UEFA Champions League Draw Live

THE DRAW
Where is it held? Monaco
What time does the draw start? 4.45pm

RULES

The 10 winning teams from the play-off round join the 22 automatically qualified sides for the group stage of the competition.

The group stage will consist of eight groups of four teams and the only restriction at this stage of the competition is that sides from the same association cannot face each other (i.e Manchester United can’t be drawn in the same group as Chelsea, Barcelona can’t be drawn with Real Madrid etc.)

For the draw there will be four seeding pots each with eight teams based on UEFA’s coefficient rankings, with each group featuring one side from each pot.

Where two sides from the same country qualify, they are paired to split their matches between Tuesday and Wednesday. With three teams, only two are paired, while those with four teams feature two pairings based on TV audience.


Seeding Pots

Pot 1: Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Chelsea, Real Madrid, Manchester United, Arsenal, Porto, Benfica

Pot 2: Atletico Madrid, Shakhtar Donetsk, AC Milan, Schalke, Marseille, CSKA Moscow, Paris St-Germain, Juventus

Pot 3: Zenit St Petersburg, Manchester City, Ajax, Borussia Dortmund, Basel, Olympiakos, Galatasaray, Bayer Leverkusen

Pot 4: Copenhagen, Napoli, Anderlecht, Celtic, Steaua Bucharest, Viktoria Plzen, Real Sociedad, Austria Vienna

Pot 1 represents the strongest set of teams with holders Bayern leading the ranking, while Arsenal once again remain the only non-Champions League winner in the top tier. Pot 2 also has some big names with French champions PSG, Serie A winners Juventus and Champions League giants Milan placed there. 2012/13 Premier League champions City and last season's European finalists Dortmund are in Pot 3, while Napoli and Celtic find themselves in the bottom tier.

The first set matches will take place on September 17/18, while the last set of group stage fixtures is scheduled for December 10/11. Benfica's Estadio da Luz will stage the final on May 24.



Possible Group Stage Draws for British Clubs


For United / Chelsea / Arsenal

Best cases: 1) Marseille, Basel, Copenhagen or 2) Schalke, Olympiakos, Austria Vienna

Worst cases: 1) PSG, Dortmund, Napoli or 2) Juventus, Galatasaray, Sociedad


For Manchester City

Best cases: 1) Benfica, Marseille, Copenhagen or 2) Porto, Schalke, Austria Vienna

Worst cases: 1) Bayern, PSG, Napoli or 2) Barcelona, Juventus, Sociedad


For Celtic

Best cases: 1) Benfica, Marseille, Basel or 2) Porto, Schalke, Olympiakos

Worst cases: 1) Bayern, PSG, Dortmund or 2) Madrid, Juventus, Ajax