The 2021–22 UEFA Europa League group stage began on 15 September 2021 and ended on 9 December 2021.[1] A total of 32 teams competed in the group stage to decide 16 of the 24 places in the knockout phase of the 2021–22 UEFA Europa League.[2]
Brøndby and West Ham United made their debut appearances in the Europa League group stage (although Brøndby had previously appeared in the UEFA Cup group stage).
The draw for the group stage was held on 27 August 2021, 12:00 Central European Summer Time (CEST) (13:00 TRT), in Istanbul, Turkey.[3] [4] For the draw, the 32 teams were seeded into four pots, each of eight teams, based on their 2021 UEFA club coefficients. Teams from the same association could not be drawn into the same group. Prior to the draw, UEFA formed pairings of teams from the same association, including those playing in the Europa Conference League group stage (one pairing for associations with two or three teams, two pairings for associations with four or five teams), based on television audiences, where one team was drawn into Groups A–D and another team was drawn into Groups E–H, so that the two teams would have different kick-off times. The following pairings were announced by UEFA after the group stage teams were confirmed (the second team in a pairing marked by UECL are playing in the Europa Conference League group stage):[5]
On each matchday, one set of four groups played their matches on 18:45 CET/CEST, while the other set of four groups played their matches on 21:00 CET/CEST, with the two sets of groups alternating between each matchday. The fixtures were decided after the draw, using a computer draw not shown to public. Each team would not play more than two home matches or two away matches in a row, and would play one home match and one away match on the first and last matchdays (Regulations Article 15.02).[6] This arrangement was different from previous seasons, where the same two teams would play at home on the first and last matchdays.
Below were the participating teams (with their 2021 UEFA club coefficients),[7] grouped by their seeding pot.[5] They included:
| Key to colours | |
|---|---|
| Group winners advanced directly to round of 16 | |
| Group runners-up advanced to knockout round play-offs | |
| Third-placed teams entered Europa Conference League knockout round play-offs |
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Notes
In each group, teams played against each other home-and-away in a round-robin format. The winners of each group advanced to the round of 16, while the runners-up advanced to the knockout round play-offs. The third-placed teams were transferred to the Europa Conference League knockout round play-offs, while the fourth-placed teams were eliminated from European competitions for the season.
Teams were ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If two or more teams were tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria were applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (see Article 16 Equality of points – group stage, Regulations of the UEFA Europa League):[2]
Due to the abolition of the away goals rule, head-to-head away goals were no longer applied as a tiebreaker starting from this season. However, total away goals were still applied as a tiebreaker.[8]
The fixtures were announced on 28 August 2021, the day after the draw.[9] The matches were played on 15–16 September, 30 September, 19–21 October, 4 November, 24–25 November, and 9 December 2021 (all three home matches of Spartak Moscow were played on Wednesdays, and one home match of Celtic was played on Tuesday, to avoid scheduling conflicts with home matches of Lokomotiv Moscow and Rangers respectively). The scheduled kick-off times were 18:45 and 21:00 CET/CEST (the rescheduled matches on Tuesdays and Wednesdays were played on 16:30 CET/CEST to avoid conflicts with Champions League matches).
Times were CET/CEST, as listed by UEFA (local times, if different, are in parentheses).