Matches may also be played on Tuesdays or Wednesdays instead of the regular Thursdays due to scheduling conflicts.
Format
The knockout phase involves 32 teams: the 24 teams which qualify as winners and runners-up of each of the twelve groups in the group stage, and the eight third-placed teams from the Champions League group stage.
Each tie in the knockout phase, apart from the final, is played over two legs, with each team playing one leg at home. The team that scores more goals on aggregate over the two legs advance to the next round. If the aggregate score is level, the away goals rule is applied, i.e. the team that scored more goals away from home over the two legs advances. If away goals are also equal, then thirty minutes of extra time is played. The away goals rule is again applied after extra time, i.e. if there are goals scored during extra time and the aggregate score is still level, the visiting team advances by virtue of more away goals scored. If no goals are scored during extra time, the tie is decided by penalty shoot-out. In the final, which is played as a single match, if scores are level at the end of normal time, extra time is played, followed by penalty shoot-out if scores remain tied.[2]
The mechanism of the draws for each round is as follows:
In the draw for the round of 32, the twelve group winners and the four third-placed teams from the Champions League group stage with the better group records are seeded, and the twelve group runners-up and the other four third-placed teams from the Champions League group stage are unseeded. The seeded teams are drawn against the unseeded teams, with the seeded teams hosting the second leg. Teams from the same group or the same association cannot be drawn against each other.
In the draws for the round of 16 onwards, there are no seedings, and teams from the same group or the same association can be drawn against each other.
On 17 July 2014, the UEFA emergency panel ruled that Ukrainian and Russian clubs would not be drawn against each other "until further notice" due to the political unrest between the countries.[3]
The final was played at the Parc Olympique Lyonnais in Décines-Charpieu on 16 May 2018. The "home" team (for administrative purposes) was determined by an additional draw held after the semi-final draw.[67]
^Atalanta played their home match at Mapei Stadium – Città del Tricolore, Reggio Emilia, instead of their regular stadium Stadio Atleti Azzurri d'Italia, Bergamo, which wasn’t given a UEFA licence to hold games.[7]
^The Red Star Belgrade v CSKA Moscow match was scheduled on 13 February in order to avoid a scheduling conflict with the Partizan v Viktoria Plzeň match, in the same city.[21]
^The CSKA Moscow v Red Star Belgrade match was scheduled on 21 February in order to avoid a scheduling conflict with the Lokomotiv Moscow v Nice match, in the same city.[21]
^ ab""Црвена Звезда" примет ЦСКА 13 февраля" [Red Star Belgrade will host CSKA on February 13]. sportbox.ru (in Russian). Sportbox. 11 December 2017. Retrieved 22 February 2018.
Note: Between the 1999–2000 and 2008–09 seasons, the competition was still known as the UEFA Cup. All seasons are included following the competition's absorption of the Cup Winners' Cup.
