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2021/22 International football competitions: first round

Now that the national leagues have their first matchdays of the season behind them, the 2021/22 international football competitions will also start on 14 September. British teams in the Champions League, Europa League and Conference League will play their first group matches. Everything you need to know about the start of international business can be found in this article.

Champions League 2021/22 on television

As usual, the Champions League takes place on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. During the group stage, two matches will always be played at 17:45 and six matches at 20:00.

BT Sport holds the exclusive broadcast rights. See the full schedule for matchday 1 below.

Champions League 2021/22 – Matchday 1 on Tuesday

The shadow of the last encounter in the 2019/20 quarter-finals hovers over the Bayern encounter, when the German record champions outclassed the Catalans 8-2 in the second leg at Camp Nou. Last season, both teams were defeated by PSG – Barcelona in the round of 16 and Bayern in the quarter-finals. For “Barca” it is the first match in the top flight since the departure of Lionel Messi.

Manchester United will face Young Boys away on Tuesday evening at 17:45. The Bernese reached the last 16 of the Europa League last season. The big question will be whether Ronaldo, who scored twice on his Premier League debut, will be a starter in the Champions League, too.

Check out our article on all the groups in the 2021/22 Champions League for more information on the competition.

Reigning Champions League winners Chelsea host Zenit St Petersburg on Tuesday evening. The Blues are undoubtedly the big favourites. The same goes for Juventus Turin, who start their international season at Malmö at the same time on Tuesday.

Man City and Liverpool in action on Wednesday

On Wednesday, Erling Braut Haaland will be back on the goal hunt for Borussia Dortmund. BVB will take on Besiktas. In the recent past, Besiktas have had great problems asserting themselves in European football. Among other things, they were eliminated last year in the qualifiers for both the CL and the EL.

Lionel Messi could make his Champions League debut for PSG against Club Bruges on Wednesday. The French capital club is one of the big favourites this year. 2019 champion Liverpool hosts Milan at Anfield. At San Siro, Inter and Real Madrid will battle for the first points of the season

Man City will start off their CL season in what is expected to be a tough battle against Leipzig. Despite a bad start to the season, the Red Bull team has proven themselves as a big threat for the big teams, eliminating United in the prior season.

Europa League 2021/22 on TV

In general, the Europa League will be played on Thursdays this season. However, there are also matches on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, starting with the match between Spartak Moscow and Legia Warsaw next Wednesday. Thursday matches start at 17:45 and 20:00.

Selected Europa League matches will be shown this season BT Sport, too. You can find out which matches will be broadcast in the current week with our TV guide.

The most explosive clash in the first round of the group stage is probably the match between Leicester and Napoli. From a British perspective, the Rangers will further host Lyon at 20:00. Earlier that evening, West Ham will play away in Zagreb against Dinamo, at 17:45. At the same time, Celtic Glasgow will face Betis in Spain.

Conference League on TV

The Conference League is also played on Thursdays. Just like for the Champions League and the Europa League, BT Sport has the broadcasting rights. It starts on Thursday with the match between Rennes and Tottenham, from 17:45 on BT Sport 1. In the Tottenham group, there are also Vitesse and Mura.

At 9pm, the game between Roma and CSKA Sofia will be shown on BT Sport ESPN

Heik Kolsch