The road to crown the next UEFA Champions League winner has been mapped out, and with the 2022/23 playoffs having wrapped up this week, we have the final list of 32 teams that will be in contention for this season's title.
Those 32 teams will be split up into eight groups during the group stage draw on Thursday, Aug. 25. The first round of group matches will be played on Sept. 6-7, just a couple of weeks after the draw.
Each group will see round-robin play with teams facing the three others once at home and once away. Only the top two teams will qualify for the knockout stages in 2023. All six rounds of group matches will be completed before the break for the 2022 World Cup in November.
The 16 teams that advance from the group stage will participate in a Nov. 7 Round of 16 draw, with clubs that finished in first place matched up against teams that finished in second place in their respective group.
MORE: What teams are in the 2022/23 Champions League?
When are the Champions League draws in 2022/23?
For each round of the Champions League, a draw is conducted to determine each team's opponent and path to advance in the competition.
For all preliminary qualifying round draws, seeding is established based on the UEFA club coefficient ranking, splitting teams into seeded and unseeded categories in order to determine the potential matchups. Seeded teams are rewarded for their ranking, earning what on paper are more favorable matchups in the qualifying rounds.
For the group stage draw, teams are divided into four pots for purposes of creating groups of four teams each, with one team selected from each pot to complete the makeup of every group. Pot 1 features the Champions League and Europa League winners, plus the domestic champions of the best six nations per UEFA metrics. The UEFA club coefficient ranking is used to determine teams for Pots 2-4.
Below is the schedule of draws for every round of Champions League play.
Preliminary round: June 7, 2022First qualifying round: June 14, 2022Second qualifying round: June 15, 2022Third qualifying round: July 18, 2022Playoff round: Aug. 2, 2022- Group stage: Aug. 25, 2022
- Round of 16: Nov. 7, 2022
- Quarterfinals & semifinals: March 17, 2023
When is Champions League group stage draw and how does it work
The 2022/23 Champions League group stage draw takes place on Thursday, Aug. 25 with coverage available via TV or stream around the world.
| 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 |
The Champions League group stage consists of 32 teams split into eight groups of four. During the draw, UEFA will select one team from each pot to make up all four teams in each group.
Pot 1 consists of the defending Champions League (Real Madrid) and Europa League (Eintracht Frankfurt) title winners, plus the champions of each of the top six leagues ranked by UEFA country coefficient.
Since Real Madrid are the Spanish league champions as well as defending UEFA Champions League holders, that ensures that the champion of the next best nation in the country coefficient ranking is elevated to Pot 1. In this case, that distinction fell to the Netherlands and its reigning Eredivisie champion Ajax.
As for pots 2, 3, and 4, those are compiled by the UEFA club coefficient list, which is a mathematical formula to evaluate a club's performance in domestic and continental competitions over the previous five years.
Teams in the Champions League group stage draw
The following table outlines the pot-by-pot designations as described above.
For teams in Pots 2-4, the UEFA club coefficient ranking is indicated in front of each team name.
| 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 (see table below) cannot be drawn in the same group and must be moved to the next available group.
| No. of clubs | Nation | Clubs |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | Germany | Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Bayer Leverkusen, RB Leipzig, Eintracht Frankfurt |
| 4 | England | Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Tottenham |
| 4 | Italy | AC Milan, Inter Milan, Napoli, Juventus |
| 4 | Spain | Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, Sevilla |
| 3 | Portugal | Benfica, Porto, Sporting CP |
| 2 | France | PSG, Olympique Marseille |
| 2 | Scotland | Celtic, Rangers |
| 1 | Austria | RB Salzburg |
| 1 | Belgium | Club Brugge |
| 1 | Croatia | Dinamo Zagreb |
| 1 | Czech Rep | Viktoria Plzen |
| 1 | Denmark | FC Copenhagen |
| 1 | Israel | Maccabi Haifa |
| 1 | Netherlands | Ajax |
| 1 | Ukraine | Shakhtar Donetsk |
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. 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:
- 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