2021–22 UEFA Champions League group stage explained

The 2021–22 UEFA Champions League group stage began on 14 September 2021 and ended on 9 December 2021.[1] A total of 32 teams competed in the group stage to decide the 16 places in the knockout phase of the 2021–22 UEFA Champions League.[2]

Sheriff Tiraspol made their debut appearance in the group stage, becoming the first team from Moldova to play in the Champions League group stage.

Draw

The draw for the group stage was held on 26 August 2021, 18:00 CEST (19:00 TRT), in Istanbul, Turkey.[3] [4] The 32 teams were drawn into eight groups of four. For the draw, the teams were seeded into four pots, each of eight teams, based on the following principles:

Teams from the same association, and due to political reasons, teams from Ukraine and Russia, cannot be drawn into the same group. Prior to the draw, UEFA formed pairings of teams from the same association (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 play on different days. The following pairings were announced by UEFA after the group stage teams were confirmed:[6]

On each matchday, one set of four groups played their matches on Tuesday, while the other set of four groups played their matches on Wednesday, 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 16.02).[2] This arrangement was different from previous seasons, where the same two teams would play at home on the first and last matchdays.

Teams

Below were the participating teams (with their 2021 UEFA club coefficients),[7] grouped by their seeding pot.[6] They included:

Key to colours
Group winners and runners-up advanced to round of 16
Third-placed teams entered Europa League knockout round play-offs
Pot 1 (by association rank)!!Team!
TH Chelsea98.000
EL Villarreal63.000
1 Atlético Madrid115.000
2 Manchester City125.000
3 Bayern Munich134.000
4 Inter Milan53.000
5 Lille14.000
6 Sporting CP45.500
Pot 2!Team!
Real Madrid127.000
Barcelona122.000
Juventus120.000
Manchester United113.000
Paris Saint-Germain113.000
Liverpool101.000
Sevilla98.000
Borussia Dortmund90.000
Pot 3!Team!Notes!
87.000
82.500
79.000
66.000
59.000
58.000
50.500
50.000
Pot 4!Team!Notes!
49.000
47.000
35.500
35.000
31.000
18.500
14.714
14.500

Notes

Format

In each group, teams played against each other home-and-away in a round-robin format. The top two teams of each group advanced to the round of 16. The third-placed teams were transferred to the Europa League knockout round play-offs, while the fourth-placed teams were eliminated from European competitions for the season.

Tiebreakers

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 17 Equality of points – group stage, Regulations of the UEFA Champions League):[2]

  1. Points in head-to-head matches among the tied teams;
  2. Goal difference in head-to-head matches among the tied teams;
  3. Goals scored in head-to-head matches among the tied teams;
  4. If more than two teams were tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams were still tied, all head-to-head criteria above were reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;
  5. Goal difference in all group matches;
  6. Goals scored in all group matches;
  7. Away goals scored in all group matches;
  8. Wins in all group matches;
  9. Away wins in all group matches;
  10. Disciplinary points (direct red card = 3 points; double yellow card = 3 points; single yellow card = 1 point);
  11. UEFA club coefficient.

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]

Groups

The fixtures were announced on 27 August 2021, the day after the draw.[9] The matches were played on 14–15 September 28–29, September 19–20, October 2–3, November 23–24, November, and 7–8 December 2021. The scheduled kick-off times were 18:45 (two matches on each day) and 21:00 (remaining six matches) CET/CEST.

Times were CET/CEST, as listed by UEFA (local times, if different, are in parentheses).

Group A

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Group B

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Group C

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Group D

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Group E

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Group F

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Group G

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Group H

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External links

Notes and References

  1. News: 2021/22 UEFA Champions League: all you need to know . UEFA.com . Union of European Football Associations . 19 January 2021 . 19 January 2021.
  2. Web site: Regulations of the UEFA Champions League, 2021/22 Season . UEFA.com . Union of European Football Associations . 2021 . 30 April 2021.
  3. News: Venues appointed for club competition finals . UEFA.com . Union of European Football Associations . 16 July 2021 . 16 July 2021.
  4. Web site: UEFA Champions League group stage draw . UEFA.com . Union of European Football Associations . 26 August 2021 .
  5. Web site: Association coefficients 2019/20 . UEFA.com . Union of European Football Associations . 2020 . 24 August 2020 . 4 December 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20191204125228/https://www.uefa.com/memberassociations/uefarankings/country/#/yr/2020 . live .
  6. Web site: Champions League group stage draw pots confirmed. UEFA.com. 26 August 2021.
  7. Web site: Club coefficients . UEFA.com . Union of European Football Associations . 31 May 2021 . 9 June 2021.
  8. Web site: Abolition of the away goals rule in all UEFA club competitions. UEFA.com. 24 June 2021.
  9. Web site: 27 August 2021. All the 2021/22 Champions League fixtures. UEFA.com.