Times from 29 October 2017 up to 24 March 2018 (both legs of round of 16 and first legs of quarter-finals) are CET (UTC+1), all other times are CEST (UTC+2).
The knockout phase involved 32 teams: 21 teams which received a bye, and the 11 teams which advanced from the qualifying round (ten group winners and the best runners-up).[4]
In the knockout phase, teams played against each other over two legs on a home-and-away basis, except for the one-match final. If the aggregate score was tied after full time of the second leg, the away goals rule was used to decide the winners. If still tied, extra time is played. The away goals rule was again used after extra time, i.e. if there are goals scored during extra time and the aggregate score was still tied after extra time, the away team of the second leg advanced by virtue of more away goals scored. If no goals were scored during extra time, the match was decided by penalty shoot-out. In the final, which was played as a single match, if the score was tied after full time, extra time was played, followed by penalty shoot-out if the score was still tied after extra time.[2]
The mechanism of the draws for each round is as follows:
In the draw for the round of 32, the sixteen teams with the highest UEFA club coefficients were seeded (with the title holders being the automatic top seed),[5] and the other sixteen teams are unseeded. The seeded teams are drawn against the unseeded teams, with the seeded teams hosting the second leg. Teams from the same association or the same qualifying round group cannot be drawn against each other.
In the draw for the round of 16, the eight teams with the highest UEFA club coefficients are seeded (with the title holders being the automatic top seed should they qualify),[5] and the other eight teams are unseeded. The seeded teams are drawn against the unseeded teams, with the order of legs decided by draw. Teams from 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 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 teams in the semi-finals are not known at the time of the draw. A draw is also held to determine the "home" team for the final (for administrative purposes as it is played at a neutral venue).
Below are the 32 teams which participated in the knockout phase (with their 2017 UEFA club coefficients, which took into account their performance in European competitions from 2012–13 to 2016–17 plus 33% of their association coefficient from the same time span).[5][4]
The draw for the semi-finals was held on 24 November 2017, 13:30 CET (together with the quarter-final draw), at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.[10]
The final was played at the Valeriy Lobanovskyi Dynamo Stadium in Kyiv on 24 May 2018. The "home" team for the final (for administrative purposes) was determined by an additional draw held after the quarter-final and semi-final draws.[10]
Rossiyanka
Fortuna Hjørring
Linköping
Glasgow City
Zürich
Wolfsburg
Manchester City
Slavia Praha
