * Group match victory: €1,000,000
 * Group match draw: €500,000
 * Round of 16: €3,500,000
 * Quarter-finals: €3,900,000
 * Semi-finals: €4,900,000
 * Losing finalist: €6,500,000
 * Winning the Final: €10,500,000

A large part of the distributed revenue from the UEFA Champions League is linked to the "market pool", the distribution of which is determined by the value of the television market in each country. For the 2012–13 season, Juventus, who were eliminated on quarter-finals, earned nearly €65.3 million in total of which €20.5 million was prize money, compared with the €55.0 million earned by Bayern Munich, who won the tournament and was awarded with €35.9 million of prize money.