All eyes will soon turn to the UEFA Champions League as Europe’s top competition gets set for the group stage.
The 32 clubs involved in the group stage will include many of the European heavyweights, including Barcelona, Manchester City, Liverpool, and defending champions Real Madrid.
Among the field of 32 will be the six clubs that emerged from the five rounds of summer qualifying that culminated in the decisive playoff round. The winners of the six aggregate-goal playoff series earned a place in the lucrative group stage, which comes with guaranteed prize money for every participating club.
The Sporting News brings you everything you need to know about the 2022/23 Champions League draw, including date, time, place, the teams involved, and how they will be drawn.
MORE: Champions League qualifier results and matchups so far
When is the Champions League group stage draw?
The Champions League group stage will take place at 12 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. BST on Thursday August 25, 2022 in Istanbul, Turkey, host of the 2023 Champions League final.
The draw will see 32 teams split into eight groups of four. During the draw, UEFA will select one team from each of four pots to make up each group.
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How to watch the 2022/23 Champions League
Country
Date
Time
TV channel
Streaming
Australia
Fri, Aug. 26
02:00 AEST
—
Stan Sport
Canada
Thurs, Aug. 25
12:00 ET
—
DAZN
Hong Kong
Fri, Aug. 26
00:00 HKT
—
UEFA.tv, UEFA YouTube
India
Thurs, Aug. 25
21:30 IST
—
UEFA.tv, UEFA YouTube
Malaysia
Fri, Aug. 26
00:00 MYT
—
UEFA.tv, UEFA YouTube
New Zealand
Fri, Aug. 26
04:00 NZST
—
UEFA.tv, UEFA YouTube
Singapore
Fri, Aug. 26
00:00 SST
—
UEFA.tv, UEFA YouTube
UK
Thurs, Aug. 25
17:00 BST
BT Sport 1
BT Sport site/app
USA
Thurs, Aug. 25
12:00 ET
TUDN
fuboTV, Vix+, Paramount+,CBS Sports HQ
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Teams in the Champions League group stage draw
Pot 1 will consist of the defending Champions League (Real Madrid) and Europa League (Eintracht Frankfurt) title winners, plus the reigning league champions of each of the top six nations as ranked by UEFA country coefficient list.
Since Real Madrid are the Spanish league champions (a top-six nation) as well as defending UEFA Champions League holders, the Pot 1 spot reserved for the Spanish champions is assigned to the next best nation in the coefficient list. In this case, the Netherlands and its reigning Eredivisie champion Ajax were elevated to Pot 1.
As for Pots 2, 3, and 4, those are based on the UEFA club coefficient list, which is a mathematical formula to evaluate a specific club’s performance in domestic and continental competitions over the past five years. Each club’s UEFA club coefficient ranking is included for Pots 2-4 since club seeding in those pots is based on the coefficient ranking. Olympique Marseille could yet be bumped into Pot 4 depending on the results of the six playoff matchups.
Pot 1
Pot 2
Pot 3
Pot 4
Real Madrid(Champions League)
2-Liverpool
19-Borussia Dortmund
33-Rangers
Eintracht Frankfurt(Europa League)
5-Chelsea
21-RB Salzburg
34-Dinamo Zagreb
Manchester City(1st, England)
6-Barcelona
22-Shakhtar Donetsk
38-Olympique Marseille
AC Milan(1st, Italy)
8-Juventus
23-Inter Milan
41-FC Copenhagen
Bayern Munich(1st, Germany)
9-Atletico Madrid
25-Napoli
44-Club Brugge
PSG(1st, France)
12-Sevilla
27-Benfica
51-Celtic
Porto(1st, Portugal)
13-RB Leipzig
28-Sporting CP
55-Viktoria Plzen
Ajax(1st, Netherlands)
14-Tottenham
30-Bayer Leverkusen
169-Maccabi Haifa
One club is selected from each pot to make up the eight groups of four teams.
Clubs from the same country cannot be drawn in the same group and must be moved to the next available group.
In addition, UEFA pairs together certain clubs from the same nation to ensure they don’t play at the same time during the group stage (to optimise viewership audience). As such, when any of the teams below are drawn into groups A-D, their paired team will automatically be assigned to one of groups E-H, and vice-versa:
Real Madrid and Barcelona
Eintracht Frankfurt and RB Leipzig
Manchester City and Liverpool
AC Milan and Napoli
Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund
Paris Saint-Germain and Marseille
FC Porto and Benfica
Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur
Juventus and Inter Milan
Atletico Madrid and Sevilla
Champions League playoff round qualifiers
The winners of the following aggregate-goal playoff series joined the 26 automatic entrants in the Champions League group stage draw.
The first team listed below hosted the first leg. Teams that advanced indicated in bold.
Match
1st Leg
2nd Leg
Maccabi Haifa (Israel) vs. Red Star Belgrade (Serbia)
3-2
2-2
FC Copenhagen (Denmark) vs. Trabzonspor (Turkey)
2-1
0-0
FK Bodo/Glimt (Norway) vs. Dinamo Zagreb (Croatia)
1-0
1-4(a.e.t.)
Qarabag (Azerbaijan) vs. Viktoria Plzen (Czech Rep.)
0-0
1-2
Rangers (Scotland) vs. PSV Eindhoven (Netherlands)
2-2
1-0
Dynamo Kyiv (Ukraine) vs. Benfica (Portugal)
0-2
0-3
Champions League fixtures 2022/23
Preliminary & qualifying rounds schedule
Round
Draw
1st Leg
2nd Leg
Preliminary qualifying round
June 7, 2022
June 21, 2022
June 24, 2022
First qualifying round
June 14, 2022
July 5-6, 2022
July 12-13, 2022
Second qualifying round
June 15, 2022
July 19-20, 2022
July 26-27, 2022
Third qualifying round
July 18, 2022
Aug. 2-3, 2022
Aug. 9-10, 2022
Playoff round
Aug. 2, 2022
Aug. 16-17, 2022
Aug. 23-24, 2022
Group stage schedule
The draw for the 2022/23 Champions League group stage will take place on August 25, 2022 in Istanbul, Turkey.
Matchday
Dates
1
Sept. 6-7, 2022
2
Sept. 13-14, 2022
3
Oct. 4-5, 2022
4
Oct. 11-12, 2022
5
Oct. 25-26, 2022
6
Nov. 1-2, 2022
Knockout stage schedule
The draw for the 2022/23 Champions League Round of 16 will take place on November 7, 2022.
The draw for the remaining rounds (quarter-finals and semi-finals) of the 2022/23 Champions League knockout stage will take place on March 17, 2023.
Round
1st Leg
2nd Leg
Round of 16
Feb. 14-22, 2023
Mar. 7-15, 2023
Quarterfinals
Apr. 11-12, 2023
Apr. 18-19, 2023
Semifinals
May 9-10, 2023
May 16-17, 2023
Final
June 10, 2023