The 2022/23 Champions League group stage draw will take place this Thursday, August 25, with 32 teams divided into eight groups of four.
In the absence of the competition’s last three playoff qualifiers, the pots for the 2022/23 UEFA Champions League draw have been defined.
Benfica, Maccabi Haifa, and Viktoria Plzen have all sealed their berths in the group round, which includes defending winners Real Madrid.
Here’s how teams have been seeded ahead of Thursday’s draw in Istanbul, Turkey.
Pot 1
Since UEFA modified the seeding system, champions of the top-ranked European leagues are assured a spot in the main pot. As a result, Real Madrid, the Champions League and La Liga champions, will be joined in pot 1 by Eintracht Frankfurt, the Europa League champions.
Manchester City won the Premier League, AC Milan won Serie A, and Bayern Munich won the Bundesliga. This pot also includes Bayern Munich, Ligue 1 champions Paris Saint-Germain, Primeira Liga champions Porto, and Eredivisie champions Ajax.
The remaining teams are seeded in Pots 2, 3, and 4, depending on their 2022 UEFA club coefficients.
Liverpool, Chelsea, Barcelona, Juventus, Atletico Madrid, Sevilla, RB Leipzig, and Tottenham Hotspur are among the teams in Pot 2.
These clubs will face teams from pots 1, 3, and 4, however no two teams from the same league will be drawn into the same group.
Pot 3
In this pot, Italian teams Inter Milan and Napoli, as well as German side Borussia Dortmund, will provide substance to some groups if they are placed with equally challenging opponents from other pots.
Pot 3 also includes RB Salzburg, Shaktar Donetsk, Benfica, Sporting Lisbon, and Bayer Leverkusen.
Pot 4
The fourth and final pot will have the weakest teams, albeit it does include some difficult clubs such as Marseille. Last season, the French club finished second in Ligue 1.
Club Brugge, Celtic, Viktoria Plzen, Maccabi Haifa, and the three playoff round winners, Dinamo Zagreb-Bodo Glimt, PSV-Rangers, and Trabzonspor-Copenhagen, are all in pot 4.
SOURCE: Pulse.com.gh
