The draw for the group stage was held on 30 August 2012, 17:45 CEST, at Grimaldi Forum, Monaco. Teams were seeded into four pots based on their 2012 UEFA club coefficients. The title holders, Chelsea, were automatically seeded into Pot 1. Pot 1 holds teams ranked 1–12, Pot 2 holds teams ranked 13–31, Pot 3 holds teams ranked 32–60, while Pot 4 holds teams ranked 63–171.
Each group contained one team from each of the four pots, with the restriction that teams from the same national association cannot be drawn against each other. Moreover, the draw was controlled for teams from the same association in order to split the teams evenly into the two sets of groups for maximum television coverage. The fixtures were decided after the draw. On each matchday, four groups played their matches on Tuesday, while the other four groups played their matches on Wednesday, with the two sets of groups alternating between each matchday. There were other restrictions, e.g., teams from the same city in general did not play at home on the same matchday, and Russian teams did not play at home on the last matchday due to cold weather.
Tiebreakers
The teams are ranked according to points. If two or more teams are equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following criteria are applied to determine the rankings:
higher number of points obtained in the group matches played among the teams in question;
superior goal difference from the group matches played among the teams in question;
higher number of goals scored in the group matches played among the teams in question;
If, after applying criteria 1) to 4) to several teams, two teams still have an equal ranking, criteria 1) to 4) are reapplied exclusively to the matches between the two teams in question to determine their final rankings. If this procedure does not lead to a decision, criteria 6) to 8) apply;
superior goal difference from all group matches played;
higher number of goals scored from all group matches played;
higher number of coefficient points accumulated by the club in question, as well as its association, over the previous five seasons.
Groups
The matchdays were 18–19 September, 2–3 October, 23–24 October, 6–7 November, 20–21 November, and 4–5 December 2012. Times are CET/CEST, as listed by UEFA.
