It’s time for Champions League Betting! On July 9, the qualifying phase and play-off round for the 2024-25 UEFA Champions League got underway, a process that will continue to August 28.
Overall, 52 teams will take part in the qualifying system, 42 teams in the Champions Path and 10 in the League Path.
The seven winners from the playoff round (five from the Champions Path and two from the League Path) will go on to the league phase, to join the 29 teams that had already qualified.
Let’s talk about the new format in place for this year, as well as the schedule and some teams that may end up surprising the sports betting community.
UEFA Champions League Betting 2024-25: Dates to Watch & Teams that Will Surprise You
Qualification Format
The Champions Path and the League Path contain teams attempting to qualify for the Champions League.
The Champions Path has teams who won their domestic first division, while the League Path has teams that qualified because they finished second, third or fourth in their domestic first division.
In these paths, the ties will each consist of two legs, one at home and the other away. The teams that score more goals on aggregate after the two legs move on to the next ground.
If the aggregate score is tied when the second leg reaches the end of normal time, then the match will move to extra time.
After extra time, if the teams are still tied, the tie will go to penalties.
Seeding for each round will depend on UEFA club coefficients from the start of the season.
Teams will be split into seeded and unseeded pots with the same number of teams. Seeded teams will be drawn against unseeded teams, and the leg order will also be decided by draw.
^UEFA Champions League Schedule
- June 18 – First Qualifying Round Draw
- June 19 – Second Qualifying Round Draw
- July 9-10 – First Leg, First Qualifying Round
- July 16-17 – Second Leg, First Qualifying Round
- July 22 – Third Qualifying Round Draw
- July 23-24 – First Leg, Second Qualifying Draw
- July 30-31 – Second Leg, Second Qualifying Draw
- August 5 – Playoff Round Draw
- August 6-7 – First Leg, Third Qualifying Round
- August 13 – Second Leg, Third Qualifying Round
- August 20-21 – First Leg, Playoff Round
- August 27-28 – Second Leg, Playoff Round
Champions League Betting Path
This path includes all first-division champions which didn’t qualify automatically for the league phase.
The first qualifying round has 28 teams. The 14 winners advance and join the 10 teams that automatically qualified for the second qualifying round.
The 12 winners will advance to the third qualifying round. The six winners join four teams which had qualified for this round on the basis of their UEFA coefficient.
All the teams that fall out of the Champions Path move to the Europa League or the Conference League.
^League Path
This path starts with the second qualifying round, consisting of four teams. The two winners join six teams that qualified for the third qualifying round. The four winners advance to the playoff round.
All teams that are eliminated along the way will go to the Europa League qualifying.
The teams who eventually come out of the League Path and the Champions Path will meet the titans of European soccer.
For example, the top four teams from the English Premier League are among the 29 teams that are waiting for the seven teams from the two paths to join them.
Spain’s LaLiga saw its top four teams advance. The German Bundesliga sends five teams automatically, as does Serie A from Italy.
Cinderella stories from these seven qualifiers are unlikely, but they do happen.
For example, in 2022, La Liga side Villarreal sent Bayern Munich, at that time the perennial Bundesliga champions, out of the Champions League.
They beat Bayern at home, 1-0, and got a 1-1 draw, advancing 2-1 on aggregate to the semifinals.
This was a Villarreal team that had finished seventh in La Liga, only making it into the Champions League because they won the Europa League the prior season. That magical run ended in the semifinals.
This year, the most eye-popping result from the first qualifying round of the Champions Path came from Romanian side FCSB, which rolled over Sanmarinese side Virtus, 11-1, on aggregate.
They will see Maccabi Tel Aviv in the second qualifying round.
^2024 CHAMPIONS: Real Madrid 🏆#UCLfinal pic.twitter.com/msoVjUWhRy
— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) June 1, 2024
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