The random draw for the group stage of the next Champions League is almost here, and there could be some exciting matches even before the knockout phase.
The 2022-23 season has hardly come to an end, but the gears are still turning for UEFA. Man City secured their first Champions League title on Saturday night with a 1-0 win over Inter Milan in Istanbul, and now the focus turns to next year’s campaign.
The group draws will take place on August 31st, after all the qualifying matches have taken place.
In the meantime, we already know most of the clubs that have qualified and there could be some exciting match-ups from the off, even before we reach the knockout stages.
The teams are arranged in four pots of eight, and one team will be taken from each pot to form the groups at the draw event. The pots are seeded, but the groups are random. Teams that are in the same pot will not meet before the knockout stages.
Pot 1 contains the UCL title holders, the Europa League winners and the champions of the top six national leagues based on UEFA country coefficients. The remaining three pots are populated according to a team’s UEFA club coefficient.
The final two members of Pot 3 and Pot 4 are decided following the qualifying play-offs. Last season’s ‘death group’ contained Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Inter and Viktoria Plzen.
Here are the known teams ahead of qualifiers, and it should be noted that two teams from the same country cannot be drawn into the same group.
Pot 1: Manchester City, Seville, Barcelona, PSG, Naples, Bayern Munich, Benfica, Feyenoord
Pot 2: Real Madrid, Manchester United, Inter, Borussia Dortmund, Atletico, Leipzig, Porto, Arsenal
Pot 3: Shakhtar, Salzburg, AC Milan, Lazio, Red Star Belgrade, TBC, TBC
Pot 4: Union Berlin, Lens, Newcastle, Celtic, Real Sociedad, TBC, TBC