The 2020–21 UEFA Champions League knockout phase began on 16 February with the round of 16 and will end on 29 May 2021 with the final at the Atatürk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul, Turkey, to decide the champions of the 2020–21 UEFA Champions League.[1] A total of 16 teams compete in the knockout phase.[2]
Times are CET/CEST,[note 1] as listed by UEFA (local times, if different, are in parentheses).
Qualified teams
The knockout phase involves the 16 teams which qualify as winners and runners-up of each of the eight groups in the 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 advances to the next round. If the aggregate score is level, the away goals rule is applied, i.e. the team that scores more goals away from home over the two legs advances. If away goals are also equal, then 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 winners are decided by a penalty shoot-out. In the final, which is played as a single match, if the score is level at the end of normal time, extra time is played, followed by a penalty shoot-out if the score is still level.[2] The mechanism of the draws for each round is as follows:
In the draw for the round of 16, the eight group winners are seeded, and the eight group runners-up 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 quarter-finals and semi-finals, there are no seedings, and teams from the same group or the same association can be drawn against each other. As the draws for the quarter-finals and semi-finals are held together before the quarter-finals are played, the identity of the quarter-final winners is not known at the time of the semi-final draw. A draw is also held to determine which semi-final winner is designated as the "home" team for the final (for administrative purposes as it is played at a neutral venue).
For the quarter-finals and semi-finals, teams from the same city are not scheduled to play at home on the same day or on consecutive days, due to logistics and crowd control.[3] To avoid such scheduling conflict, if the two teams are drawn to play at home for the same leg, the order of legs of the tie involving the team with the lower domestic ranking in the qualifying season is reversed from the original draw.[4]
Schedule
The schedule is as follows (all draws are held at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland).[5]
The final will be played on 29 May 2021 at the Estádio do Dragão in Porto. A draw was held on 19 March 2021, after the quarter-final and semi-final draws, to determine the "home" team for administrative purposes.[29]
