MUNSTER WILL TAKE on Harlequins – where Jerry Flannery now coaches – and French side Clermont in the pool stages of the 2020/21 Heineken Champions Cup.
Leo Cullen’s Leinster will face Northampton Saints and Montpellier.
Connacht have been drawn against Racing 92 – who made last season’s final – and Pat Lam’s Bristol.
Ulster will face Toulouse, who knocked them out in last season’s quarter-finals, and English side Gloucester.
With a new 24-team format in the Champions Cup for this season only due to calendar pressures caused by Covid-19, each club will play four pool games rather than the usual six.
The pool stages kick-off with back-to-back European weekends on 11/12/13 December and 18/19/20 December. The second set of pool games will be played in January.
Under the new format, the 24 clubs were divided into two pools of 12, with each club now set to play four games in the pool stage – two at home and two away.
Leinster are in Pool A, while Munster, Ulster, and Connacht are all in Pool B.
After the pool-stage games, the top four clubs in each of the two pools will qualify for the Champions Cup quarter-finals, while the clubs ranked numbers 5 to 8 in both pools will drop down into the knock-out stages of the Challenge Cup.
In the Champions Cup quarter-finals, the top team in Pool A will play the fourth-placed team in Pool B and vice versa. The second-ranked team in Pool A will play the third-placed club in Pool B and vice versa.
The clubs ranked numbers 1 and 2 from Pool A and Pool B will have an advantage in playing the second leg of their quarter-finals at home.
In the one-off semi-finals, the highest-ranked clubs from the pool stage will have home country advantage in a venue designated by EPCR.
The one-off final is scheduled to take place in Marseille on 22 May 2021.
2020/21 Heineken Champions Cup:
Pool A (with opponents in brackets):
Bordeaux-Bègles (Dragons, Northampton Saints)
Leinster Rugby (Montpellier, Northampton Saints)
Wasps (Dragons, Montpellier)
Bath Rugby (La Rochelle, Scarlets)
Edinburgh Rugby (La Rochelle, Sale Sharks)
RC Toulon (Sale Sharks, Scarlets)
La Rochelle (Bath Rugby, Edinburgh Rugby)
Sale Sharks (Edinburgh Rugby, RC Toulon)
Scarlets (Bath Rugby, RC Toulon)
Dragons (Bordeaux-Bègles, Wasps)
Montpellier (Leinster Rugby, Wasps)
Northampton Saints (Bordeaux-Bègles, Leinster Rugby)
Pool B (with opponents in brackets):
Exeter Chiefs (Glasgow Warriors, Toulouse)
Lyon (Glasgow Warriors, Gloucester Rugby)
Ulster Rugby (Gloucester Rugby, Toulouse)
Bristol Bears (ASM Clermont Auvergne, Connacht Rugby)
Munster Rugby (ASM Clermont Auvergne, Harlequins)
Racing 92 (Connacht Rugby, Harlequins)
ASM Clermont Auvergne (Bristol Bears, Munster Rugby)
Connacht Rugby (Bristol Bears, Racing 92)
Harlequins (Munster Rugby, Racing 92)
Glasgow Warriors (Exeter Chiefs, Lyon)
Gloucester Rugby (Lyon, Ulster)
Toulouse (Exeter Chiefs, Ulster Rugby)
2020/21 season weekends:
Round 1 – 11/12/13 December 2020
Round 2 – 18/19/20 December 2020
Round 3 – 15/16/17 January 2021
Round 4 – 22/23/24 January 2021
Quarter-finals, 1st leg – 2/3/4 April 2021
Quarter-finals, 2nd leg – 9/10/11 April 2021
Semi-finals – 30 April – 1/2 May 2021
Final – Saturday 22 May.
Celtic are just not clinical enough at this level. It’s an issue domestically also but they can get away with it.
The amount of chances they are creating and only having two goals to show for it are criminal.
There wasn’t much between the sides for large parts of the game but Leipzig took their chances well.
@Ciarán Rice: While I agree with you on the clinical edge side, I think it’s hard to say there wasn’t much between the sides tonight. Jota, Kyogo, and Hatate had their odd half moments.. maybe Taylor too. Likes of Nkunku and Szoboszlai tore it up tho and Simakan, who isn’t even a natural right-full, ran Celtic ragged up their left flank which was justified by his assist. Most of Celtic’s chances just fell to them when RB were sloppy coming out from the back and the press worked well.
Wasn’t up for RB either, would have happily enjoyed Celtic winning had they done so. Record away to German opposition is poor tho so I kinda knew what to expect… 14 without a win in EC/UCL history. Game in Parkhead will be interesting tho!
@Ultan Corcoran: the first half there was nothing between the sides. The stats point to that also. Pretty much 50/50 in possession and think Celtic slightly edged the amount of chances in the first.
The second half however, was poor from Celtic when McGregor went off injured. It was 1-1 at that point and still fairly balanced. Once he was subbed Celtic completely gave up the midfield.
Think you’re dismissing Celtics pressing stating that it was poor play from Leipzig at the back. Celtic deliberately forced Leipzig into the those errors. That’s the game they play. Leipzig, of course, did similar to Celtic.
By ‘dented’ you mean ‘over’?
@David Lawlor:
Why would you think they are over? Two winnable games to come at home. RM will be already through.
Not over yet as two home wins would really set it up travelling to Madrid who would already be qualified presumably, wishful thinking but could 7pts qualify them maybe, just maybe
@Noel Doherty: it’s over. They haven’t a chance of qualifying.
@Stephen Foster: I think you’ll find they still have a chance of going through. To say they have no chance proves how thick you really are.
Uphill battle from here on , it could have been a bit different if Celtic had a finisher in the team , Carter vickers was a loss also .
@Tricksy: completely agree. Losing our two centre backs it was always going to be difficult but the game was evenly matched. Then McGregor went off injured and Celtic completely lost the midfield.
As much as Kyogo is a brilliant player, he’s not a top class finisher. Giakoumakis is a brilliant finisher but isn’t as good a player as Kyogo and doesn’t really suit the system. Major issues up front.