2021–22 UEFA Women's Champions League
The 2021–22 UEFA Women's Champions League was the 21st edition of the European women's club football championship organised by UEFA, and the 13th edition since being rebranded as the UEFA Women's Champions League. It was the first edition to feature a double-round-robin group stage, in the same manner as the men's UEFA Champions League.
The Juventus Stadium in Turin hosted the final | |
| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Dates | Qualifying rounds: 17 August – 9 September 2021 Competition proper: 5 October 2021 – 21 May 2022 |
| Teams | Competition proper: 16 Total: 72 (from 50 associations) |
| Final positions | |
| Champions | Lyon (8th title) |
| Runners-up | Barcelona |
| Tournament statistics | |
| Matches played | 61 |
| Goals scored | 220 (3.61 per match) |
| Attendance | 551,578 (9,042 per match) |
| Top scorer(s) | Alexia Putellas (11 goals) |
| Best player(s) | Alexia Putellas (Barcelona) |
The final was held at the Juventus Stadium in Turin, Italy. The winners of the 2021–22 UEFA Women's Champions League automatically qualified for the 2022–23 UEFA Women's Champions League group stage.
The video assistant referee (VAR), previously only deployed for the final, was used for all matches in the knockout stage.
On 24 June 2021, UEFA approved the proposal to abolish the away goals rule in all UEFA club competitions, which had been used since 1965. Therefore, if in a two-legged tie, two teams scored the same number of aggregate goals, the winner of tie was not decided by the number of away goals scored by each team, but always by 30 minutes of extra time, and if the two teams scored the same number of goals in extra time, the winner was decided by a penalty shoot-out.
Barcelona were the defending champions, but lost the final to Lyon, who won a record eighth title.
With all participating countries now allowing full crowds for outdoor sporting events, attendance (from Group Stage onward) zoomed up to 552k, more than doubling the competition's previous record of 228k from the 2016-17 edition, helped by record crowds for women's club football (over 90,000) at both knockout matches held at Camp Nou.