2021–22 UEFA Europa League group stage

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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).

Draw

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. ^[5] 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): ^[6]

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). ^[7] This arrangement was different from previous seasons, where the same two teams would play at home on the first and last matchdays. ^[7]

Teams

Below were the participating teams (with their 2021 UEFA club coefficients), ^[5] grouped by their seeding pot. ^[6] They included:

• 12 teams which entered in this stage
• 10 winners of the play-off round
• 6 losers of the Champions League play-off round (4 from Champions Path, 2 from League Path)
• 4 League Path losers of the third qualifying round

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

Pot 1 Team Notes Coeff. [5] Lyon 76.000 Napoli 74.000 Bayer Leverkusen 57.000 Dinamo Zagreb [CL-CP] 44.500 Lazio 44.000 Olympiacos [EL-PO] 43.000 Monaco [CL-LP] 36.000 Braga 35.000

Pot 2 Team Notes Coeff. [5] Celtic [EL-PO] 34.000 Eintracht Frankfurt 33.000 Red Star Belgrade [EL-PO] 32.500 Leicester City 32.000 Rangers [EL-PO] 31.250 Lokomotiv Moscow 31.000 Genk [CL-LQ] 30.000 PSV Eindhoven [CL-LP] 29.000

Pot 3 Team Notes Coeff. [5] Marseille 28.000 Ludogorets Razgrad [CL-CP] 28.000 West Ham United 20.113 Real Sociedad 19.571 Real Betis 19.571 Fenerbahçe [EL-PO] 19.500 Spartak Moscow [CL-LQ] 18.500 Sparta Prague [CL-LQ] 17.500

Pot 4 Team Notes Coeff. [5] Rapid Wien [EL-PO] 17.000 Galatasaray [EL-PO] 17.000 Legia Warsaw [EL-PO] 16.500 Midtjylland [CL-LQ] 13.500 Ferencváros [CL-CP] 13.500 Antwerp [EL-PO] 10.500 Sturm Graz [EL-PO] 7.165 Brøndby [CL-CP] 7.000

Notes

Format

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.^{[ citation needed]}

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 16 Equality of points – group stage, Regulations of the UEFA Europa 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 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, ^{[note 1]} as listed by UEFA (local times, if different, are in parentheses).

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		LYO	RAN	SPP	BRO
1	Lyon	6	5	1	0	16	5	+11	16	Advance to round of 16		—	1–1	3–0	3–0
2	Rangers	6	2	2	2	6	5	+1	8	Advance to knockout round play-offs		0–2	—	2–0	2–0
3	Sparta Prague	6	2	1	3	6	9	−3	7	Transfer to Europa Conference League		3–4	1–0	—	2–0
4	Brøndby	6	0	2	4	2	11	−9	2			1–3	1–1	0–0	—

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Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		MON	RSO	PSV	STU
1	Monaco	6	3	3	0	7	4	+3	12	Advance to round of 16		—	2–1	0–0	1–0
2	Real Sociedad	6	2	3	1	9	6	+3	9	Advance to knockout round play-offs		1–1	—	3–0	1–1
3	PSV Eindhoven	6	2	2	2	9	8	+1	8	Transfer to Europa Conference League		1–2	2–2	—	2–0
4	Sturm Graz	6	0	2	4	3	10	−7	2			1–1	0–1	1–4	—

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Group C

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		SPM	NAP	LEI	LEG
1	Spartak Moscow	6	3	1	2	10	9	+1	10 [a]	Advance to round of 16		—	2–1	3–4	0–1
2	Napoli	6	3	1	2	15	10	+5	10 [a]	Advance to knockout round play-offs		2–3	—	3–2	3–0
3	Leicester City	6	2	2	2	12	11	+1	8	Transfer to Europa Conference League		1–1	2–2	—	3–1
4	Legia Warsaw	6	2	0	4	4	11	−7	6			0–1	1–4	1–0	—

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Group D

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		FRA	OLY	FEN	ANT
1	Eintracht Frankfurt	6	3	3	0	10	6	+4	12	Advance to round of 16		—	3–1	1–1	2–2
2	Olympiacos	6	3	0	3	8	7	+1	9	Advance to knockout round play-offs		1–2	—	1–0	2–1
3	Fenerbahçe	6	1	3	2	7	8	−1	6	Transfer to Europa Conference League		1–1	0–3	—	2–2
4	Antwerp	6	1	2	3	6	10	−4	5			0–1	1–0	0–3	—

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Group E

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		GAL	LAZ	MAR	LOK
1	Galatasaray	6	3	3	0	7	3	+4	12	Advance to round of 16		—	1–0	4–2	1–1
2	Lazio	6	2	3	1	7	3	+4	9	Advance to knockout round play-offs		0–0	—	0–0	2–0
3	Marseille	6	1	4	1	6	7	−1	7	Transfer to Europa Conference League		0–0	2–2	—	1–0
4	Lokomotiv Moscow	6	0	2	4	2	9	−7	2			0–1	0–3	1–1	—

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Group F

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		RSB	BRA	MID	LUD
1	Red Star Belgrade	6	3	2	1	6	4	+2	11	Advance to round of 16		—	2–1	0–1	1–0
2	Braga	6	3	1	2	12	9	+3	10	Advance to knockout round play-offs		1–1	—	3–1	4–2
3	Midtjylland	6	2	3	1	7	7	0	9	Transfer to Europa Conference League		1–1	3–2	—	1–1
4	Ludogorets Razgrad	6	0	2	4	3	8	−5	2			0–1	0–1	0–0	—

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Group G

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		LEV	BET	CEL	FER
1	Bayer Leverkusen	6	4	1	1	14	5	+9	13	Advance to round of 16		—	4–0	3–2	2–1
2	Real Betis	6	3	1	2	12	12	0	10	Advance to knockout round play-offs		1–1	—	4–3	2–0
3	Celtic	6	3	0	3	13	15	−2	9	Transfer to Europa Conference League		0–4	3–2	—	2–0
4	Ferencváros	6	1	0	5	5	12	−7	3			1–0	1–3	2–3	—

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Group H

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		WHU	DZA	RWI	GNK
1	West Ham United	6	4	1	1	11	3	+8	13	Advance to round of 16		—	0–1	2–0	3–0
2	Dinamo Zagreb	6	3	1	2	9	6	+3	10	Advance to knockout round play-offs		0–2	—	3–1	1–1
3	Rapid Wien	6	2	0	4	4	9	−5	6	Transfer to Europa Conference League		0–2	2–1	—	0–1
4	Genk	6	1	2	3	4	10	−6	5			2–2	0–3	0–1	—

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Notes

References

External links

• Official website
• Fixtures and Results, 2021–22, UEFA.com