The UEFA Champions League is the biggest soccer tournament every year around the world. It is held annually by UEFA, the biggest soccer corporation in Europe, and is the most prestigious club competition in all of Europe.
How it works:
In Europe, each country has their own set of leagues, with one being the premier division in the country. Of those divisions, the top 4 teams from each league are placed into a group of teams who have to play qualification games in order to be one of the 32 teams to make it to the group stage.
It begins with lottery ball picks between the 32 teams. Teams will be selected to join 1 of 8, 4 team groups, where they will play each other team once. After those three games for each team, the two teams with the highest points advance.
During the knockout stage, the 16 teams that advanced through the group stage will play 2 games against their new opponent. One in each team’s home stadium. The scores are then added together (called “aggregate”) and the team with the highest combined score advances to the next round. This goes for 3 rounds, eliminating half of the competition every round until it gets down to two final teams who advance to the final.
The final is pretty simple. It is one game in a predetermined, neutral location, where it is just one game for all the stakes. The winning team becomes crowned the greatest team in the world. Another perk of winning is you are automatically put into the group stage the following year. Every final always is one of the greatest and most memorable soccer games of all time.
The 91st minute 