The 2003–04 UEFA Champions League group stage matches took take place between 16 September and 10 December 2003. The group stage featured teams qualified by their league positions and others who had come through qualifying.
Teams The 32 teams were divided into four pots. Pot 1 comprised the previous year's title holders Milan and the top seven clubs in the team ranking. Pot 2 contained the following eight clubs in the rankings and likewise for Pots 3 and 4. Each group contained one team from each pot. A team's seeding was determined by the UEFA coefficients.
Clubs from the same association were paired up to split the matchdays between Tuesday and Wednesday. Clubs with the same pairing letter would play on different days, ensuring that teams from the same city (e.g. Milan and Internazionale, who also share a stadium) did not play on the same day.
Group winners and runners-up advanced to the first knockout roundThird-placed teams entered the UEFA Cup at the third knockout round
+Pot 1TeamNotes Milan 97.155 Real Madrid 151.769 Manchester United 136.170 Bayern Munich 124.566 Lazio 106.155 Arsenal 105.170 Juventus 100.155 Deportivo La Coruña 98.769 +Pot 2TeamNotes Internazionale 93.155 Porto 86.791 Celta Vigo 86.769 Galatasaray 78.495 Lyon 76.734 Panathinaikos 72.391 Chelsea 70.170 PSV Eindhoven 60.749 +Pot 3TeamNotes Celtic 57.187 AEK Athens 56.391 Dynamo Kyiv 55.291 Ajax 54.749 Olympiacos 54.391 Rangers 50.187 Sparta Prague 49.975 Marseille 49.734 +Pot 4TeamNotes VfB Stuttgart 49.566 Lokomotiv Moscow 49.520 Anderlecht 49.250 Real Sociedad 47.769 Monaco 45.734 Club Brugge 44.250 Beşiktaş 33.495 Partizan 20.915 Notes
Format During the group stage, each team plays the other three teams in their group twice (home and away or at an alternative venue). The top two teams with the most points or who meet the tie-break criteria progress to the first knockout round. The third placed side entered the UEFA Cup in 2004.
Tiebreakers Based on paragraph 4.05 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: higher number of points obtained in the group matches played among the teams in question; superior goal difference from the group matches played among the teams in question; higher number of goals scored away from home in the group matches played among the teams in question; superior goal difference from all group matches played; higher number of goals scored in all group matches played; higher number of coefficient points accumulated by the club in question, as well as its association, over the previous five seasons.
Groups Times are CET/CEST, as listed by UEFA (local times, if different, are in parentheses).
Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Group E
Group F
Group G
Group H
Notes
References