User:Quidster4040/sandbox/2018–19 CONCACAF Champions League group stage

The 2018–19 UEFA Champions League group stage is scheduled to begin on 18 September and end on 12 December 2018. A total of 32 teams compete in the group stage to decide the 16 places in the knockout phase of the 2018–19 CONCACAF Champions League.

Draw

The draw for the group stage was held on 30 August 2018, 18:00 EDT, at the Atlantis Paradise Island in Nassau.

The 32 teams are drawn into eight groups of four, with the restriction that teams from the same association cannot be drawn against each other. For the draw, the teams are seeded into four pots based on the following principles: If either the Champions League or SuperLiga title holders are one of the champions of the top six associations, the champions of the association ranked seventh (and possibly eighth) are also seeded into Pot 1.

Pot 2, 3 and 4 contains the remaining teams, seeded based on their 2018 CONCACAF club coefficients.

Moreover, the draw is controlled for teams from the same association in order to split the teams evenly into the two sets of four groups (A–D, E–H) for maximum television coverage. On each matchday, one set of four groups play their matches on Tuesday, while the other set of four groups play their matches on Wednesday, with the two sets of groups alternating between each matchday. The following pairings were announced by UEFA after the group stage teams were confirmed:

Mexico: UANL and Monterrey, Santos Laguna and Toluca
United States: New York City FC and New York Red Bulls, Chicago Fire and Atlanta United
Costa Rica: Herediano and Saprissa
Honduras: Marathon and Motagua, Olimpia and Real España
Canada: Toronto FC and Montreal Impact
Panama: Chorrillo and Independiente
El Salvador: Alianza and Santa Tecla
Jamaica: Portmore United and Waterhouse

Note: Positions for scheduling do not use the seeding pots, e.g., Team 1 is not necessarily the team from Pot 1 in the draw.

Group stage schedule
Matchday	Dates	Matches
Matchday 1	18–19 September 2018	2 v 3, 4 v 1
Matchday 2	2–3 October 2018	1 v 2, 3 v 4
Matchday 3	23–24 October 2018	3 v 1, 2 v 4
Matchday 4	6–7 November 2018	1 v 3, 4 v 2
Matchday 5	27–28 November 2018	3 v 2, 1 v 4
Matchday 6	11–12 December 2018	2 v 1, 4 v 3

There are scheduling restrictions: for example, teams from the same city (e.g., Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid) in general are not scheduled to play at home on the same matchday (to avoid them playing at home on the same day or on consecutive days, due to logistics and crowd control), and teams from "winter countries" (e.g., Canada) are not scheduled to play at home on the last matchday (due to cold weather).

Teams

Below are the participating teams (with their 2018 CONCACAF club coefficients), grouped by their seeding pot. They include:

26 teams which enter in this stage
6 winners of the play-off round (4 from Champions Path, 2 from League Path)

Key to colours
Group winners and runners-up advance to round of 16
Third-placed teams enter SuperLiga round of 32
All other teams are eliminated

Pot 1 (by association rank)
Assoc.	Team	Coeff.
TH	New York Red Bulls	162.000
SL	Santos de Guápiles	76.000
1	UANL	160.000
2	New York City FC	58.200
3	Herediano	105.000
4	Marathón	87.000
5	Toronto FC	127.000
6	Chorrillo	84.900

Pot 2
Team	Notes	Coeff.
Motagua		128.766
Saprissa		110.000
Olimpia		102.000
Montreal Impact		99.800
Vancouver Whitecaps		70.000
Monterrey		62.350
Santos Laguna		58.756
Pérez Zeledón		44.800

Pot 3
Team	Notes	Coeff.
Walter Ferretti		44.300
Toluca		43.100
Real España		41.344
Belmopan Bandits	^[CP]	35.177
Santa Tecla	^[LP]	35.380
Portmore United		28.000
Alianza		26.000
North East Stars		24.000

Pot 4
Team	Notes	Coeff.
Atlanta United		21.500
Chicago Fire		21.500
Antigua GFC		20.000
Waterhouse	^[LP]	18.500
Santiago de Cuba	^[CP]	18.000
Franciscain	^[CP]	15.000
Independiente		14.500
GPS Puerto Rico	^[CP]	6.400

Notes

^TH Champions League title holders, automatically placed into Pot 1 as top seed.
^SL SuperLiga title holders, automatically placed into Pot 1 as second top seed.
^CP Winners of play-off round (Champions Path).
^LP Winners of play-off round (League Path).

Format

In each group, teams play against each other home-and-away in a round-robin format. The group winners and runners-up advance to the round of 16, while the third-placed teams enter the SuperLiga round of 32.

Tiebreakers

Teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss), and if tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria are applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings:

Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Away goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
If more than two teams are tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams are still tied, all head-to-head criteria above are reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;
Goal difference in all group matches;
Goals scored in all group matches;
Away goals scored in all group matches;
Wins in all group matches;
Away wins in all group matches;
Disciplinary points (red card = 3 points, yellow card = 1 point, expulsion for two yellow cards in one match = 3 points);
CONCACAF club coefficient.

Groups

Group A

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification	CSL	HDO	IND	DWF
1	Santos Laguna	6	4	1	1	15	5	+10	13	Advance to knockout stage	—	5–1	4–0	2–0
2	Herediano	6	4	0	2	13	12	+1	12	Advance to knockout stage	3–1	—	4–3	2–0
3	Independiente	6	2	1	3	9	10	−1	7	Transfer to SuperLiga	1–1	2–1	—	2–0
4	Walter Ferretti	6	1	0	5	2	10	−8	3		0–2	1–2	1–0	—

Source: CONCACAF.com

18 September 2018