Champions League group stage draw: When is it? Who can Liverpool, Chelsea, Tottenham face?
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The Champions League is nearly back for 2022-23, and Premier League clubs will learn their group stage opponents this week. Liverpool, Chelsea, Tottenham and Manchester City have all qualified for this year’s edition of the elite European competition.
Liverpool came so close to winning the prestigious tournament last season, being beaten 1-0 by a strong Real Madrid team in the Paris final. Man City reached the semi-final, while Chelsea were knocked out in the quarters.
The English clubs will hope for another good run this time around. They have won two of the last four Champions Leagues.
Express Sport runs through everything you need to know ahead of this week’s draw.
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When is the draw?
The draw will take place on Thursday, August 25, at 5PM UK time. It is being held in Istanbul, Turkey, which is where the 2022-23 final will be held at the Ataturk Olympic Stadium.
For UK-based fans, BT Sport have the broadcasting rights to UEFA competitions this year and will show the draw on their channels. It can also be watched on the BT Sport YouTube channel.
There is a quick turnaround from the draw being completed to the first games taking place. The first round of group matches will be held on Tuesday, September 6, and Wednesday, September 7.
This year’s group stage format has a slightly streamlined format due to the winter-held FIFA World Cup. The group stage usually takes around 12 weeks to complete, but this year it will be concluded across just eight weeks as international players must be released to their national teams by Sunday, November 12.
It will be a packed schedule for the participating clubs and managers are likely to complain of the negative physical and mental impacts on their players.
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Who can Liverpool, Chelsea, Tottenham and Man City face?
The line-up of this year’s draw has not been entirely finalised, with the play-off matches still to take place. Scottish Premiership side Rangers are one of the teams battling to reach the group stage, and they face the second leg of their play-off tie with PSV on Wednesday.
Teams who qualify for the Champions League are drawn into four pots of eight. A club from each pot will then be drawn for each group, which will mean there will be eight groups of four teams.
Come November, the top two teams in each group will progress to the knockout rounds, while the third-place club will enter the Europa League.
Pot 1 is made up of the reigning Champions League and Europa League winners – Real Madrid and Eintracht Frankfurt – and the champions of Europe’s top six national leagues. The other pots are decided by a country’s coefficient and the club’s previous success in the competition.
Man City are in pot 1, while Liverpool, Chelsea and Spurs are in Pot 2. Clubs from the same country cannot play each other in the group stage.
Pot 1: Real Madrid, Eintracht Frankfurt, Man City, Paris Saint-Germain, AC Milan, Bayern Munich, Porto, Ajax.
Pot 2: Liverpool, Chelsea, Tottenham, Barcelona, Juventus, Atletico Madrid, Sevilla, RB Leipzig.
Pot 3: Borussia Dortmund, Salzburg, Shakhtar Donetsk, Inter Milan, Napoli, Sporting Lisbon, Bayer Leverkusen, Marseille (TBC).
Pot 4: Club Brugge, Celtic and the six Champions League play-off winners.
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