All you need to know About Champions League Draw

 

The draw for this year's competition takes place on Thursday at 17:00 BST in Istanbul, with defending champions Chelsea among the teams waiting to find out who they will face in the group stage.

Fellow Premier League sides Manchester City, who were last year's beaten finalists, Manchester United and Liverpool are all in the pot too.

Here's everything you need to know about the draw.

There are 26 teams that have qualified for the group stage automatically, with a further six sides progressing via the play-offs.

Spain have five qualifiers, four through their finish in La Liga plus Villarreal after winning the Europa League.

The clubs from Spain are: Atletico Madrid, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Sevilla, Villarreal

England: Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea

Germany: Bayern Munich, RB Leipzig, Borussia Dortmund, Wolfsburg

Italy: Inter Milan, AC Milan, Atalanta, Juventus

France: Lille, Paris St-Germain

Portugal: Sporting Lisbon, Porto, Benfica

Russia: Zenit St Petersburg

Belgium: Club Brugge

Ukraine: Dynamo Kyiv

Netherlands: Ajax

Turkey: Besiktas

Switzerland: Young Boys

Sweden: Malmo

Plus three qualifiers from Wednesday night's final play-off matches.

Teams will be split into four seeding pots, with pot one containing the holders Chelsea and Europa League winners Villarreal.

The remaining pot one teams are made up of the champions from the six highest-ranked nations; Manchester City (England), Atletico Madrid (Spain), Inter Milan (Italy), Bayern Munich (Germany), Lille (France), Sporting Lisbon (Portugal).

Pots two, three and four will be determined by Uefa's club coefficient.

At this stage, no sides from their own association can be drawn against each other. For example, Manchester City will avoid a meeting with rivals Manchester United.

If associations have two representatives, such as Lille and PSG from France, those teams will be paired so that their matches can be split between Tuesday and Wednesday

Chelsea beat Manchester City in last year's final

The Champions League is back.

The draw for this year's competition takes place on Thursday at 17:00 BST in Istanbul, with defending champions Chelsea among the teams waiting to find out who they will face in the group stage.

Fellow Premier League sides Manchester City, who were last year's beaten finalists, Manchester United and Liverpool are all in the pot too.

Here's everything you need to know about the draw.

Who is in the draw?

There are 26 teams that have qualified for the group stage automatically, with a further six sides progressing via the play-offs.

Spain have five qualifiers, four through their finish in La Liga plus Villarreal after winning the Europa League.

Spain: Atletico Madrid, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Sevilla, Villarreal

England: Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea

Germany: Bayern Munich, RB Leipzig, Borussia Dortmund, Wolfsburg

Italy: Inter Milan, AC Milan, Atalanta, Juventus

France: Lille, Paris St-Germain

Portugal: Sporting Lisbon, Porto, Benfica

Russia: Zenit St Petersburg

Belgium: Club Brugge

Ukraine: Dynamo Kyiv

Netherlands: Ajax

Turkey: Besiktas

Switzerland: Young Boys

Sweden: Malmo

Plus three qualifiers from Wednesday night's final play-off matches.

What are the seeding pots?

Messi, Neymar, Mbappe

Now PSG have signed Lionel Messi, can they finally crack the Champions League?

Teams will be split into four seeding pots, with pot one containing the holders Chelsea and Europa League winners Villarreal.

The remaining pot one teams are made up of the champions from the six highest-ranked nations; Manchester City (England), Atletico Madrid (Spain), Inter Milan (Italy), Bayern Munich (Germany), Lille (France), Sporting Lisbon (Portugal).

Pots two, three and four will be determined by Uefa's club coefficient.

How does the draw work?

At this stage, no sides from their own association can be drawn against each other. For example, Manchester City will avoid a meeting with rivals Manchester United.

If associations have two representatives, such as Lille and PSG from France, those teams will be paired so that their matches can be split between Tuesday and Wednesday.

If associations have four or more representatives, which is the case for Spain, England, Germany and Italy, then two pairings will be made.

The 32 teams will be put into eight groups of four.

The group games will start between 14/15 of September 2021

Matchday one: 14/15 September

Matchday two: 28/29 September

Matchday three: 19/20 October

Matchday four: 2/3 November

Matchday five: 23/24 November

Matchday six: 7/8 December

The top two teams from each group will advance to the last-16 knockout stage.

Teams finishing third in each group will drop down to the Europa League last-16 stage, where they will face the runners-up from the Europa League groups.

This year's Champions League final takes place at the St Petersburg Stadium in Russia on Saturday, 28 May.