Champions League group stage: Chelsea drawn against Juventus, Zenit, Malmö

Our 2021-22 Champions League campaign is set to get underway next month, after the international break, and our opponents for the group stage were determined in today’s draw by UEFA in Istanbul. Thanks to the helpful hands of Branislav Ivanovic and Michael Essien, we got a fairly easy group.

As Champions of Europe, Chelsea were seeded in Pot 1, and were last out of the bowl, which meant we were put into the last of the eight groups, Group H.

We were then joined by Juventus (Pot 2), Zenit (Pot 3), and Malmö (Pot 4).

The exact order and timing (Tuesday or Wednesday) of the fixtures will be determined shortly, but we do know the match-day schedule already. Five of the six games will be followed by home matches, which is nice.

Aston Villa (H) | CL MD1 (Sep 14-15) | Spurs (A)
Man City (H) | CL MD2 (Sep 28-29) | Southampton (H)
Brentford (A) | CL MD3 (Oct 19-20) | Norwich (H)
Newcastle (A) | CL MD4 (Nov 2-3) | Burnley (H)
Leicester (A) | CL MD5 (Nov 23-24) | Man Utd (H)
West Ham (A) | CL MD6 (Dec 7-8) | Leeds (H)

The full results of the 2020-21 Champions League group stage draw, including Groups A & E, which will compete for this year’s “group of death” title, and Group G, which is perhaps the most open.

GROUP A
Manchester City, PSG, RB Leipzig, Club Brugge

GROUP B
Atlético Madrid, Liverpool, FC Porto, AC Milan

GROUP C
Sporting CP, Borussia Dortmund, Ajax Amsterdam, Besiktas

GROUP D
Internazionale, Real Madrid, Shakhtar Donetsk, Sheriff Tiraspol

GROUP E
Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Benfica, Dynamo Kiev

GROUP F
Villarreal, Manchester United, Atalanta, Young Boys

GROUP G
Lille, Sevilla, Salzburg, Wolfsburg

GROUP H
Chelsea, Juventus, Zenit St Petersburg, Malmö