HAPPENING LIVE Champions League group stage draw pots CONFIRMED today for Arsenal, Man City,Man united and Newcastle as Arsenal set to face tougher opponent that could ELIMINATE them at group stage
The pots for the 2023/24 Champions League group stage draw have now been confirmed following the conclusion of the qualification phase of the competition.
PSV Eindhoven, Royal Antwerp and FC Copenhagen became the final three teams to book their place in the next round after beating Rangers, AEK Athens and Rakow Czestochowa respectively in their qualification play-offs on Wednesday night.
Next month, the Champions League proper gets underway with the group stage, which begins on September 19 and 20. It involves 32 teams, divided into eight groups of four. No group may contain more than one club from each nation.
The groups will be drawn from four seeding pots and each group will have one team from each pot.
Pot 1 has been locked in for months, given it consists of the Champions League holders, the Europa League winners and the champions of UEFA’s six highest-ranked nations who have not earned a place by winning either of the aforementioned tournaments.
The other three pots are based on UEFA’s coefficient rankings, which are determined based on the results of all European clubs in UEFA club competitions.
Four English teams are involved in the group stage – Manchester City, Arsenal, Manchester United and Newcastle – while one Scottish side, Celtic, have also made the cut.
As per X account UEFA Rankings, the respective pots will look like this:
Pot 1: Man City, Sevilla, Barcelona, Napoli, Bayern Munich, PSG, Benfica, Feyenoord.
Pot 2: Real Madrid, Manchester United, Inter Milan, Borussia Dortmund, Atletico Madrid, RB Leipzig, Porto, Arsenal.
Pot 3: Shakhtar Donetsk, Red Bull Salzburg, AC Milan, Braga, PSV Eindhoven, Lazio, Red Star Belgrade, FC Copenhagen.
Pot 4: Young Boys, Real Sociedad, Galatasaray, Celtic, Newcastle United, Union Berlin, Royal Antwerp, RC Lens.
The group stage draw for the Champions League will take place at 5pm BST on Friday, August 31.
It will be hosted at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco for the first time in three years.
Last year, the draw took place in Istanbul – the city hosting the final. This season, Wembley Stadium in London is hosting the final for the first time since 2013.
