UEFA Champions League first qualifying round draw

2021/22 UEFA Champions League first qualifying round draw

Group 1
Fola Esch (LUX) vs Lincoln Red Imps (GIB)*
Slovan Bratislava (SVK)* vs Shamrock Rovers (IRL)
Malmö (SWE)* vs Riga FC (LVA)
Bodø/Glimt (NOR) vs Legia Warszawa (POL)*

Group 2
Connah's Quay Nomads (WAL) vs Alashkert (ARM)*
HJK Helsinki (FIN) vs Budućnost Podgorica (MNE)*
CFR Cluj (ROU)* vs Borac Banja Luka (BIH)
Shkëndija (MKD)* vs Mura (SVN)

Group 3
Teuta (ALB) vs Sheriff Tiraspol (MDA)*
Dinamo Tbilisi (GEO)* vs Neftçi (AZE)
Maccabi Haifa (ISR) vs Kairat Almaty (KAZ)*
Ludogorets 1945 (BUL)* vs Shakhtyor Soligorsk (BLR)

Group 4
Ferencváros (HUN)* vs Prishtina (KOS)
Žalgiris Vilnius (LTU)* vs Linfield (NIR)
Flora Tallinn (EST)* vs Hibernians (MLT)
Dinamo Zagreb (CRO)* vs Valur (ISL)

*Seeded teams

The ties will be two legs, with matches taking place on 6/7 and 13/14 July. There will be extra time and a penalty shoot-out if required. Winners advance to the UEFA Champions League second qualifying round; all losing sides progress to the UEFA Europa Conference League Champions Path second qualifying round (the losers of Slovan Bratislava vs Shamrock Rovers receive a bye to the third qualifying round following a one-off draw required to balance the access list).

How the draw worked

• The draw featured the 31 teams entering this round (the champions of the associations ranked 20 to 51 according to their association club coefficient, except Liechtenstein), and one preliminary round winner.
• The teams were divided equally between seeded and unseeded clubs in accordance with the club coefficient rankings.
• The UEFA administration formed four groups of eight teams with an equal number of seeded and unseeded teams (four each in every group) for the draw in accordance with the principles set by the Club Competitions Committee. Clubs from the same association could not be drawn against each other.
• For each group, two pots were prepared: one for the seeded teams and the other for the unseeded teams.
• For each group, the balls containing the names of the seeded sides were placed in one bowl and the balls containing the unseeded teams were put into another bowl. One ball was taken from each bowl and placed in a large empty bowl in the middle, where they were shuffled.
• The same procedure was carried out with the remaining balls to complete all the pairings of the first group and then repeated to determine the pairings for the remaining groups. The first side drawn in each tie will be the home team of the first leg.

Special COVID rules 

Please be aware of the special rules applicable to the qualifying phase and play-offs of the competition due to COVID-19, which can be found here.

In regards to travelling fans being admitted to matches, more information can be found here.