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 double-round-robin group stage, in the same manner as the men's UEFA Champions League.[2]
The video assistant referee (VAR), previously only deployed for the final, was used for all matches in the knockout stage.[4]
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 number 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 number of goals in extra time, the winner was decided by a penalty shoot-out.[5]
Barcelona were the defending champions, but lost the final to Lyon, who won a record eighth title.
With all participating countries now allowing full crowds for outdoor sporting events, attendance (from Group Stage onward) zoomed up to 552k, more than doubling the competition's previous record of 228k from the 2016-17 edition, helped by record crowds for women's club football (over 90,000) at both knockout matches held at Camp Nou.[6]
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.[9]
Association ranking for 2021–22 UEFA Women's Champions League
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.[10] However, only 50 associations entered and this round was skipped.
The following is the access list for this season.[11] 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[12]
The two qualifying rounds, round 1 and round 2, are divided into Champions Path (CP) and League Path (LP).
Iceland (ISL): The 2020 Úrvalsdeild kvenna was abandoned due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Iceland. The top two teams of the league at the time of the abandonment based on the average number of points per matches played for each team, Breiðablik (who were declared champions) and Valur, were selected to play in the 2021–22 UEFA UEFA Women's Champions League by the Football Association of Iceland, entering round 1.[68]
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.[7]
Round 1
The draw for Round 1 was held on 2 July 2021, 13:00 CEST.[73] 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.
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 walkover for Peamount United.
The draw for Round 2 was held on 22 August 2021, 13:00 CEST.[74]
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.
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.[75][76] 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.[9]
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.[77]
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.
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).
The draw for the quarter-finals was held on 20 December 2021.[78][79]
The first legs were played on 22 and 23 March, and the second legs on 30 and 31 March 2022.
The draw for the semi-finals was held on 20 December 2021 (after the quarter-final draw).[78]
The first legs were played from 22 and 24 April and the second legs on 30 April 2022. Barcelona's home quarter- and semi-finals (91,553 and 91,648) were the largest known attendances for official women's football since the 1971 Women's World Cup (non-official),[80][81] where Mexico–Denmark drew 110,000 spectators at the Estadio Azteca in Mexico.[82][83]
The final was played on 21 May 2022 at Juventus Stadium, Turin.[84] A draw was held on 20 December 2021, (after the quarter-final and semi-final draws), to determine which semi-final winner would be designated as the "home" team for administrative purposes.
Brown: Group A; 
Red: Group B; 
Orange: Group C; 
Yellow: Group D.
