Key events
Next up: Barcelona.
These all go home then away then home then away by the way. Manchester City, PSG, Aston Villa, Sporting, Feyenoord, Galatasaray, Como, Sabah.
It’s Inter next.
Liverpool, Real Madrid, Club Brugge, Dortmund, Shakhtar, Feyenoord, Stuttgart and Slovan Bratislava.
Manchester City face PSG and Barcelona
Next up: Manchester City
They’ll play PSG (h), Barcelona (a), Sporting (h), Porto (a), Napoli (h), Leipzig (a), AEK (h) and Lens (a).
First out of the bag is Real Madrid.
They’ll face Inter (h), Arsenal (a), PSV (h), Roma (a), Leipzig (h), Shakhtar (a), Lask (h) and AEK Athens (a)
OK, here we go. Draw time. Four pots on the dais and Giorgio Marchetti, Uefa’s deputy general secretary, coming out to make sure things run smoothly.
Takes us back to the Champions League final in 2011, David. “2011 was an amazing year for me and the club!” That’s more like it!
Ceferin awkwardly exits the stage after a slightly stilted chat with Henry. The former Arsenal man is sticking around to help with the draw and David Villa is joining him!
Tell us about your memories of your first Champions League final with Arsenal Thierry! “Pain … it’s always something that will haunt me.” OK, keep it light …
The next award – the Uefa President’s Award – seems to be basically for whoever Uefa feels like giving an award to. It was Zlatan Ibrahimovic last year, it’s Thierry Henry this time. Alexi Lalas in 2027?
Ceferin dishes out a new award – the Respect Award – for fair play to Marquinhos, for his actions in the aftermath of PSG’s win over Arsenal in last season’s final when the Brazil defender comforted Gabriel Magalhães following his penalty miss in the shootout. He’s not in attendance, though, so PSG president Nasser al-Khelaifi accepts the award on his behalf.
The worst six words you ever here at these shindigs: “But before we get to that …” So here comes Uefa president, Aleksander Ceferin.
And we’re off! Uefa are kicking off proceedings in Monte Carlo with an operatic version of the Champions League anthem.
What’s the dream draw here for the Premier League teams? Inter and Atlético from pot one perhaps? Club Brugge and Betis from two, Lille and Feyenoord from three? Lask and Viking from four? And the nightmare? PSG, Barcelona, Dortmund, Sporting, Napoli, Galatasaray, Como, Lens maybe? To be fair, the pots do seem to be well structured – so there’s not a huge range between the best- and worst-case scenarios. And given English teams snagged five of the top eight places last year, it’s not unreasonable to suggest that the Premier League quintet are the ones the rest will want to avoid.
The pots and how it works
The draw is pretty straightforward. Each team is allocated eight opponents, with four home games and four away games. Two opponents are taken from each seeding pot and teams cannot meet a team from their own country.
Then we have the matches, played between September and January. Goals are scored, hearts are broken, stuff happens. When it’s all said and done, the top eight teams in the 36-team table go straight through to the last 16.
The 16 teams ranked ninth to 24 go into a playoff round, with the eight winners going through to the last 16. The bottom eight are eliminated and will be taunted and booed until our throats are sore.
Pot 1: Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Liverpool, Inter, Manchester City, Arsenal, Barcelona, Atlético Madrid.
Pot 2: Borussia Dortmund, Roma, Sporting Lisbon, Aston Villa, Porto, Manchester United, Club Brugge, Real Betis, PSV.
Pot 3: Feyenoord, Lille, Napoli, RB Leipzig, Villarreal, Fenerbahce, Shakhtar Donetsk, Galatasaray, Bodø/Glimt.
Pot 4: Slavia Prague, Slovan Bratislava, Stuttgart, AEK Athens, Lask, Como, Lens, Viking, Sabah.
Preamble
Hello all and welcome to live coverage of the league phase draw for this season’s Champions League. The 36 teams – 36! – will discover their various opponents, home and away and there are sure to be some mouthwatering ties thrown up.
It’ll be the third edition of the Champions League in the One Big Group format, which seemed unwieldy and bloated at first but has been … OK? The final matchday has brought a good amount of drama for the teams scrambling for 24th, which is something. Though the importance of finishing in the top eight is somewhat undercut by the fact that Paris Saint-Germain have won both tournaments since the advent of this format having finished 15th and 11th in the league phase.
Things kick off in Monte Carlo at 5pm BST. Before we get to all that, though, there has already been some big news out of Uefa on Thursday:
Uefa is preparing to make a criminal complaint against Gianni Infantino for alleged “criminal mismanagement” in connection with his failed Fifa Forward Enterprise plan and has applied for the release of documents related to its conception.
In an explosive escalation of the war engulfing football’s governing bodies, Uefa has made separate applications in the United States for information, including from Fifa.