UEFA Champions League group stage by numbers

The UEFA Champions League group stage provided excitement in abundance, right down to the last whistle on matchday six. A number of records were broken, landmarks reached and eyebrows raised, as UEFA.com recaps.

0: Three clubs failed to earn a point: Villarreal CF, FC Oţelul Galaţi and GNK Dinamo Zagreb. The other 12 to have lost all six group matches are: MŠK Žilina and FK Partizan (2010/11), Maccabi Haifa FC and Debreceni VSC (2009/10), FC Dynamo Kyiv (2007/08), PFC Levski Sofia (2006/07), SK Rapid Wien (2005/06), RSC Anderlecht (2004/05), FC Spartak Moskva and Bayer 04 Leverkusen (2002/03, first and second group stage respectively), Fenerbahçe SK (2001/02, first group stage) and 1. FC Košice (1997/98).

1: APOEL FC caused a stir when they became the first Cypriot team to reach the last 16. Ivan Jovanović’s squad defied expectations by not only emerging from a section containing three recent UEFA Cup/UEFA Europa League winners in FC Zenit St Petersburg, FC Porto and FC Shakhtar Donetsk, but by also winning it. Like APOEL, Zenit also qualified in what is their second group stage campaign, while SSC Napoli progressed at the first attempt.

3: Assists provided by FC Barcelona winger Isaac Cuenca in 182 minutes of group stage action. Consider that the 20-year-old did not make his European debut until the closing stages of the holders’ 2-0 defeat of FC Viktoria Plzeň on matchday four and the statistic is all the more impressive.

5: Real Madrid CF became the fifth team to win all six games in a UEFA Champions League group stage, after AC Milan (1992/93), Paris Saint-Germain FC (1994/95), Spartak (1995/96) and Barcelona (2002/03, first group stage).

7: Minutes it took Bafétimbi Gomis to score three goals against Dinamo Zagreb in Olympique Lyonnais’s 7-1 away win on matchday six and break Mike Newell’s 16-year-old record for the fastest hat-trick in the competition. The France striker would add one more, with 20 minutes left, thereby becoming only the seventh player to score four goals in a UEFA Champions League fixture.

10.84: Any latecomers to Mestalla on matchday four would have missed Jonas scoring the second fastest UEFA Champions League goal. The Brazilian international calmly capitalised on a weak clearance from Leverkusen goalkeeper Bernd Leno to curl in a welcome confidence boost for Valencia CF as they went on to record a 3-1 Group E triumph.

16: When Ryan Giggs fired past Artur in Manchester United FC’s 1-1 draw with SL Benfica in September, not only did he beat the mark he established last term as the oldest UEFA Champions League scorer − now 37 years and 289 days − but the midfielder became the first man to score in 16 separate seasons of the competition.

20: The number of goals scored by Barcelona, matching the record set by United in 1998/99. Madrid found the net 19 times, equalling Barça’s total in the 1999/2000 first group stage.

22: Goals conceded by Dinamo Zagreb, more than any other team in UEFA Champions League history. The previous highest goals against total was 19, shared by Žilina (2010/11), Debrecen (2009/10), Dynamo (2007/08) and Ferencvárosi TC in 1995/96.

25: Wayne Rooney reached a significant European landmark on matchday three, with the first of his two penalties against Oţelul taking him to 25 UEFA Champions League efforts – more than any other English player has achieved in the competition.

162: Days until the final at the Fußball Arena München on 19 May 2012.

from: http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/news/newsid=1731760.html

The Trophy

The current UEFA Champions League Trophy, which stands 73.5cm tall and weighs 8.5kg, is the sixth overall and dates back to 2006.

A rule introduced in the 1968/69 season allowed the cup to become the property of any club which won the competition five times or three years in a row. That means Real Madrid CF, AFC Ajax, FC Bayern München, AC Milan and, since 2005, Liverpool FC all have an original in their trophy rooms. Under new regulations, any club which wins the trophy three consecutive times or five times in total receives a special mark of recognition, with the club then starting a new cycle from zero.

The trophy that the winning captain will lift at Wembley Stadium in London is the fifth version of the current design. After Real Madrid were allowed to keep the original in 1967, UEFA’s General Secretary, Hans Bangerter, decided to create a new design and called in a local specialist in Berne, Jürg Stadelmann.

“My father Hans and I went along to Herr Bangerter’s office and covered the whole floor with the drawings,” recalled Stadelmann. “He made comments like, ‘The Bulgarians would like the bottom of that. The Spaniards would like that, but the Italians would prefer that and the Germans would go for this bit.’ We put the design together like a jigsaw puzzle. It was a design constituted of many parts yet I like it and I think everyone in football likes it as well.

“I remember that it had to be finished before 28 March,” Stadelmann added, “because I was getting married and taking my wife on a ten-day boat trip to Los Angeles. The trophy took 340 hours to make. I did the finer work, then it was finished off by the engraver, Fred Bänninger. On time, I am glad to say.”

Competition format

The UEFA Champions League, UEFA’s most prestigious club competition, underwent a series of significant changes in 2009/10 following a decision from the UEFA Executive Committee in November 2007. This format remains in place for 2011/12.

The main points were:

• No changes to the format of the main competition, which still involves 32 teams, split into eight groups of four in the group stage, followed by the knockout phase. The eight teams that finish the groups in third place cross over into the UEFA Europa League knockout phase.

• The 2009/10 access list was changed according to the following principles: 22 teams (21 teams + the titleholder) qualify directly for the group stage instead of 16. The three national associations with the highest UEFA coefficient ranking each had three teams gain automatic entry to the group stage, with the countries ranked 4 to 6 in the standings having two automatic qualifiers and the associations ranked 7 to 13 having one.

• Since 2009/10 there have been four qualifying rounds (including a play-off round), played in home-and-away ties, to complete the 32 participants in the UEFA Champions League group stage. There are two qualifying routes; the Champions Route and the League Route.

• Champions Route: The first qualifying round comprises two two-legged ties involving the champions of the countries ranked 50 to 53 in UEFA competition. The winners of those ties progress to the second qualifying round where they are joined by the champions of the 32 countries ranked 17 to 49 (except Liechtenstein). The victorious sides from those 17 ties join the champions from the associations ranked 14 to 16 in the third qualifying round, with the winners of those ten pairings reaching the play-off round. These five play-off ties will take place on a home-and-away basis with the winners qualifying for the UEFA Champions League group stage.

• League Route: The third-placed side from the sixth-ranked member association, plus the runners-up from the associations ranked 7 to 15, start the competition in the third qualifying round. The winners of these five ties progress to the play-off round, where they are joined by the fourth-placed sides from the associations ranked 1 to 3 and the third-placed teams from the associations ranked 4 and 5. The victorious teams from the five play-off ties qualify for the UEFA Champions League group stage.

• Teams from the Champions Route and the League Route cannot meet in UEFA Champions League qualifying.

• The losing team from each of the UEFA Champions League third qualifying round ties will go into the UEFA Europa League play-offs.

• The losing team from each of the UEFA Champions League play-off ties will go into the UEFA Europa League group stage.

• The team who finishes in third position in each of the UEFA Champions League groups goes into the UEFA Europa League Round of 32. The four best third-ranked teams will be seeded for the Round of 32 with the group winners of the UEFA Europa League group stage.

• The matches in the UEFA Champions League first knockout round will be split over four weeks instead of two, using dates reserved for the UEFA club competition in February and March to maximise live match opportunities.

• The final is to be played on a Saturday, with kick-off time at 20.45 CET.

• The UEFA Champions League play-off rounds will be centrally marketed by UEFA in accordance with the concept already used for the group stage.

2012 final: Fußball Arena München

Home to FC Bayern München and TSV 1860 München, the Fußball Arena München will host the 2012 UEFA Champions League final following a decision made by the UEFA Executive Committee in January 2009. The showpiece will take place on Saturday 19 May 2012.

• The Fußball Arena München took less than three years to build from start to finish, and was completed on 30 April 2005. It was conceived following a referendum in October 2001 when 65.8% of Munich’s citizens voted to construct a new arena rather than regenerate the Olympiastadion, venue for the 1972 summer Olympic Games and previous home of Bayern and 1860 München.

• A year to the day after that vote, work commenced on the stadium, including the construction of the unique exterior. The Fußball Arena München’s transparent outer wall is comprised of foil panels which are lit from the inside and can change colour depending on who is playing; red for Bayern, blue for 1860 München and white for Germany.

• The arena opened its doors to competitive football on 5 August 2005 when a full house of 66,000 watched Bayern defeat VfL Borussia Mönchengladbach 3-0. In January 2006, city authorities approved a 3,901 increase in capacity which means the stadium can now house 69,901 supporters. Some of these reside in standing terraces which are created for domestic games by converting 10,400 seats in each of the north and south stands.

• Located on Werner-Heisenberg-Allee – named after famous German atomic physicist and 1932 Nobel Prize for Physics winner Werner Heisenberg – the Fußball Arena München played host to the opening game of the 2006 FIFA World Cup, Germany’s 4-2 victory against Costa Rica. A further five matches in the tournament were played at the arena, including France’s 1-0 semi-final win against Portugal.

• While some 106 VIP boxes, 400 media seats and 11,000 parking spaces cater for those attending the game, the players make do with two warm-up rooms, a nursery and four changing rooms – one each for Bayern, 1860 München and their respective opponents.

• The Olympiastadion hosted three European Champion Clubs’ Cup finals. Trevor Francis’s strike earned Nottingham Forest FC victory against Malmö FF in 1979 and there was also only one goal in it 24 years later when Olympique de Marseille beat AC Milan to claim the inaugural UEFA Champions League title. In 1997 two Karl-Heinz Riedle efforts set BV Borussia Dortmund on course for a 3-1 win against Juventus.

From: http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/season=2012/final/index.html