Monaco: There will be 14 winners of the Champions League, or the old European Cup, in the 32-team group stage draw Thursday after PSV Eindhoven advanced in the qualifying playoffs. This Champions League is the 20th and last in the familiar format of eight round robin groups of four teams each, sending the top two into a 16-team knockout bracket. Next year the Champions League expands to 36 teams, playing eight games instead of six, ranked in a single standings. The top eight will advance direct to the round of 16. Teams ranked No. 9 through 24 go into a knockout playoffs round to decide the other eight places in the last-16. The final edition in the established format starts Sept. 19 and group-stage games finish Dec. 13. The knockout stage starts in February and reaches the final at Wembley Stadium in London on June 1.
Pot 1: Manchester City (England), Sevilla (Spain), Barcelona (Spain), Bayern Munich (Germany), Napoli (Italy), Paris Saint-Germain (France), Benfica (Portugal), Feyenoord (Netherlands).
Pot 2: Real Madrid (Spain), Manchester United (England), Inter Milan (Italy), Borussia Dortmund (Germany), Atlético Madrid (Spain), Leipzig (Germany), Porto (Portugal), Arsenal (England).
Pot 3: Shakhtar Donetsk (Ukraine), Salzburg (Austria), AC Milan (Italy), Braga (Portugal), PSV Eindhoven (Netherlands), Lazio (Italy), Red Star Belgrade (Serbia), Copenhagen (Denmark).
Pot 4: Young Boys (Switzerland), Real Sociedad (Spain), Galatasaray (Turkey), Celtic (Scotland), Newcastle (England), Union Berlin (Germany), Royal Antwerp (Belgium), Lens (France).
The UCL draw will be held on Thursday (August 31) from 9:30 PM (IST) onwards.
The UCL draw will be played at Grimaldi Forum, Monaco.
The UCL draw will be telecasted live on Sony Ten 2 and Sony Ten 2 HD channels in India.
The UCL draw will be live streamed on the SonyLIV app.
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