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The 2003–04 UEFA Champions League group stage matches took take place between 16 September and 10 December 2003. The group stage featured teams qualified by their league positions and others who had come through qualifying.

The 32 teams were divided into four pots.^[1] Pot 1 comprised the previous year's title holders Milan and the top seven clubs in the team ranking. Pot 2 contained the following eight clubs in the rankings and likewise for Pots 3 and 4. Each group contained one team from each pot. A team's seeding was determined by the UEFA coefficients.^[2]

Clubs from the same association were paired up to split the matchdays between Tuesday and Wednesday. Clubs with the same pairing letter would play on different days, ensuring that teams from the same city (e.g. Milan and Internazionale, who also share a stadium) did not play on the same day.

Group winners and runners-up advanced to the first knockout round

Third-placed teams entered the UEFA Cup at the third knockout round

Pot 1
Team	Coeff.
MilanTH	97.155
Real Madrid	151.769
Manchester United	136.170
Bayern Munich	124.566
Lazio	106.155
Arsenal	105.170
Juventus	100.155
Deportivo La Coruña	98.769

Pot 2
Team	Coeff.
Internazionale	93.155
Porto	86.791
Celta Vigo	86.769
Galatasaray	78.495
Lyon	76.734
Panathinaikos	72.391
Chelsea	70.170
PSV Eindhoven	60.749

Pot 3
Team	Coeff.
Celtic	57.187
AEK Athens	56.391
Dynamo Kyiv	55.291
Ajax	54.749
Olympiacos	54.391
Rangers	50.187
Sparta Prague	49.975
Marseille	49.734

Pot 4
Team	Coeff.
VfB Stuttgart	49.566
Lokomotiv Moscow	49.520
Anderlecht	49.250
Real Sociedad	47.769
Monaco	45.734
Club Brugge	44.250
Beşiktaş	33.495
Partizan	20.915

During the group stage, each team plays the other three teams in their group twice (home and away or at an alternative venue). The top two teams with the most points or who meet the tie-break criteria progress to the first knockout round. The third placed side entered the UEFA Cup in 2004.

Based on paragraph 4.05 in the UEFA regulations for the current season, if two or more teams are equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following criteria are applied to determine the rankings:

1. higher number of points obtained in the group matches played among the teams in question;
2. superior goal difference from the group matches played among the teams in question;
3. higher number of goals scored away from home in the group matches played among the teams in question;
4. superior goal difference from all group matches played;
5. higher number of goals scored in all group matches played;
6. higher number of coefficient points accumulated by the club in question, as well as its association, over the previous five seasons.

Times are CET/CEST,^{[note 1]} as listed by UEFA (local times are in parentheses).

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		LYO	BAY	CEL	AND
1	Lyon	6	3	1	2	7	7	0	10	Advance to knockout stage		—	1–1	3–2	1–0
2	Bayern Munich	6	2	3	1	6	5	+1	9			1–2	—	2–1	1–0
3	Celtic	6	2	1	3	8	7	+1	7	Transfer to UEFA Cup		2–0	0–0	—	3–1
4	Anderlecht	6	2	1	3	4	6	−2	7			1–0	1–1	1–0	—

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Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		ARS	LMO	INT	DKV
1	Arsenal	6	3	1	2	9	6	+3	10	Advance to knockout stage		—	2–0	0–3	1–0
2	Lokomotiv Moscow	6	2	2	2	7	7	0	8			0–0	—	3–0	3–2
3	Internazionale	6	2	2	2	8	11	−3	8	Transfer to UEFA Cup		1–5	1–1	—	2–1
4	Dynamo Kyiv	6	2	1	3	8	8	0	7			2–1	2–0	1–1	—

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Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		MON	DEP	PSV	AEK
1	Monaco	6	3	2	1	15	6	+9	11	Advance to knockout stage		—	8–3	1–1	4–0
2	Deportivo La Coruña	6	3	1	2	12	12	0	10			1–0	—	2–0	3–0
3	PSV Eindhoven	6	3	1	2	8	7	+1	10	Transfer to UEFA Cup		1–2	3–2	—	2–0
4	AEK Athens	6	0	2	4	1	11	−10	2			0–0	1–1	0–1	—

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Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		JUV	RSO	GAL	OLY
1	Juventus	6	4	1	1	15	6	+9	13	Advance to knockout stage		—	4–2	2–1	7–0
2	Real Sociedad	6	2	3	1	8	8	0	9			0–0	—	1–1	1–0
3	Galatasaray	6	2	1	3	6	8	−2	7	Transfer to UEFA Cup		2–0	1–2	—	1–0
4	Olympiacos	6	1	1	4	6	13	−7	4			1–2	2–2	3–0	—

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(*) originally scheduled for 25 November, delayed for security reasons due to the Istanbul terrorist bombings of 15 and 20 November

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Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		MUN	STU	PAN	RAN
1	Manchester United	6	5	0	1	13	2	+11	15	Advance to knockout stage		—	2–0	5–0	3–0
2	VfB Stuttgart	6	4	0	2	9	6	+3	12			2–1	—	2–0	1–0
3	Panathinaikos	6	1	1	4	5	13	−8	4	Transfer to UEFA Cup		0–1	1–3	—	1–1
4	Rangers	6	1	1	4	4	10	−6	4			0–1	2–1	1–3	—

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Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		RMA	POR	MAR	PTZ
1	Real Madrid	6	4	2	0	11	5	+6	14	Advance to knockout stage		—	1–1	4–2	1–0
2	Porto	6	3	2	1	9	8	+1	11			1–3	—	1–0	2–1
3	Marseille	6	1	1	4	9	11	−2	4	Transfer to UEFA Cup		1–2	2–3	—	3–0
4	Partizan	6	0	3	3	3	8	−5	3			0–0	1–1	1–1	—

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Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		CHE	SPP	BES	LAZ
1	Chelsea	6	4	1	1	9	3	+6	13	Advance to knockout stage		—	0–0	0–2	2–1
2	Sparta Prague	6	2	2	2	5	5	0	8			0–1	—	2–1	1–0
3	Beşiktaş	6	2	1	3	5	7	−2	7	Transfer to UEFA Cup		0–2	1–0	—	0–2
4	Lazio	6	1	2	3	6	10	−4	5			0–4	2–2	1–1	—

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Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		MIL	CLT	BRU	AJX
1	Milan	6	3	1	2	4	3	+1	10	Advance to knockout stage		—	1–2	0–1	1–0
2	Celta Vigo	6	2	3	1	7	6	+1	9			0–0	—	1–1	3–2
3	Club Brugge	6	2	2	2	5	6	−1	8	Transfer to UEFA Cup		0–1	1–1	—	2–1
4	Ajax	6	2	0	4	6	7	−1	6			0–1	1–0	2–0	—

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