Back to that draw, then. Liverpool look to have the toughest task of the English quartet, with visits to Amsterdam, Naples and Glasgow now on their packed schedule. Manchester City’s new star striker Erling Haaland will be given a high-pressure test against his old club Borussia Dortmund, while Pep’s side are also grouped with European specialists in Sevilla. No guarantees there. You suspect Chelsea and Spurs will be happier with their draws. Celtic captain Callum McGregor gets his wish to play Real Madrid, while the old Battle of Britain clichés will get a good airing when Rangers and Liverpool get it on.
Best of luck to everyone involved, and thanks for reading this blog.
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The final award of the evening is the Uefa Men’s Player of the Year. No surprises: it’s Karim Benzema, who at times defied reason to inspire Real Madrid to their Champions League victory.
The Uefa Women’s Player of the Year is the next award. That goes to Barcelona’s brilliant midfielder Alexia Putellas. She beats Arsenal and England’s Beth Mead and Lena Oberdorf of Wolfsburg to the gong. It’s the second time Putellas has won this award, having pipped her team-mates Jenni Hermoso and Lieke Martens last year.
Now the Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin gets up to announce the winner of the Men’s Coach of the Year award. Unsurprisingly, it goes to Carlo Ancelotti, who led Real Madrid to the Spanish title, and one of the most outrageous Champions League runs in history. “Thank you for this award,” says Ancelotti. “I have the possibility to thank Arrigo, who was a fantastic teacher. I have to say thanks to my players, my club, my staff, my supporters, my president. I hope I don’t forget anyone!”
While all that sinks in, the Uefa award for Women’s Coach of the Year 2021-22 goes to Sarina Wiegman, who led England to glory at Euro 2022. “"It’s really nice to receive this great award, I am honoured and humbled. This award is really for everyone involved with the England team, the FA, the staff and most of all the players. Our fans have been very great too, so thank you fans for supporting us so much. Hopefully we’ll qualify for the World Cup and enjoy the game.”
The group-stage draw in full
A: Ajax, Liverpool, Napoli, Rangers
B: Porto, Atlético Madrid, Bayer Leverkusen, Bruges
C: Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Internazionale, Viktoria Plzen
D: Eintracht Frankfurt, Tottenham Hotspur, Sporting, Marseille
E: Milan, Chelsea, Salzburg, Dinamo
F: Real Madrid, RB Leipzig, Shakhtar Donetsk, Celtic
G: Manchester City, Sevilla, Borussia Dortmund, Copenhagen
H: Paris Saint-Germain, Juventus, Benfica, Maccabi Haifa
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… and finally Viktoria Plzen are placed in Group C, games against Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Internazionale their reward for getting this far.
Maccabi Haifa are in Group H. They’ll play Paris Saint-Germain, Juventus and Benfica.
Dinamo Zagreb go in Group E. They’ll play AC Milan, Chelsea and Salzburg.
Rangers follow, follow and go into Group A with Ajax, Liverpool and Napoli. Steven Gerrard Derby ahoy!
Bruges go into Group B. They’re in with Porto, Atletico Madrid and Bayer Leverkusen.
Copenhagen are selected for Group G. They’ll play Manchester City, Sevilla and Borussia Dortmund.
Marseille are next out. They go into Group D with Eintracht Frankfurt, Tottenham Hotspur and Sporting Lisbon.
Celtic are the first team out of the final pot. They can go into any group, and the 1967 champions are assigned Group F, alongside Real Madrid, Leipzig and Shakhtar Donetsk.
Pot 3 summary
A: Ajax, Liverpool, Napoli
B: Porto, Atletico Madrid, Bayer Leverkusen
C: Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Internazionale
D: Eintracht Frankfurt, Tottenham Hotspur, Sporting
E: AC Milan, Chelsea, Salzburg
F: Real Madrid, RB Leipzig, Shakhtar Donetsk
G: Manchester City, Sevilla, Borussia Dortmund
H: Paris Saint-Germain, Juventus, Benfica
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Internazionale are the last out. They’re in Group C with Bayern Munich and Barcelona. What a group taking shape here!
The penultimate name drawn out of Pot 3 is Shakhtar Donetsk. They automatically go into Group F with Real Madrid and RB Leipzig.
Sporting Lisbon can go into C, D or F. Turns out it’s Group D for them. They’re in with Eintracht Frankfurt and Tottenham Hotspur.
Bayer Leverkusen also have just one option: Group B with Porto and Atletico Madrid.
Borussia Dortmund are in Group G, their only option. They’ll face Manchester City and Sevilla.
Benfica will go into Group H with PSG and Juve.
Salzburg next out. They can go into any of the remaining groups, and it’s Group E for them, alongside Milan and Chelsea.
Napoli are the first Pot 3 club out of the bag. They go into Group A with Ajax and Liverpool.
Pot 2 summary
A: Ajax, Liverpool
B: Porto, Atletico Madrid
C: Bayern Munich, Barcelona
D: Eintracht Frankfurt, Tottenham Hotspur
E: AC Milan, Chelsea
F: Real Madrid, RB Leipzig
G: Manchester City, Sevilla
H: Paris Saint-Germain, Juventus
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The final Pot 2 club out is Atletico Madrid, and they go into Group B with Porto.
Chelsea next, and they have to go into Group E in with AC Milan.
Barcelona are out next. They go into Group C with Bayern Munich.
Sevilla go into Group G with Manchester City.
Liverpool next. They can only go in A, B or C … and it’s Group A for last season’s runners-up. They’ll face Ajax.
Tottenham Hotspur can go into A, B, C, D or E. They’re selected for Group D, where they’ll play Eintracht Frankfurt.
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Juventus are second out. They can only go in Groups G and H … and they’re in Group H with PSG.
RB Leipzig are the first Pot 2 team drawn by Toure. Altintop puts them into Group F alongside Real Madrid.
Pot 1 summary
A: Ajax
B: Porto
C: Bayern Munich
D: Eintracht Frankfurt
E: AC Milan
F: Real Madrid
G: Manchester City
H: Paris Saint-Germain
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PSG are the final Pot 1 club out of the bowl. They go into Group H.
Manchester City are in Group G.
Real Madrid, the reigning and 14-time champions, go into Group F.
AC Milan slot into Group E.
Eintracht Frankfurt, the Europa League champions and 1960 European Cup finalists, go into Group D.
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Bayern Munich will go into Group C.
Porto are the second team out. The Portuguese champions go into Group B.
OK, here we go!
Yaya Toure begins the draw by selecting the first ball out of Pot 1. It’s Ajax. They’ll go into Group A.
Altintop and Toure take up their positions behind the pots. The draw is about to start! Uefa deputy general secretary Giorgio Marchetti and Uefa head of club competitions Tobias Hedtstück arrive to take charge of proceedings. No legally-binding guarantees, you know how these things are drawn out in more ways than one … but it looks like we’ll be off in a minute or two.
The Champions League trophy is brought onto the Istanbul stage by Hamit Altintop. The former Turkey international played in the 2010 final for Bayern Munich, who were defeated 2-0 by Internazionale. He’ll also assist with the draw, alongside Yaya Toure, who joins everyone onstage. Toure was part of the Barcelona team that beat Manchester United 2-0 in the 2009 final.
They’re doling out awards tonight as well. The first is the President’s Award, which will go to a former player or manager whose achievements on and/or off the pitch have helped to develop the match. Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin comes on to wax lyrical about winner Arrigo Sacchi. “He was visionary in my opinion,” Ceferin says of the erstwhile Milan and Italy coach, who won the European Cup with the Rossoneri in 1989 and 1990. “His teams attacked home and away, he was never afraid. Great respect, he deserves the award.” Sacchi takes to the stage and is presented with his gong. Luis Figo, sitting in the audience, takes a few snaps with his phone. You’ve got plenty of time to make a cup of tea.
Hosts Pedro Pinto and Reshmin Chowdhury have taken to the stage in Istanbul. Two minutes in, and they’ve already cued up the first montage. While that spools across the continent, here are the clubs most likely to win this year’s Champions League, according to bookmaker aggregation site Oddschecker: Manchester City are favourites, followed by PSG, Liverpool, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur, Internazionale, Atletico Madrid, Juventus, AC Milan and Borussia Dortmund. Let’s see if any of that changes once the draw has been made.
It’s Football Weekly Extra’s turn to contemplate the group stage of the draw. Colin McMillan from Rangers podcast Heart and Hand join Max, Barry et al to share just how big this is for the Light Blues.
Current and previous winners in the draw: Real Madrid, AC Milan, Liverpool, Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Ajax, Internazionale, Juventus, Benfica, Chelsea, Porto, Celtic, Marseille, Borussia Dortmund.
Previous finalists hoping to go one better at last: Atletico Madrid, Eintracht Frankfurt, Brugge, Bayer Leverkusen, Tottenham Hotspur, PSG, Manchester City.
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More on that television pairing thing. We might as well, we’ve got time to kill. To make sure certain clubs from the same country don’t clutter up the TV schedule on the same day, Uefa have made 11 pairings. All eight groups are distinguished by colour – A to D red, E to H blue – and when a paired club is drawn in, say, one of the red groups, the computer will make sure the other paired club is assigned blue. Head hurts. The pairings are as follows:
Real Madrid and Barcelona
Eintracht Frankfurt and RB Leipzig
Manchester City and Liverpool
AC Milan and Napoli
Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund
PSG and Marseille
Porto and Benfica
Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur
Juventus and Internazionale
Atletico Madrid and Sevilla
Rangers and Celtic
Today’s Fiver has been contemplating the upcoming draw, and is brought to you in English, Serbian and Hebrew. Subscribe now! Pretplati se sada? הירשם עכשיו!
The schedule. This year’s group stage is being squeezed into a nine-week window, as opposed to the usual three months. The things we do for Qatar. The first matchday is on Tuesday 6 September, the final one on Wednesday 2 November. Here are the dates for your diary …
Matchday 1: September 6 and 7
Matchday 2: September 13 and 14
Matchday 3: October 4 and 5
Matchday 4: October 11 and 12
Matchday 5: October 25 and 26
Matchday 6: November 1 and 2
… then after everyone’s run themselves into the ground at the World Cup, the competition resumes later than normal. Here’s how the rest of it pans out:
Round of 16: February 14 and 15; March 7 and 8
Round of 16: February 21 and 22; March 14 and 15
Quarter finals: April 11 and 12; April 18 and 19
Semi-finals: May 9 and 10; May 16 and 17
Then the final on Saturday 10 June 2023, at the Ataturk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul. As a great man once wondered after pondering the mechanics of an unnecessarily complicated draw: who’s that gonna be?
Preamble
The draw for the group stage of the 2022-23 Champions League takes place at the Ataturk stadium in Istanbul this evening. The seeded pots look like this …
Pot 1: Real Madrid, Eintracht Frankfurt, Manchester City, AC Milan, Bayern Munich, Paris Saint Germain, Porto, Ajax
Pot 2: Liverpool, Chelsea, Barcelona, Juventus, Atletico Madrid, Sevilla, RB Leipzig, Tottenham
Pot 3: Borussia Dortmund, Salzburg, Shakhtar Donetsk, Internazionale, Napoli, Benfica, Sporting Lisbon, Bayer Leverkusen
Pot 4: Rangers, Marseille, Copenhagen, Bruges, Celtic, Viktoria Plzen, Maccabi Haifa, Dinamo Zagreb
… and the usual rules apply. Teams from Pot 1 will be drawn into Groups A to H, then teams from the next three Pots in turn are plucked from the bowls of destiny. When a team from Pots 2, 3 and 4 are picked, a computer immediately dumps them into the first available group, taking restrictions into account. Those being: two teams from the same country can’t face each other, while certain pairings from the same country must play on different nights for TV purposes. Don’t ask, life’s too short, that’s why the computer’s going to deal with it.
The draw is scheduled to begin at 7pm in Istanbul, which is 5pm BST. It won’t, of course, there will be a spirit-sapping amount of pomp, pish, faff and filler before anyone deigns to get down to business. But as soon as those damn balls are plucked, pulled apart, the paper within them unspooled, the names on the paper read out, and the teams assigned to groups, you’ll be the first to know. It’s on!
