Teams classified for the 2023-24 Champions League and drums for the group stage draw

UOnce Manchester City has been proclaimed champion of the Champions League in the 2022-23 edition, it is time to look at 2023-24, a course that already has most of its participants defined. Pots 1 and 2 for the group stage draw are already defined and pots 3 and 4 are almost complete. The rest will be distributed as the qualifying phase progresses in July and August. The path to the final that will take place at Wembley, in London, on June 1, 2024 is practically defined.

Let’s analyze all the teams classified so far for the maximum continental competition and the operation of each preliminary round until reaching the group stage… and that will be the moment to speculate on the possible group of the death of the draw and luck that the Spanish can run.

Preliminary Round

The 4 League champions of the 4 Leagues with the lowest UEFA coefficient enter this preliminary round, that is, Montenegro, Iceland, Andorra and San Marino.

A winning team will emerge from this initial final-four and advance to the next round, with the remaining three falling to the Second Qualifying Round of the Conference League.

• Breidablik (Iceland)
• Future (Montenegro)
• Athletic Club d’Escaldes (Andorra)
• Tre Penne (San Marino)

First qualifying round

In this first qualifying round, 29 teams enter directly, plus the champion of the final four of the preliminary round, to make up a total of 30 eliminatory rounds.

All the teams that enter this First Round are champions of their respective Leagues in the last edition, except the Belarusian BATE, which came third but is in the Champions League because UEFA declared the first two ineligible due to rigging.

Winners go on, losers drop to the Conference League Second Qualifying Round.

• Maccabi Haifa (Israel)
• Slovan Bratislava (Eslovaquia)
• Swift Hesperange (Luxembourg)
• KI (Faroe Islands)
• Hacken (Sweden)
• Olimpija Ljubljana (Slovenia)
• Valmiera (Latvia)
• Flora (Estonia)
• Ludogorets Razgrad (Bulgaria)
• BATE Borisov (Belarus)
• Balkans (Kosovo)
• Hamrun Spartans (Malta)
• Constanta Lighthouse (Romania)
• Sheriff Tiraspol (Moldavia)     
• Shamrock Rovers (Irlanda) 
• Dinamo Tiflis (Georgia)
• Qarabag Azerbaijan)
• Zalgiri (Lithuania)
• Urartu (Armenia)
• Struga (Northern Macedonia)
• Ferencvaros (Hungary)
• Zrinjski Mostar (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
• Larne (Northern Ireland)
• The New Saints (Gales)
• Rakow Czestochowa (Polonia)
• HJK (Finland)
• Partizan Tirana (Albania)
• Lincoln Red Imps (Gibraltar)
• Astana (Kazakhstan)
• Winner of the preliminary final four of the Champions League

Second qualifying round

For the Second Qualifying Round of the Champions League we have the 15 winners of the First Round qualifiers and also nine teams directly enter this instance.

Here the qualifying phase is divided into two routes that will be maintained until the final playoff: on the one hand, the teams that have been League champions will be measured and on the other, those classified by league position.

The winners of the 12 ties go on, the losers drop to the Europa League qualifiers.

Participating teams in the Champions route:

• 15 winners of the First Round playoffs
• Mold (Norway)
• Galatasaray (Türkiye)
• Dinamo Zagreb (Croatia)
• Copenhagen (Denmark)
• Aris Limassol (Cyprus)

Teams participating in the League route:

• Dnipro-1 (Ukraine)
• Genk (Belgium)
• Servette (Switzerland)
• Panathinaikos (Greece)

Third qualifying round

A total of 20 teams participate in 10 rounds: 6 rounds (12 teams) of the League Champions qualifying phase and 4 rounds (8 teams) of those classified by league position.

The winners advance to the last qualifying round of the Champions League while the losers have two chances: if they come from the League Champions qualifying zone, they go to the last qualifying round of the Europa League. If they go through the classified area via the League, they go directly to the Group Stage of the Europa League.

Participating teams in the Champions route:

• 10 winners of the Second Round Champions route
• AEK Atenas (Greece)
• Sparta Prague (Czech Republic)

Teams participating in the League route:

• 2 Second Round League Path Winners
• Olympique Marseille (France)
• Sporting Braga (Portugal)
• PSV (Holland)
• Sturm Graz (Austria)
• Rangers (Scotland)
• TSC (Serbia)

Qualifying final play-off

This is the last qualifying round prior to the 2023-24 Champions League group stage.

In it, the two classification routes are maintained, of League champions and of those classified by league position.

The winners go to the group stage of the Champions League and the losers go to the group stage of the Europa League.

Participating teams in the Champions route:

• 6 Winners of the Third Round Champions Path Playoffs
• Antwerp (Belgium)
• Young Boys (Suiza)

Teams participating in the League route:

• 4 winners of the Third Round league qualifiers route playoffs

Group stage of the Champions League 2023-24

And with this we come to the Holy Grail of European football, the 2023-24 group stage, where the 32 qualified teams will fight to succeed Manchester City in the tournament’s list of winners. Currently, in the absence of the clubs that reach this stage through the qualification routes described above, there are already 26 well-off teams in this phase… and almost all of them are clear about the hype they are going to.

Champions League schedule 23-24

The draw for the group stage will take place on August 31, 2023. When the composition of the eight groups of four teams that make up the group stage are known, six days will be played on the following days:

day 1 September 19-20, 2023

day 2 October 3-4, 2023

day 3 October 24-25, 2023

day 4 November 7-8, 2023

Day 5 November 28-29, 2023

Day 6 December 12-13, 2023

The first two teams in each group will advance to the knockout phase, which has the following dates:

round of 16 Draw: December 18, 2023 First leg: February 13-14 and 20-21, 2024 Return: March 5-6 and 12-13, 2024

Quarter finals Draw: March 15, 2024 First leg: April 9-10, 2024 Return: April 16-17, 2024

semifinals Outbound: April 30, 2024 – May 1, 2024 Return: May 7-8, 2024

Final June 1, 2024