Find out all you need to know about the draw for this season's Champions League group stages, which takes place on Thursday.
Manchester City, Manchester United, Tottenham and Liverpool all go straight in at the group phase courtesy of finishing in the top four last season, a rule change meaning Jurgen Klopp's side avoided a play-off, but Celtic's defeat to AEK in the third qualifying round means there will be no Scottish representative in this year's competition.
When is it?
It takes place at 5pm BST on Thursday (August 30) in Monaco.
Who is in which pot?
- Pot one: Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Manchester City, Juventus, Paris Saint-Germain, Lokomotiv Moscow.
- Pot two: Borussia Dortmund, Porto, Manchester United, Shakthar Donetsk, Benfica, Napoli, Tottenham, Roma.
- Pot three: Liverpool, Schalke, Lyon, Monaco, Ajax, CSKA Moscow, Valencia, PSV Eindhoven.
- Pot four: Viktoria Plzen, Club Brugge, Galatasaray, Young Boys, Inter Milan, Hoffenheim, Red Star Belgrade, AEK Athens.
How will the draw be made?
There are 32 teams taking part at this stage of the competition, with the draw splitting them into eight groups of four from four seeded pots.
The first pot always contains the reigning champions - in this case Real Madrid - plus the title winners from each of the six highest-ranked leagues in Europe.
A slight tweak from last year means that the Europa League winners, Atletico Madrid, rather than the champions of the seventh-ranked league, take the final spot.
That means Spain have three sides in the pot one, La Liga champions Barcelona joining the two Madrid clubs among the top seeds.
Pots two, three and four are based purely on coefficients calculated using points gathered in European fixtures over the last five seasons, with more recent results carrying more weight.
Who are the favourites to win the competition?
- Manchester City - 5/1
- Barcelona - 6/1
- Juventus - 6/1
- PSG - 15/2
- Bayern Munich - 8/1
- Real Madrid - 8/1
Odds via Sky Bet, click here to see the list in full...
When do the group stages begin?
The first round of matches will take place on September 18 and 19 with the final matchday split between December 11 and 12.
The top two from each group will progress to the last 16 with the draw for that taking place on December 17. The knockout stage will start in February.
Champions League draw Opta facts
- 40% of Champions League winners have come from group F under the current formula, since 2003/04 (6 out of 15). Meanwhile, Group G is the only group not to have produced a single winner in the last 15 seasons.
- 3.21 goals per game were scored in last season’s Champions League (401 in 125 games), the highest ever average in the competition’s history (since 1992/93). In fact, five of the last six seasons have been in the Top 5 highest scoring per match in the Champions League.
- Last season, Real Madrid became the first team since Bayern Munich in the mid-70s (1974, 1975, 1976) to win three consecutive European Cup/Champions League titles.
- Real Madrid have won 13 of their 16 European Cup/Champions League finals, more than any other team in history. In fact, they’ve won each of their last seven finals in the competition, last losing in 1981 against Liverpool.
- Real Madrid’s last two Champions League titles have come despite finishing second in their group. This had only happened once in the previous 11 seasons (Inter Milan, 2010).
- Spanish clubs have won the last five European Cup/Champions League titles (Real Madrid 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018; Barcelona 2015), the longest run in the competition since English sides won six consecutive European Cups from 1977 to 1982.
- Porto are the last team from outside the Top 4 leagues (Spain, England, Germany, Italy) to win the Champions League. It was in 2004 under José Mourinho.
- The 2019 final will take place in Atlético Madrid’s Wanda Metropolitano; this is the fifth time the Spanish capital will be hosting the European Cup/Champions League final after four others being held at Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabeu. Only London has welcomed the showpiece event on more occasions (7).
- A 100% win ratio has been achieved six times in a Champions League group stage: Real Madrid in 2011/12 and 2014/15, AC Milan in 1992/93, Paris Saint-Germain in 1994/95, Spartak Moscow in 1995/96 and Barcelona in 2002/03 (first group stage). However, none of these clubs went on to lift the trophy that same year.
- The lowest total of points needed to qualify for the Champions League knockout stages is 6 points. It’s been done twice: Zenit St Petersburg (2013/14) and Roma (2015/16). On the opposite – since the new format in 2003/04 – Napoli were knocked out of the Champions League despite amassing 12 points in 2013/14. They finished third.
- Only one club has drawn all six of their games in a Champions League group stage: AEK Athens in 2002/03 (first group stage).
- 20 teams have lost all six of their games in a Champions League group stage, the latest being Benfica in 2017/18.
- Cristiano Ronaldo and/or Lionel Messi have finished top scorers in each of the last 11 Champions League campaigns (Neymar was joint-top scorer with both players in 2014/15).
- Cristiano Ronaldo has reached the 10-goal mark in each of the last seven Champions League campaigns – no other player has done it in more than two consecutive seasons (Messi, Van Nistelrooy).
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Odds correct as of 1520 BST on 29/08/18
