Key events
After a pretty cringe-worthy dramatised video, Zlatan Ibrahimovic is handed the Uefa president’s award by Ceferin. “My top 10 goals is not that bad,” he says. “The England goal was nice because it was against England …”
Zlatan starts to head off stage before being reminded of his draw-conducting duties. He will be joined by Kaká: “The nice guy and the bad guy,” Zlatan offers.
Anyway, the procedure. That’s what we’re here for. Here are the main points:
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Each team will play eight fixtures: against two teams from each pot, including their own. Which means there will be some heavyweight clashes between teams in Pot 1
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Teams cannot play anyone else from their own country at this stage
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One team cannot play more than two teams from the same country – so, for example, Chelsea cannot play Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atlético Madrid
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The top eight from the 36-team league table advance to the last 16; 8th-24th go into a playoff; 25th-36th are out
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Group-stage fixtures will take place from September to January
Got it? If not, here’s a handy video explainer courtesy of Uefa.
Hosts Pedro Pinto and Reshmin Chowdhury welcome Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin on to the stage in Monaco. Their first job is to award Chelsea a special plaque celebrating their achievement of winning every Uefa competition, culminating, of course, with their triumph in the Europa Conference League in May.
The pots
We’ll start with the easy bit. Four pots of nine teams each, according to Uefa coefficient.
Pot 1
1. Paris Saint-Germain (FRA)
2. Real Madrid (ESP)
3. Manchester City (ENG)
4. Bayern Munich (GER)
5. Liverpool (ENG)
6. Inter (ITA)
7. Chelsea (ENG)
8. Borussia Dortmund (GER)
9. Barcelona (ESP)
Pot 2
10. Arsenal (ENG)
11. Bayer Leverkusen (GER)
12. Atlético Madrid (ESP)
13. Benfica (POR)
14. Atalanta (ITA)
15. Villarreal (ESP)
16. Juventus (ITA)
17. Eintracht Frankfurt (GER)
18. Club Brugge (BEL)
Pot 3
19. Tottenham (ENG)
20. PSV Eindhoven (NED)
21. Ajax (NED)
22. Napoli (ITA)
23. Sporting Clube de Portugal (POR)
24. Olympiakos (GRE)
25. Slavia Praha (CZE)
26. Bodø/Glimt (NOR)
27. Marseille (FRA)
Pot 4
28. Copenhagen (DEN)
29. Monaco (FRA)
30. Galatasaray (TUR)
31. Union Saint-Gilloise (BEL)
32. Qarabag (AZE)
33. Athletic Club (ESP)
34. Newcastle (ENG)
35. Pafos (CYP)
36. Kairat Almaty (KAZ)
Preamble
Well, well, well. Here we go again. Three months after Paris Saint-Germain lifted the trophy in Munich, the Champions League begins to take shape again for another season. Dignitaries of the 36 qualified clubs are gathered at the glitzy Grimaldi Forum in Monaco to discover who their opponents will be in the expanded league phase, which made its debut last campaign to largely positive reviews.
After Celtic and Rangers were dumped out at the playoff round this week, there will be just the six British teams involved – all of them English. They are Premier League champions Liverpool, Club World Cup winners Chelsea, Europa League conquerors Tottenham, Arsenal, Manchester City and Newcastle. Let’s just say Alexander Isak might be interested in more than one team’s set of eight fixtures.
While our friends at Uefa talk away on stage, I will endeavour to explain the procedure for the draw in layman’s terms because, well, that’s the only chance I’ve got. Let’s have your thoughts, reactions and predictions for the Champions League this season – you can email me here.
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