UCL draw seeds set as Chelsea seal final place

Chelsea have secured the last place among the seeded teams for the 2021-22 Champions League group-stage draw.

Chelsea beat Manchester City 1-0 in this year’s final in Porto, thanks to a first-half goal from Kai Havertz, securing their place alongside the champions of Europe’s top six leagues in Pot 1 for the draw on Aug. 26. Villarreal will also be seeded as Europa League titleholders, after beating Manchester United 11-10 on penalties on Wednesday.

Pots 2-4 are built based on UEFA’s five-year coefficient score, and there is a real prospect of a very strong group with Bundesliga giants Borussia Dortmund only able to take a place in Pot 3.

However, as UEFA has opened proceedings against Barcelona, Juventus and Real Madrid for their role in the failed Super League project, a potential Champions League ban could yet lead to a reshaping of Pot 2 with FC Porto and Ajax best-placed to benefit.

Pot 1 (confirmed)
Chelsea
Villarreal
Atletico Madrid
Manchester City
Inter Milan
Bayern Munich
Lille
Sporting CP

Pot 2 (confirmed)
Real Madrid
Barcelona
Juventus
Paris Saint-Germain
Manchester United
Liverpool
Sevilla
Borussia Dortmund

Pot 3 (provisional)
FC Porto
Ajax
Shakhtar Donetsk*
RB Leipzig
FC Salzburg*
Benfica*
Atalanta
Zenit St Petersburg

*Must come through the qualifying rounds

AC Milan, Club Brugge and VfL Wolfsburg have qualified automatically and face being in Pot 4 unless higher-ranked teams are knocked out in qualifying.

The teams will be drawn into eight groups of four teams on Aug. 26, with no teams from the same association able to be drawn against each other. The top two teams in each group will advance to the round of 16, with the third-placed teams going through to the Europa League knockout phase to play group runners-up.