The UEFA Champions League group stage draw will take place today, and Manchester United or Real Madrid could end up in a much-feared "group of death".
THE UCL DRAW HIS SINCE TAKEN PLACE AND YOU CAN READ ABOUT IT HERE!
The draw for the UEFA Champions League group stages took place in Monaco this evening, and it has matched @Cristiano Ronaldo with his former side @ManUtd, while @FCBarcelona received one of the toughest groups. #SLInt #UCLDraw https://t.co/4FSTtFU9DI
— Soccer Laduma (@Soccer_Laduma) August 30, 2018
The draw will take place during the UEFA awards ceremony in Monaco at 18:00 this evening, and Soccer Laduma will bring you all the updates.
The four pots were confirmed on Wednesday after the final play-off fixtures were completed and the way things are lining up, we could see some really tough groups in the competition this season.
For example, defending champions Real Madrid could face Borussia Dortmund, last year's runners-up Liverpool and Inter Milan, while another tricky group could see FC Barcelona face Manchester United, Valencia and Hoffenheim.
Here are all the pots, with the draw proceedings explained below, as confirmed by UEFA:
|
POT 1 |
POT 2 |
POT 3 |
POT 4 |
|
Real Madrid Atletico Madrid Barcelona Bayern Munich Manchester City Juventus Paris Saint-Germain Lokomotiv Moscow |
Borussia Dortmund Porto Manchester United Shakhtar Donetsk Benfica Napoli Tottenham Hotspur Roma |
Liverpool Schalke Lyon Monaco Ajax Amsterdam CSKA Moscow PSV Eindhoven Valencia |
Viktoria Plzen Club Brugge Galatasaray Young Boys Inter Milan Hoffenheim Crvena Zvezda AEK Athens |
- Matchday one will take place on 18 and 19 September, while the group stage will finish in December, with the round of 16 draw taking place on 17 December.
- The 26 teams given direct entry to the group stage under the new competition system are joined by the six winners of the play-off ties.
- The teams are split into four seeding pots. Pot 1 consists of the holders, the UEFA Europa League winners and the champions of the six highest-ranked nations. Pots 2 to 4 are determined by the club co-efficient rankings.
- No team can play a club from their own association and, based on decisions taken by the UEFA Executive Committee, clubs from Russia and Ukraine must not be drawn in the same group.
Read: 'Ronaldo Should've Copied Messi'
UEFA will also announce the winner of the UEFA Men's Player of the Year award – Cristiano Ronaldo, Mohamed Salah and Luka Modric are the final nominees – as well as the winners for several sub-categories during the gala, and you can follow all breaking news on Soccer Laduma's Twitter account as well as our website.
Which four teams would you like to see being grouped together? Have your say in the comments section below.
