The road to Istanbul will begin in Istanbul as the 2022/23 UEFA Champions League group stage draw will be held on Thursday, August 25 in the city that will host the final in June 2023.
The 32 clubs that qualified for the group stage — 26 automatic qualifiers along with six teams that earned berths via the qualifying rounds — will find out their fate as the names are pulled out of the pots at the glitzy ceremony.
Eight groups will take shape with the top two finishers in each group advancing to the knockout rounds.
There are guaranteed to be some blockbuster group matchups given how the pots have shaken out (complete pot breakdown follows below), including the possibility for last season’s finalists — Liverpool and Real Madrid — to meet again right away in the group stage.
The Sporting News will be following the event live and providing regular updates on all the happenings from Istanbul, including all the details surrounding the group selections.
MORE: Ideal Champions League group stage draw? This is it
| Pot 1 | Pot 2 | Pot 3 | Pot 4 | |
| Group A | — | — | — | — |
| Group B | — | — | — | — |
| Group C | — | — | — | — |
| Group D | — | — | — | — |
| Group E | — | — | — | — |
| Group F | — | — | — | — |
| Group G | — | — | — | — |
| Group H | — | — | — | — |
Champions League draw live updates from 2022/23 ceremony in Turkey
6 a.m. ET: We’re six hours away from finding out if the following groups can become a reality. The Sporting News already came up with the draw we’d love to see.
The groups we’d all love to see from the Champions League draw tomorrow. 🤤 pic.twitter.com/0Oidqj1LH1
— 90min (@90min_Football) August 24, 2022
Champions League pots: How the 32 teams are seeded
There are four pots from which names will be drawn to fill out Groups A through H. Each pot features eight teams:
| Pot 1 | Pot 2 | Pot 3 | Pot 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Real Madrid (Champions League) |
Liverpool (2) | Borussia Dortmund (19) | Rangers (33) |
| Eintracht Frankfurt (Europa League) |
Chelsea (5) | RB Salzburg (21) | Dinamo Zagreb (34) |
| Manchester City (1st, England) |
Barcelona (6) | Shakhtar Donetsk (22) | Olympique Marseille (38) |
| AC Milan (1st, Italy) |
Juventus (8) | Inter Milan (23) | FC Copenhagen (41) |
| Bayern Munich (1st, Germany) |
Atletico Madrid (9) | Napoli (25) | Club Brugge (44) |
| PSG (1st, France) |
Sevilla (12) | Benfica (27) | Celtic (51) |
| Porto (1st, Portugal) |
RB Leipzig (13) | Sporting CP (28) | Viktoria Plzen (55) |
| Ajax (1st, Netherlands) |
Tottenham (14) | Bayer Leverkusen (30) | Maccabi Haifa (169) |
Here’s how the teams wound up in each pot:
Pot 1
Pot 1 consists of the defending Champions League (Real Madrid) and Europa League (Eintracht Frankfurt) title winners, plus the reigning league champions from each of the top six nations in the UEFA country coefficient list.
Since Real Madrid are the Spanish league champions (a top-six nation) as well as defending UEFA Champions League holders, the Pot 1 spot reserved for the Spanish champions is assigned to the next best nation in the country coefficient list. In this case, that’s the Netherlands and its reigning Eredivisie champion Ajax, who were elevated to Pot 1.
Pots 2-4
As for Pots 2, 3, and 4, those are based on the UEFA club coefficient list, which is a ranking based on a mathematical formula taking into account each club’s performance in domestic and continental competitions over the past five years. Each club’s UEFA club coefficient ranking is included in parentheses for Pots 2-4 above.
Can teams from the same country be drawn in the same group?
Clubs from the same country cannot be drawn in the same group and must be moved to the next available slot in a different group.
This is a consideration for 24 of the 32 participating clubs who hail from countries that have multiple entrants as indicated in the list below:
| No. of clubs |
Nation | Clubs |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | Germany | Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Bayer Leverkusen, RB Leipzig, Eintracht Frankfurt |
| 4 | England | Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Tottenham |
| 4 | Italy | AC Milan, Inter Milan, Napoli, Juventus |
| 4 | Spain | Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, Sevilla |
| 3 | Portugal | Benfica, Porto, Sporting CP |
| 2 | France | PSG, Olympique Marseille |
| 2 | Scotland | Celtic, Rangers |
| 1 | Austria | RB Salzburg |
| 1 | Belgium | Club Brugge |
| 1 | Croatia | Dinamo Zagreb |
| 1 | Czech Rep | Viktoria Plzen |
| 1 | Denmark | FC Copenhagen |
| 1 | Israel | Maccabi Haifa |
| 1 | Netherlands | Ajax |
| 1 | Ukraine | Shakhtar Donetsk |
Champions League draw TV channel, live stream
The 2022/23 UEFA Champions League group stage draw will take place on August 25 at 18:00 local time in Istanbul, Turkey.
The event will be televised in the UK and USA, and it’s available to stream in other regions.
| Country | Date | Time | TV channel | Streaming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Australia | Fri, Aug. 26 | 02:00 AEST | — | Stan Sport |
| Canada | Thurs, Aug. 25 | 12:00 ET | — | DAZN |
| Hong Kong | Fri, Aug. 26 | 00:00 HKT | — | UEFA.tv, UEFA YouTube |
| India | Thurs, Aug. 25 | 21:30 IST | — | UEFA.tv, UEFA YouTube |
| Malaysia | Fri, Aug. 26 | 00:00 MYT | — | UEFA.tv, UEFA YouTube |
| New Zealand | Fri, Aug. 26 | 04:00 NZST | — | UEFA.tv, UEFA YouTube |
| Singapore | Fri, Aug. 26 | 00:00 SST | — | UEFA.tv, UEFA YouTube |
| UK | Thurs, Aug. 25 | 17:00 BST | BT Sport 1 | BT Sport site/app |
| USA | Thurs, Aug. 25 | 12:00 ET | TUDN | fuboTV, Vix+, Paramount+, CBS Sports HQ |
When does Champions League start?
The 2022/23 UEFA Champions League group stage will see the opening matchday on September 6-7. All matches will be played on Tuesdays or Wednesdays.
What’s notable about this season’s schedule is that all six group matchdays will take place in the span of eight weeks in order to wrap it up before the break for the 2022 FIFA World Cup which is being played for the first time in November and December.
Here are the key dates to circle on your calendar when it comes to the slate of Champions League group-stage matches:
| Group Matchday |
Dates |
|---|---|
| 1 | Sept. 6-7, 2022 |
| 2 | Sept. 13-14, 2022 |
| 3 | Oct. 4-5, 2022 |
| 4 | Oct. 11-12, 2022 |
| 5 | Oct. 25-26, 2022 |
| 6 | Nov. 1-2, 2022 |
Knockout stage schedule
The draw for the 2022/23 Champions League Round of 16 will take place on November 7, 2022 only a few days after the group stage wraps up.
The draw for the remaining rounds (quarter-finals and semi-finals) of the 2022/23 Champions League knockout stage will take place on March 17, 2023.
| Round | 1st Leg | 2nd Leg |
|---|---|---|
| Round of 16 | Feb. 14-22, 2023 | Mar. 7-15, 2023 |
| Quarter-finals | Apr. 11-12, 2023 | Apr. 18-19, 2023 |
| Semi-finals | May 9-10, 2023 | May 16-17, 2023 |
| Final | June 10, 2023 (Istanbul, Turkey) | |
Hits: 0
