2015–16 UEFA Champions League qualifying phase and play-off round

The 2015–16 UEFA Champions League qualifying phase and play-off round began on 30 June and ended on 26 August 2015. A total of 56 teams competed in the qualifying phase and play-off round to decide 10 of the 32 places in the group stage of the 2015–16 UEFA Champions League.^[1]

All times were CEST (UTC+2).

Round and draw dates

All draws were held at UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.^[2]

Format

In the qualifying phase and play-off round, each tie was played over two legs, with each team playing one leg at home. The team that scored more goals on aggregate over the two legs advanced to the next round. If the aggregate score was level, the away goals rule was applied, i.e., the team that scored more goals away from home over the two legs advanced. If away goals were also equal, then 30 minutes of extra time was played, divided into two 15-minute halves. The away goals rule was again applied after extra time, i.e., if there were goals scored during extra time and the aggregate score was still level, the visiting team advanced by virtue of more away goals scored. If no goals were scored during extra time, the tie was decided by penalty shoot-out.^[1]

In the draws for each round, teams were seeded based on their UEFA club coefficients at the beginning of the season, with the teams divided into seeded and unseeded pots. A seeded team was drawn against an unseeded team, with the order of legs in each tie decided by draw. Due to the limited time between matches, the draws for the second and third qualifying rounds took place before the results of the previous round were known. For these draws (or in any cases where the result of a tie in the previous round was not known at the time of the draw), the seeding was carried out under the assumption that the team with the higher coefficient of an undecided tie advanced to this round, which means if the team with the lower coefficient was to advance, it simply took the seeding of its defeated opponent. Prior to the draws, UEFA formed "groups" in accordance with the principles set by the Club Competitions Committee, but they were purely for convenience of the draw and for ensuring that teams from the same association were not drawn against each other, and did not resemble any real groupings in the sense of the competition.^[1]

Teams

There were two routes which the teams were separated into during qualifying:

Champions Route, which included all domestic champions which had not qualified for the group stage.
League Route (also called the Non-champions Path or the Best-placed Path), which included all domestic non-champions which had not qualified for the group stage.

A total of 56 teams (41 in Champions Route, 15 in League Route) were involved in the qualifying phase and play-off round. The 10 winners of the play-off round (5 in Champions Route, 5 in League Route) advanced to the group stage to join the 22 teams which entered in the group stage. The 15 losers of the third qualifying round entered the Europa League play-off round, and the 10 losers of the play-off round entered the Europa League group stage.^[1]

Below are the participating teams (with their 2015 UEFA club coefficients),^[6] grouped by their starting rounds.^[7]

Champions Route

League Route

First qualifying round

Seeding

A total of eight teams played in the first qualifying round.^[3] The draw was held on 22 June 2015.^[8]^[9]

Summary

The first legs were played on 30 June and 1 July, and the second legs were played on 7 July 2015.

Matches

30 June 2015