The UEFA Champions League is the competition for Europe’s elite club. It is always full of surprises, and it is a competition every player wants to win at the club level. Liverpool won the 2018/2019 UEFA Champions League after defeating fellow Premier League club Tottenham 2-0 in the final.
Here are ten facts about the 2019/2020 Champions League.
- The 2019/2020 UEFA Champions League is in its 65th season and the 28th season since its name was changed from European Champions Clubs’ Cup to the current name.
- The group stage matches start on the 17th of September and run every two weeks till the 11th of December.
- The knockout stages begin on the 18th of February while the final match of the 2019-2020 UEFA Champions League is on the 30th of May in the Ataturk Olimpiyat Stadium, Istanbul.
- Spain, England, Italy and Germany have four teams each; France has three teams; Russia and Belgium have two teams each while Portugal, Ukraine, Turkey, Croatia, Serbia, Greece, Czech, Netherlands and Austria has a team each for the group stage.
- Thirty-two European teams divided into eight groups will participate in the tournament. 26 teams automatically qualified for the group stage while six teams qualified through the play-off.
- The Virtual Assistant Referee (VAR) will be used for every game in the 2019/2020 Champions League this season.
- A total of 101 matches will be played in the 2019/2020 Champions League
- This will be Cristiano Ronaldo’s 15th season of featuring in the Champions League. If Juventus win it this season, he will equal Clarence Seedorf’s record of winning the competition with three different clubs. Ronaldo had previously won it with Manchester United and Real Madrid.
- Ronaldo can also equal Alfredo Di Stefano’s record of seven appearances in the final of the European Cup/Champions League, but he will need one more to equal Franciso Gento (Real Madrid) and Paolo Maldini (AC Milan)
- Napoli coach Carlo Ancelotti or Real Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane can become the first coach to win the Champion League a record four times. Ancelotti had won it in 2003 and 2007 with AC Milan and Real Madrid in 2014. Zidane won it three times in a row with Real Madrid from 2016 to 2018.
