Champions League Night Ahead: Draw Details and Pots
The new Champions League league phase is almost ready to take shape. On Thursday, August 27, the 36 qualified clubs will learn their eight opponents and start mapping out the road ahead.
Paris Saint-Germain enter as defending champions after beating Arsenal in Budapest in May, and every team in the field will hope for a favorable path. With the revamped format now firmly in place, this draw matters more than ever.
When the draw starts
The league phase draw takes place on Thursday, August 27, with proceedings set to begin at 5 p.m. BST.
How the new format works
The old group stage is gone. In its place is a 36-team league phase where each club receives a distinct schedule rather than sharing a four-team group.
Each side is drawn against eight opponents in total, with two fixtures coming from each pot. That creates a one-off set of matchups for every club, which means no two teams will have the same route through the competition.
There is one important restriction: teams cannot be paired with clubs from their own country. Beyond that, the draw can produce a wide range of difficult or favorable combinations.
The pots at a glance
Here is the current spread of teams across the four pots.
Pot 1
- Paris Saint-Germain
- Bayern Munich
- Real Madrid
- Liverpool
- Inter Milan
- Manchester City
- Arsenal
- Barcelona
- Atletico Madrid
Pot 2
- Borussia Dortmund
- Roma
- Sporting
- Aston Villa
- Porto
- Manchester United
- Club Brugge
- Real Betis
- PSV Eindhoven
Pot 3
- Feyenoord
- Lille
- Bodo/Glimt
- Napoli
- RB Leipzig
- Villarreal
- Shakhtar Donetsk
- Galatasaray
- Winner of Fenerbahce vs Lyon
Pot 4
- Winner of Dinamo Zagreb vs Viking
- Winner of Slovan Bratislava vs Celje
- Slavia Prague
- VfB Stuttgart
- LASK
- Winner of Levski Sofia vs AEK Athens
- Como
- Lens
- Sabah
What to watch for
The draw should create a mix of headline clashes, tricky travel, and potential advantage for the biggest names. Pot 1 clubs will want to avoid the toughest possible combinations, while lower-seeded sides may see a path to valuable points if the draw breaks kindly.
Because every club gets eight separate opponents, the margin for error is smaller than in the old format. A strong start can set the tone quickly, while a difficult opening run could leave a team under pressure before winter.
Thursday’s draw will not decide the season, but it will shape the story of the league phase from the first whistle.
