Former Chelsea and Black star Midfielder, Michael Essien, has been named as one of the special guests for this year’s UEFA Champions League (UCL) group stage draw. The UCL draw will take place today Thursday, August 26, 2021 at Istanbul, Turkey.
Meanwhile the former Ghana international, will be joined by his former teammate, Brainslov Ivanovic, to assist with the draw.
Mr. Essien and Mr. Ivanovic contributed towards the achievement of Chelsea’s first Champions League triumph in 2012 at Allianz Arena in Munich. Coincidentally, Chelsea is the current UCL title holder after edging rival Manchester City by a goal to nil in a fascinating all-English UCL finals. The recent triumph means Chelsea, has for the second time, won the UCL title in 9 years.
UCL draw guidelines
The UEFA Champions League group stage constitutes 32 football teams from various leagues across Europe. This includes clubs such as; Chelsea, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Manchester United, Juventus, Manchester City, among others.
Per the UEFA draw guidelines, all 32 teams will be categorized in to 4 different pots. Pot 1 will include the recent UCL winner (Chelsea), UEFA Europa League winner (Villareal) and six other winners from UEFA’s highest-ranked countries who failed in the attempts at qualification through one of the 2020/21 continental titles.
However, pots 2 to 4 will be determined by the coefficient rankings of clubs.
Also, the UCL guidelines specifies that teams from same country-league cannot play against each other. In other words, two teams from same association cannot be drawn in same group.
Consistent with the UCL guidelines, top 2 teams in each group will go further to round of 16.
Meanwhile, the third-placed teams in each of the 4 groups will be transferred to UEFA EUROPA League.
Moreover, to ensure clubs play on separate days, UEFA has paired clubs in other to split their matches between Tuesdays and Wednesday in the case where two teams come from the same association.
Similarly, in the case of associations with four representatives, two pairings have been made. These pairings are to be based on TV audiences.
The first round of games for the 2021/22 edition of the UCL group stages is set to commence on September 14 and 15, 2022, according to UEFA.
UEFA further explained that the UCL 2021/2022 group stage is designed to be played within 3 months- With the first round of matches commencing between September 14 and 15. The UCL group stage will be expected to end in December 7 and 8.
2020/2021 UCL group stage
Last year’s draw saw some interesting pairings with mouthwatering matches during the group stages of the competition.
In Group A, German giant and 6-time UCL winners, Bayern Munich were paired against 11-time La Liga winners, Atletico Madrid.
Most successful European club, Real Madrid played with Shakhtar Donetsk, Inter Milan and Borussia Monchengladbach.
Meanwhile, 6-time Ballon D’or winner, Lionel Messi’ locked horns with his rival Cristiano Ronaldo in Group G, as Barcelona and Juventus crashed.
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