Champions League draw: hype, rules, teams and how it works

The pots of the Champions were defined after the classification of the last teams through the preliminary phase. The draw for the league will be held this Thursday at 6:00 p.m. in Istanbul, coinciding with the opening party of the season and the delivery of the UEFA Awards to the best footballers of last season.

As in the last editions, Pot 1 will award national, Champions and Europa League champions. From 2 onwards, they will be divided according to the UEFA ranking. Teams from the same country and the same pot may not be paired in the same group.

The competition will run like this: first day: 14/15 September, sSecond match: September 28/29, tMatchday 3: October 19/20, cFourth day: November 2/3, qday one: 23/24 November and s4th day: December 7/8. The grand final of this edition will take place at the Saint Petersburg Stadium (Russia) on May 28.

Pot 1: the one with champions

In it are Atlético, as League champion, and Villarreal, as Europa League champion. The Champions League champion, Chelsea, also appears. Along with them, the winners of the leagues with the highest ranking: Manchester City, Bayern, Inter, Lille and Sporting de Portugal. The team table of the drum (and its UEFA ranking) looks like this:

• Chelsea (98,000)
• Villarreal (63,000)
• Athletic (115,000)
• Manchester City (125,000)
• Bayern (134,000)
• Inter (53,000)
• Lille (14,000)
• Sporting (45,500)

Pot 2: the greats of the League … and PSG

Real Madrid and Barcelona appear in Pot 2 for the first time in a long time, in addition to two other giants such as Juventus and PSG. By name, it is undoubtedly the hardest of all hype. A duel with Chelsea, City or Bayern, from 1, would already have top-level clashes from the group stage itself. In addition, Atlético or Villarreal can collide with PSG, the great current colossus. Here's how the hype is divided:

• Real Madrid (127,000)
• Barcelona (122,000)
• Juventus (120,000)
• Manchester United (113,000)
• PSG (113,000)
• Liverpool (101,000)
• Seville (98,000)
• Dortmund (90,000)

Pot 3: growing trap teams

As always, the bass drums that define the difficulty of the group are the last two. Considering that two are classified, finding opponents more or less comfortable in these pots can pave the way to the eighths a lot. Otherwise, and a powerful combination of the first two drums is added, the group can be a major obstacle. In the three there are several trap teams: Leipzig, Porto, Atalanta, Ajax …

• Porto (87,000)
• Ajax (82,500)
• Shakhtar (79,000)
• Leipzig (66,000)
• Salzburg (59,000)
• Benfica (58,000)
• Atalanta (50,500)
• Zenith (50,000)

Pot 4: Milan is back

It is always the hype that brings together the most modest teams, but this time it recovers a classic that had not appeared in the Champions League for a long time: Milan. The difference between the Rossoneri and any other possible rival is enormous. Also watch out for Wolfsburg, a surprise last season in the Bundesliga and a very tough team to be in Pot 4. The rest of the teams are a priori simpler.

• Besiktas (49,000)
• Dynamo Kiev (47,000)
• Witches (35,500)
• Young Boys (35,000)
• Milan (31,000)
• Malmoe (18,500)
• Wolfsburg (14,714)
• Sheriff Tiraspol (14,500)