2021–22 UEFA Women's Champions League

2021–22 UEFA Women's Champions League

275px The Juventus Stadium in Turin hosted the final
Tournament details
Dates	Qualifying rounds: 17 August – 9 September 2021 Competition proper: 5 October 2021 – 21 May 2022
Teams	Competition proper: 16 Total: 72 (from 50 associations)
Final positions
Champions	Lyon (8th title)
Runners-up	Barcelona
Tournament statistics
Matches played	61
Goals scored	220 (3.61 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Alexia Putellas (11 goals)
Best player	Alexia Putellas (Barcelona)

The 2021–22 UEFA Women's Champions League was the 21st edition of the European women's club football championship organised by UEFA, and the 13th edition since being rebranded as the UEFA Women's Champions League. It was the first edition to feature a 16-team group stage.

The final was held at the Juventus Stadium in Turin, Italy. The winners of the 2021–22 UEFA Women's Champions League automatically qualified for the 2022–23 UEFA Women's Champions League group stage.

The video assistant referee (VAR), previously only deployed for the final, was used for all matches in the knockout stage.

On 24 June 2021, UEFA approved the proposal to abolish the away goals rule in all UEFA club competitions, which had been used since 1965. Therefore, if in a two-legged tie, two teams scored the same amount of aggregate goals, the winner of tie was not decided by the number of away goals scored by each team, but always by 30 minutes of extra time, and if the two teams scored the same amount of goals in extra time, the winner was decided by a penalty shoot-out.

Barcelona were the defending champions, but lost the final to Lyon, who won a record eighth title.

Association team allocation

The association ranking based on the UEFA women's country coefficients is used to determine the number of participating teams for each association:

• Associations 1–6 each have three teams qualify.
• Associations 7–16 each have two teams qualify.
• All other associations, if they entered, each have one team qualify.
• The winners of the 2020–21 UEFA Women's Champions League are given an additional entry if they do not qualify for the 2021–22 UEFA Women's Champions League through their domestic league. However, the title holders have qualified through their domestic league, meaning the additional entry is not necessary for this season.

An association must have an eleven-a-side women's domestic league to enter a team. As of 2019–20, 52 of the 55 UEFA member associations organize a women's domestic league, with the exceptions being Andorra, Liechtenstein and San Marino.

Association ranking

For the 2021–22 UEFA Women's Champions League, the associations are allocated places according to their 2020 UEFA women's Association coefficients, which takes into account their performance in European competitions from 2015-16 to 2019–20.

Association ranking for 2021–22 UEFA Women's Champions League

Rank Association Coeff. Teams 1 France 96.000 3 2 Germany 73.000 3 Spain 58.000 4 England 56.500 5 Sweden 45.500 6 Czech Republic 40.500 7 Denmark 34.500 2 8 Netherlands 33.000 9 Italy 30.500 10 Kazakhstan 29.000 11 Norway 27.500 12 Iceland 26.000 13 Switzerland 24.000 14 Scotland 23.000 15 Russia 22.500 16 Belarus 19.000 17 Cyprus 16.000 1 18 Serbia 15.500 19 Austria 15.000

Rank Association Coeff. Teams 20 Lithuania 14.500 1 21 Poland 14.500 22 Belgium 12.500 23 Portugal 12.000 24 Bosnia and Herzegovina 12.000 25 Romania 11.000 26 Finland 10.500 27 Ukraine 10.000 28 Greece 9.500 29 Hungary 9.000 30 Turkey 7.500 31 Republic of Ireland 7.500 32 Albania 7.000 33 Croatia 7.000 34 Slovenia 6.000 35 Israel 5.000 36 Estonia 4.500 37 Bulgaria 4.500

Rank Association Coeff. Teams 38 Kosovo 4.000 1 39 Slovakia 4.000 40 Wales 3.500 41 Montenegro 3.000 42 Faroe Islands 2.500 43 Northern Ireland 2.000 44 Malta 1.000 45 Latvia 1.000 46 Moldova 0.500 47 [[|Macedonia]] 0.000 48 Georgia 0.000 49 Luxembourg 0.000 50 Armenia 0.000 NR Azerbaijan — DNE Gibraltar — Andorra — NL Liechtenstein — San Marino —

Notes

• NR – No rank (association did not enter in any of the seasons used for computing coefficients)
• DNE – Did not enter
• NL – No women's domestic league

Distribution

Unlike the men's Champions League, not every association entered a team, and so the exact number of teams entering in each round could not be determined until the full entry list was known. If there were more than 47 teams in the Champions Path qualifying, a preliminary round of two-legged home-and-away matches would have been played by the champions from the lowest-ranked associations. For example, if the title holders had not qualified for the group stage through league position and all 52 associations with a women's domestic league entered, the champions from associations 49–52 would enter the preliminary round. However, only 50 associations entered and this round was skipped.

The following is the access list for this season. As the Champions League title holders, Barcelona, which were guaranteed a berth in the Champions League group stage, already qualified via their domestic league, the following changes to the access list were made:

• The champions of association 4 (England) entered the group stage instead of round 2.
• The champions of association 7 (Denmark) entered round 2 instead of round 1.
• The champions of association 49 (Luxembourg) and 50 (Armenia) entered round 1 instead of the preliminary round, which was skipped.

Access list for 2021–22 UEFA Women's Champions League

	Path	Teams entering in this round	Teams advancing from previous round
Round 1 (Mini-tournament)	Champions Path (43 teams)	43 champions from associations 8–50
	League Path (16 teams)	6 third-placed teams from associations 1–6 10 runners-up from associations 7–16
Round 2	Champions Path (14 teams)	3 champions from associations 5–7	11 winners of round 1 (Champions Path)
	League Path (10 teams)	6 runners-up from associations 1–6	4 winners of round 1 (League Path)
Group stage (16 teams)		4 champions from associations 1–4 (including title holders Barcelona)	7 winners of round 2 (Champions Path) 5 winners of round 2 (League Path)
Knockout phase (8 teams)			4 group winners of group stage 4 group runners-up of group stage

Teams

The labels in the parentheses show how each team qualified for the place of its starting round:

• TH: Title holders
• 1st, 2nd, 3rd: League positions of the previous season
• Abd-: League positions of abandoned season due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe as determined by the national association; all teams are subject to approval by UEFA as per the guidelines for entry to European competitions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic

The two qualifying rounds, round 1 and round 2, are divided into Champions Path (CP) and League Path (LP).

CC: 2021 UEFA women's club coefficients.

Qualified teams for 2021–22 UEFA Women's Champions League

Entry round		Teams
Group stage		BarcelonaTH (1st)	Paris Saint-Germain (1st)	Bayern Munich (1st)	Chelsea (1st)
Round 2	CP	BK Häcken (1st)	Sparta Prague (1st)	Køge (1st)
	LP	Lyon (2nd)	VfL Wolfsburg (2nd)	Real Madrid (2nd)	Manchester City (2nd)
		Rosengård (2nd)	Slavia Prague (2nd)
Round 1	CP	Twente (1st)	Juventus (1st)	BIIK Kazygurt (1st)	Vålerenga (1st)
		Breiðablik (Abd-1st)	Servette Chênois (1st)	Glasgow City (1st)	CSKA Moscow (1st)
		Dinamo-BGU Minsk (1st)	Apollon Limassol (1st)	Spartak Subotica (1st)	St. Pölten (1st)
		Gintra Universitetas (1st)	Czarni Sosnowiec (1st)	Anderlecht (1st)	Benfica (1st)
		SFK 2000 (1st)	Olimpia Cluj (1st)	Åland United (1st)	Zhytlobud-1 Kharkiv (1st)
		PAOK (1st)	Ferencváros (1st)	Beşiktaş (1st)	Peamount United (1st)
		Vllaznia (1st)	Osijek (1st)	Pomurje (1st)	Kiryat Gat (1st)
		Flora (1st)	NSA Sofia (1st)	Mitrovica (1st)	Slovan Bratislava (Abd-1st)
		Swansea City (1st)	Breznica Pljevlja (1st)	KÍ (1st)	Glentoran (1st)
		Birkirkara (Abd-1st)	Rīgas FS (1st)	Agarista Anenii Noi (1st)	Kamenica Sasa (1st)
		Tbilisi Nike (1st)	Racing FC (1st)	Hayasa (1st)
	LP	Bordeaux (3rd)	1899 Hoffenheim (3rd)	Levante (3rd)	Arsenal (3rd)
		Kristianstad (3rd)	Slovácko (3rd)	Brøndby IF (2nd)	PSV (2nd)
		Milan (2nd)	Okzhetpes (2nd)	Rosenborg (2nd)	Valur (Abd-2nd)
		Zürich (2nd)	Celtic (2nd)	Lokomotiv Moscow (2nd)	FC Minsk (2nd)

Notes

Schedule

The schedule of the competition was as follows.

Schedule for 2021–22 UEFA Women's Champions League

Phase	Round	Draw date	First leg	Second leg
Qualifying	First round	2 July 2021	17–18 August 2021 (semi-finals)	20–21 August 2021 (third-place play-off & final)
	Second round	22 August 2021	31 August – 1 September 2021	8–9 September 2021
Group stage	Matchday 1	13 September 2021	5–6 October 2021
	Matchday 2		13–14 October 2021
	Matchday 3		9–10 November 2021
	Matchday 4		17–18 November 2021
	Matchday 5		8–9 December 2021
	Matchday 6		15–16 December 2021
Knockout phase	Quarter-finals	20 December 2021	22–23 March 2022	30–31 March 2022
	Semi-finals		23–24 April 2022	30 April – 1 May 2022
	Final		21 May 2022 at Juventus Stadium, Turin

Qualifying rounds

Main article: 2021–22 UEFA Women's Champions League qualifying rounds

A preliminary round consisting of two-legged home-and-away matches would have been played by the champions from the lowest-ranked associations if more than 50 associations had entered the tournament and the title holders had not qualified through league position. Since only 50 associations entered, this round was skipped.

Round 1

The draw for Round 1 was held on 2 July 2021, 13:00 CEST. The hosts of each tournament were selected after the draw. The semi-finals were played on 17 and 18 August, and the third-place play-offs and finals on 20 and 21 August 2021. The winners of the finals advanced to round 2.

Champions Path

Tournament 1

Hosted by Gintra Universitetas.

	Semi-finals				Final
	18 August
	Gintra Universitetas	2
					21 August
	Flora	0
					Gintra Universitetas	1
	18 August
					Breiðablik	8
	Breiðablik	7
	KÍ	0
					Third Place
					21 August
					KÍ	0
					Flora	1

Tournament 2

Hosted by Glasgow City.

	Semi-finals				Final
	18 August
	BIIK Kazygurt	4
					21 August
	Slovan Bratislava	0
					BIIK Kazygurt	0
	18 August
					Glasgow City	1
	Glasgow City	3
	Birkirkara	0
					Third Place
					21 August
					Slovan Bratislava (a.e.t.)	1
					Birkirkara	0

Tournament 3

Hosted by Osijek.

	Semi-finals				Final
	18 August
	Anderlecht	3
					21 August
	Hayasa	0
					Anderlecht	0
	18 August
					Osijek	1
	Osijek	5
	Breznica Pljevlja	0
					Third Place
					21 August
					Breznica Pljevlja	3
					Hayasa	2

Tournament 4

Hosted by SFK 2000.

	Semi-finals				Final
	18 August
	Benfica	4
					21 August
	Kiryat Gat	0
					Benfica	7
	18 August
					Racing FC	0
	SFK 2000	0
	Racing FC	1
					Third Place
					21 August
					SFK 2000 (a.e.t.) (p)	1 (4)
					Kiryat Gat	1 (2)

Tournament 5

Hosted by Åland United.

	Semi-finals				Final
	18 August
	Servette Chênois	1
					21 August
	Glentoran	0
					Servette Chênois	1
	18 August
					Åland United	0
	Olimpia Cluj	0
	Åland United	4
					Third Place
					21 August
					Olimpia Cluj	0
					Glentoran	2

Tournament 6

Hosted by Apollon Limassol.

	Semi-finals				Final
	18 August
	Apollon Limassol (a.e.t.)	2
					21 August
	Dinamo-BGU Minsk	0
					Apollon Limassol	2
	18 August
					CSKA Moscow	1
	CSKA Moscow (a.e.t.)	4
	Swansea City	1
					Third Place
					21 August
					Dinamo-BGU Minsk	2
					Swansea City	0

Tournament 7

Hosted by PAOK.

	Semi-finals				Final
	18 August
	Vålerenga	5
					21 August
	Mitrovica	0
					Vålerenga	2
	18 August
					PAOK	0
	PAOK	6
	Agarista Anenii Noi	0
					Third Place
					21 August
					Mitrovica	3
					Agarista Anenii Noi	0

Tournament 8

Hosted by Juventus.

	Semi-finals				Final
	18 August
	St. Pölten	7
					21 August
	Beşiktaş	0
					St. Pölten	1
	18 August
					Juventus	4
	Juventus	12
	Kamenica Sasa	0
					Third Place
					21 August
					Beşiktaş	4
					Kamenica Sasa	0

Tournament 9

Hosted by Twente.

	Semi-finals				Final
	18 August
	Twente	9
					21 August
	Tbilisi Nike	0
					Twente (a.e.t.)	5
	18 August
					Spartak Subotica	3
	Spartak Subotica	5
	Peamount United	2
					Third Place
					21 August
					Peamount United (awd.)	3
					Tbilisi Nike	0

The third place play-off between Peamount United and Tbilisi Nike was cancelled following a decision taken by the Dutch health authorities to put the whole team of Tbilisi Nike into quarantine after a player had tested positive for COVID-19. The result of the match was awarded by UEFA as a 3–0 win for Peamount United.

Tournament 10

Hosted by Pomurje.

	Semi-finals				Final
	18 August
	Zhytlobud-1 Kharkiv	5
					21 August
	NSA Sofia	1
					Zhytlobud-1 Kharkiv	4
	18 August
					Pomurje	1
	Pomurje	6
	Rīgas FS	1
					Third Place
					21 August
					NSA Sofia	2
					Rīgas FS	1

Tournament 11

Hosted by Czarni Sosnowiec.

	Semi-finals				Final
					20 August
					Vllaznia (a.e.t.) (p)	0 (3)
	17 August
					Ferencváros	0 (1)
	Ferencváros	2
	Czarni Sosnowiec	1

League Path

Tournament 1

Hosted by Zürich.

	Semi-finals				Final
	17 August
	1899 Hoffenheim	1
					20 August
	Valur	0
					1899 Hoffenheim	2
	17 August
					Milan	0
	Zürich	1
	Milan	2
					Third Place
					20 August
					Zürich	1
					Valur	3

Tournament 2

Hosted by Kristianstad.

	Semi-finals				Final
	18 August
	Bordeaux	2
					21 August
	Slovácko	1
					Bordeaux	3
	18 August
					Kristianstad	1
	Brøndby IF	0
	Kristianstad	1
					Third Place
					21 August
					Brøndby IF	2
					Slovácko	1

Tournament 3

Hosted by Rosenborg.

	Semi-finals				Final
	18 August
	Levante	2
					21 August
	Celtic	1
					Levante (a.e.t.)	4
	18 August
					Rosenborg	3
	FC Minsk	1
	Rosenborg	2
					Third Place
					21 August
					FC Minsk (a.e.t.)	3
					Celtic	2

Tournament 4

Hosted by Lokomotiv Moscow.

	Semi-finals				Final
	18 August
	Arsenal	4
					21 August
	Okzhetpes	0
					Arsenal	3
	18 August
					PSV	1
	PSV	3
	Lokomotiv Moscow	1
					Third Place
					21 August
					Okzhetpes	0
					Lokomotiv Moscow	4

Round 2

The draw for Round 2 was held on 22 August 2021, 13:00 CEST. The first legs were played on 31 August and 1 September, and the second legs on 8 and 9 September 2021.

The winners of the ties will advance to the group stage.

Champions Path

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Sparta Prague	0–3	Køge	0–1	0–2
Osijek	1–4	Breiðablik	1–1	0–3
Vllaznia	0–3	Juventus	0–2	0–1
Twente	1–5	Benfica	1–1	0–4
Apollon Limassol	2–5	Zhytlobud-1 Kharkiv	1–2	1–3
Servette Chênois	3–2	Glasgow City	1–1	2–1
Vålerenga	3–6	BK Häcken	1–3	2–3

League Path

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Levante	2–4	Lyon	1–2	1–2
Arsenal	7–0	Slavia Prague	3–0	4–0
Real Madrid	2–1	Manchester City	1–1	1–0
VfL Wolfsburg	5–5 (3–0 p)	Bordeaux	3–2	2–3 (a.e.t.)
Rosengård	3–6	1899 Hoffenheim	0–3	3–3

Group stage

Main article: 2021–22 UEFA Women's Champions League group stage

Køge

London

PSG

Lyon

Bayern

Hoffenheim

Wolfsburg

Breiðablik

Juventus

Benfica

Barcelona

Real Madrid

Servette

Häcken

Kharkiv

London teams

Arsenal

Chelsea

Location of teams of the 2021–22 UEFA Women's Champions League group stage.
Brown: Group A; Red: Group B; Orange: Group C; Yellow: Group D.

The draw for the group stage was held on 13 September 2021, 13:00 CEST, in Nyon. The 16 teams were drawn into four groups of four. For the draw, the teams were seeded into four pots, each of four teams, based on the following principles:

• Pot 1 contained the four direct entrants, i.e., the Champions League holders and the champions of the top three associations based on their 2020 UEFA women's country coefficients.
• Pot 2, 3 and 4 contained the remaining teams, seeded based on their 2021 UEFA women's club coefficients.

Teams from the same association could not be drawn into the same group. Prior to the draw, UEFA formed one pairing of teams for associations with two or three teams based on television audiences, where one team was drawn into Groups A–B and another team into Groups C–D, so that the two teams played on different days. Clubs from countries with severe winter conditions (Sweden, Iceland) were assigned a position in their group which allowed them to play away on matchday 6.

The matches were played on 5–6 October, 13–14 October, 9–10 November, 17–18 November, 8–9 December, and 15–16 December 2021. The top two teams of each group advanced to the quarter-finals.

Køge, 1899 Hoffenheim and Real Madrid played in a European competition for the first time this season.

Knockout phase

Main article: 2021–22 UEFA Women's Champions League knockout phase

In the knockout phase, teams played against each other over two legs on a home-and-away basis, except for the one-match final. The mechanism of the draws for each round was as follows:

• In the draw for the quarter-finals, the four group winners were seeded, and the four group runners-up were unseeded. The seeded teams were drawn against the unseeded teams, with the seeded teams hosting the second leg. Teams from the same group could not be drawn against each other.
• A draw was also held to determine which semi-final winner was designated as the "home" team for the final (for administrative purposes as it was played at a neutral venue).

Bracket

2021–22 UEFA Women's Champions League knockout phase

Quarter-finals

2021–22 UEFA Women's Champions League knockout phase

Semi-finals

2021–22 UEFA Women's Champions League knockout phase

Final

2021–22 UEFA Women's Champions League knockout phase

Statistics

Statistics exclude qualifying rounds and play-off round.

Top goalscorers

Rank	Player	Team	Goals
1	Alexia Putellas	Barcelona	11
2	Tabea Waßmuth	VfL Wolfsburg	10
3	Catarina Macario	Lyon	8
4	Marie-Antoinette Katoto	Paris Saint-Germain	7
5	Ada Hegerberg	Lyon	6
	Jordyn Huitema	Paris Saint-Germain
7	Cristiana Girelli	Juventus	5
	Jennifer Hermoso	Barcelona
	Jill Roord	VfL Wolfsburg
10	Ramona Bachmann	Paris Saint-Germain	4
	Aitana Bonmatí	Barcelona
	Sam Kerr	Chelsea
	Lea Schüller	Bayern Munich

Top assists

Rank	Player	Team	Assists
1	Selma Bacha	Lyon	9
2	Fridolina Rolfö	Barcelona	6
3	Caroline Graham Hansen	Barcelona	4
	Kenti Robles	Real Madrid
5	12 players		3

Squad of the season

The UEFA technical study group selected the following players as the squad of the tournament.

Pos.	Player	Team
GK	Christiane Endler	Lyon
DF	Griedge Mbock Bathy	Lyon
	Wendie Renard	Lyon
	María Pilar León	Barcelona
	Selma Bacha	Lyon
MF	Aitana Bonmatí	Barcelona
	Patricia Guijarro	Barcelona
	Amandine Henry	Lyon
	Alexia Putellas	Barcelona
FW	Ada Hegerberg	Lyon
	Marie-Antoinette Katoto	Paris Saint-Germain

Player of the season

• Alexia Putellas ( Barcelona)

Young player of the season

• Selma Bacha ( Lyon)

See also

• 2021–22 UEFA Champions League

External links

• Official website
• Women's Domestic Leagues, UEFA.com