The Champions League draw will be held in Istanbul on Thursday but the final list of teams for this season’s group stage is yet to be decided.
Viktoria Plzen, Maccabi Haifa and Benfica all booked their place in the group stages with victories in their play-offs on Tuesday.
Dinamo Zagreb, Rangers and Copenhagen sealed the final three spots in the group stage on Wednesday.
Advertisement
Here’s what you need to know about the teams to have qualified, how the pots will be made up and the toughest possible groups.
And follow live coverage of today’s Champions League draw by clicking here.
How are the pots decided?
There are four pots, each containing eight teams, for the Champions League group stage draw. They are then allocated into eight groups of four.
Pot one is made up of the league champions from Europe’s top six divisions — the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, Ligue 1 and Primeira Liga — as well as the Champions League and Europa League winners.
Pots two, three and four are determined by UEFA club coefficient — how well each side has done in European competitions over the past five seasons.
How did the Champions League final affect the pots?
Ajax will be in pot one for the group stage of next season’s Champions League and Liverpool in pot two, following Real Madrid’s victory over the Premier League side in the 2021-22 final.
Real Madrid side had already confirmed themselves as a pot one team for the 2022-23 group stage after they were crowned La Liga champions.
Liverpool had already missed out on a pot one spot on the final day of their domestic season, with Manchester City pipping them to the Premier League title.
That meant they had to beat Real to claim a place in pot one — as the winners of the Champions League are automatically placed in that pot, irrespective of their league finish and club coefficient.
Defeat for Jurgen Klopp’s side in Paris meant that the extra spot in pot one is allocated to the winner of the seventh-ranked European league — the Dutch Eredivisie.
That means Ajax will join the champions of the Premier League, Serie A, Bundesliga, Ligue 1 and Primeira Liga in pot one, as well as the Champions League and Europa League winners.
Advertisement
So, what are the pots?
Pot one:
- Real Madrid (Champions League holders and La Liga champions)
- Eintracht Frankfurt (Europa League holders)
- Manchester City (Premier League champions)
- AC Milan (Serie A champions)
- Bayern Munich (Bundesliga champions)
- Paris Saint-Germain (Ligue 1 champions)
- Porto (Primeira Liga champions)
- Ajax (Eredivisie champions)
Pot two:
- Liverpool (UEFA coefficient: 134.000)
- Chelsea (123.000)
- Barcelona (114.000)
- Juventus (107.000)
- Atletico Madrid (105.000)
- Sevilla (91.000)
- RB Leipzig (83.000)
- Tottenham Hotspur (83.000)
Pot three:
- Borussia Dortmund (78.000)
- Red Bull Salzburg (71.000)
- Shakhtar Donetsk (71.000)
- Inter Milan (67.000)
- Napoli (66.000)
- Benfica (61.000)
- Sporting Lisbon (55.000)
- Bayer Leverkusen (53.000)
Pot four:
- Marseille (44.000)
- Club Bruges (38.500)
- Celtic (33.000)
- Viktoria Plzen (31.000)
- Maccabi Haifa (7.000)
- Dinamo Zagreb (49.500)
- Rangers (50.250)
- Copenhagen (40.500)
What is the toughest and kindest possible group according to the coefficient rankings?
The ‘toughest’ possible group according to UEFA’s methodology would see their number one ranked team Bayern Munich (138.000) pitted against Liverpool, Red Bull Salzburg and Marseille, for a combined group coefficient ranking of 387.000.
The ‘weakest’ possible group would see Europa League winners Eintracht Frankfurt (61.000 — a coefficient that would ordinarily see them placed in pot three) drawn against Tottenham Hotspur, Sporting Lisbon and Maccabi Haifa, for a combined group coefficient ranking of 206.000.
The three Premier League teams in pot two will no doubt be hoping to draw Eintracht Frankfurt, one of the Portuguese sides in pot three and then Israeli side Maccabi Haifa, who will have the lowest coefficient ranking in the tournament.
Where can I find out more?
(Photo: Getty Images)
ncG1vNJzZmismJqutbTLnquim16YvK57km5qbWhkZnxzfJFrZmlwX2eCcK%2FHmqSpoZ%2BjwG64xJqerp1dpby1v4yapZqkqaiypXnHmqmdnaOpeqat0qKcrKxf