UEFA Champions League Draw
In the World of Sport Real Madrid won the competition last season after beating Liverpool 1-0 in the final. The two powerhouses could potentially be drawn against one another in the group stage given they will be placed in different pots.
Following the qualifying rounds that occurred over the summer, the new Champions League campaign officially kicks off with the group stage draw which will see 26 automatic entrants joined by the six teams that emerged from qualifying.
Prior to the draw, the 32 clubs are allocated into four pots based on different UEFA rankings as explained below. They will be drawn into eight groups each comprised of four teams.
Champions League teams and pots for group stage draw
Pot 1 will consist of the defending Champions League (Real Madrid) and Europa League (Eintracht Frankfurt) title winners, plus the reigning league champions of each of the top six nations as ranked by UEFA country coefficient list.
Since Real Madrid are the Spanish league champions (a top-six nation) as well as defending UEFA Champions League holders, the Pot 1 spot reserved for the Spanish champions is assigned to the next best nation in the coefficient list. In this case, the Netherlands and its reigning Eredivisie champion Ajax were elevated to Pot 1.
As for Pots 2, 3, and 4, those are based on the UEFA club coefficient list, which is a mathematical formula to evaluate a specific club’s performance in domestic and continental competitions over the past five years.
Each club’s UEFA club coefficient ranking is included for Pots 2-4 below since club seeding in those pots is based on the coefficient ranking.
Pot 1
Real Madrid (ESP, Champions League holders)
Eintracht Frankfurt (GER, Europa League holders)
Manchester City (ENG)
AC Milan (ITA)
Bayern München (GER)
Paris Saint-Germain (FRA)
Porto (POR)
Ajax (NED)
Pot 2
Liverpool (ENG)
Chelsea (ENG)
Barcelona (ESP)
Juventus (ITA)
Atlético de Madrid (ESP)
Sevilla (ESP)
Leipzig (GER)
Tottenham Hotspur (ENG)
Pot 3
Borussia Dortmund (GER)
Salzburg (AUT)
Shakhtar Donetsk (UKR)
Inter (ITA)
Napoli (ITA)
Benfica (POR)
Sporting CP (POR)
Bayer Leverkusen (GER)
Pot 4
Rangers (SCO)
Dinamo (CRO)
Marseille (FRA)
Copenhagen (DEN)
Club Brugge (BEL)
Celtic (SCO)
Viktoria Plzeň (CZE)
Maccabi Haifa (ISR)
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