soccer draw
One last time the Champions League as we know it
Status: 31.08.2023 | Reading time: 3 minutes
Manchester City are reigning champions. Who will win the Champions League trophy this season?
Those: picture alliance/KEYSTONE/SALVATORE DI NOLFI
The group stage of the Champions League will be drawn on Thursday. Four Bundesliga clubs are at the start. Who can meet which opponent? Read all important information here. From the coming season, the mode will change fundamentally.
Today at 6:00 p.m. the drawing will be made again. The European football union Uefa celebrates its annual gala for the new Champions League season in Monaco – the German starters FC Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, RB Leipzig and, for the first time, 1. FC Union Berlin find out who they are up against in the group stage of the premier class -Competition goes. And for the last time: from the 2024/25 season everything will be different in the European Cup.
The draw will be broadcast live on Amazon Prime, DAZN and Sky Sport News HD. It can be seen in the stream on uefa-tv.
Which opponents can the German clubs meet?
As usual, the 32 participants will be divided into four pots with eight groups, one group participant will be drawn from each pot. The champions and defending champions are seeded in pot 1, so FC Bayern cannot meet heavyweights such as Manchester City, FC Barcelona or Paris Saint-Germain – but BVB, RB or Union can. Dortmund and Leipzig are sorted into pot 2, group games against Manchester United, Real Madrid or Inter Milan are therefore not possible for the duo. Union threatens the supposedly heaviest group in pot 4 – for example with Man City, Real and AC Milan. The Bundesliga teams cannot meet in the group phase.
When will the games be played – and where can the games be seen?
The big goal for all clubs is the final on June 1st in London. In the group phase, there will be six matchdays until August 12th/13th. December played, it starts on 19./20. September. The two best teams in each group qualify for the round of 16, while those third in the group continue to play in the Europa League. The streaming services DAZN and Amazon Prime Video continue to hold the rights to the transmissions. Amazon shows the top game on Tuesday for each game day. Only the finale on ZDF can be seen on free-to-air television.
Why is it also played in Hamburg?
Because of the Russian war of aggression in the Ukraine, the Ukrainian champions Shakhtar Donetsk play their home games at Hamburger SV’s Volksparkstadion. “We are sure that the games in the Volksparkstadion will be played at the highest level and will gather both local football fans and thousands of Ukrainians who are currently temporarily living in Germany and other European countries in the stands,” said Shakhtar CEO Dmytro Kyrylenko. Possible opponents are all four Bundesliga teams – Donetsk is sorted into pot three.
What’s next after this season?
From 2024/25, the Champions League format with preliminary round groups will be history. 36 clubs then play in a league system with eight games against eight different opponents for a place in the round of 16. The top eight qualify directly for the knockout round, the other 16 teams up to place 24 play in playoffs to get into the round of 16. A total of 64 additional games can be seen. Two of the four additional starting places go to the two most successful national associations in the previous season in the European Cup – accordingly, the Bundesliga teams are already playing for the next season this season.
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Uefa is particularly concerned with the money: the large number of additional games will also result in a significant increase in income, reportedly from 3.6 to five billion euros in the entire European Cup.
The pots at a glance
Pot 1: Manchester City, FC Sevilla, FC Barcelona, FC Bayern, SSC Napoli, Paris Saint-Germain, Benfica Lissabon, Feyenoord Rotterdam. Pot 2: Real Madrid, Manchester United, Inter Mailand, Borussia Dortmund, Atlético Madrid, RB Leipzig, FC Porto, FC Arsenal. Pot 3: Shakhtar Donetsk, FC Red Bull Salzburg, AC Milan, Sporting Braga, Lazio Roma, Red Star Belgrade, PSV Eindhoven, FC Copenhagen. Pot 4: Real Sociedad San Sebastian, Galatasaray Istanbul, Celtic Glasgow, Newcastle United, 1. FC Union, RC Lens, Young Boys Bern, Royal Antwerpen.
