Chelsea: UEFA Champions League 2021/22 group stage draw preview

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MADRID, SPAIN – APRIL 27 Vinicius Junior of Real Madrid battles for possession with Cesar Azpilicueta of Chelsea during the UEFA Champions League Semi Final First Leg match between Real Madrid and Chelsea FC at Estadio Alfredo Di Stefano on April 27, 2021 in Madrid, Spain. Sporting stadiums around Spain remain under strict restrictions due to the Coronavirus Pandemic as Government social distancing laws prohibit fans inside venues resulting in games being played behind closed doors. (Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images) /

Who can Chelsea draw from Pot 2,3,4?

As it stands, pretty much everyone, but that’s about to change. Per UEFA regulations, teams that share an association can’t face each other in the competition until the quarterfinals. In layman’s terms, no two clubs from the same nation can or will be drawn against each other in the group stage. Chelsea can’t play Manchester City, Manchester United or Liverpool at this stage; Real Madrid can’t draw Barcelona, Juventus can’t draw Inter Milan, Benfica can’t draw Porto and so on.

Teams also can’t draw teams from the same pot. Hence, the Blues won’t draw the following: Villarreal, Atletico Madrid, Bayern Munich, Inter Milan, Lille, Sporting Club, Manchester United, Manchester City and Liverpool. Everyone else is fair game. Simple enough, right? Wrong.

Here’s where things start to get more complicated. Since multiple clubs compete from the same nation—sometimes more than two—UEFA pairs them up ahead of the draw to split them across Tuesdays and Wednesdays, the two weekly or bi-weekly matchdays. UEFA says these pairings are done based on TV audiences.

How does it work? UEFA splits the draw in half—something you’ll notice on Thursday when groups A, B, C and D are marked red and groups E, F, G and H are marked blue or the other way around. The red groups play one day, and the blue groups play the other. To avoid a situation in which four clubs from the same country are playing on the same matchday and troubling poor TV audiences who cannot decide who to watch, UEFA will pair them up into twos and split them across matchdays. If team one of Pair ‘A’ gets drawn into either group A, B, C or D, team two of the same pair will automatically go to the other side of the draw, meaning that they’ll only be drawn in groups E, F, G, or H. The pairing is done behind the scenes, so you won’t know the partners until after the draw has begun.

How does it affect Chelsea? It doesn’t, yet. It will on Thursday. Say, hypothetically, the Blues are drawn in Group A and 13-time European champions Real Madrid in the neighboring Group B, then they will avoid drawing Barcelona. Barcelona, as it happens, would be ineligible for Groups A, B, C or D because of their pairing with Real Madrid.

Phew, that was complex.

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