Any team with designs on winning the 2022/23 UEFA Champions League needs to start by getting out of the group stage first. That path will become clear after the group-stage draw is held on Thursday, August 25.
The way the groups shake out will give us an early indication as to which of the favorites will have a tougher road to the knockouts, and which outsiders might have a greater chance of wreaking havoc in this season’s tournament.
How does the Champions League group stage work?
Each of the eight groups will consist of four teams. No teams from the same nation will be drawn together at this stage (or, indeed, in the Round of 16).
They play a round-robin format, with each side facing the other three opponents home and away.
At the conclusion of those six group matches, only the top two finishers in each group will advance to the knockout stage. That whittles down the original field of 32 clubs to a group of 16 that will keep their trophy dreams alive.
Champions League round dates
There’s an added wrinkle to this season’s tournament format. Given the break for the 2022 World Cup in November, the six group matchdays will be condensed into an eight-week span which will only add to the degree of difficulty. It could also lead to a few more surprise results.
- Group Stage: September 6-7 through November 1-2
- Round of 16: February 14-22 (Leg 1), March 7-15 (Leg 2)
- Quarter-finals: April 11-12 (Leg 1), April 18-19 (Leg 2)
- Semi-finals: May 9-10 (Leg 1), May 16-17 (Leg 2)
- Final: June 10, 2023 (in Istanbul, Turkey)
MORE: Who will win the UEFA Champions League in 2022/23?
Champions League pairings and pots
The eight groups are labeled A through H, and they will be comprised of four teams selected from each of the four different pots during the group stage draw on August 25.
Pot 1 is made up of the winners of the 2012/22 Champions League (Real Madrid) and Europa League (Eintracht Frankfurt), together with the league champions from the top six countries in Europe per UEFA’s coefficient formula ranking. And since Real Madrid were also the champions of Spain, that country’s Pot 1 spot is given to the champions from the next best nation (Ajax from the Netherlands).
Pots 2-4 are a lot easier to work out: They’re sorted based on a team’s ranking in the UEFA club coefficient list. The top teams are in Pot 2 and the lowest-ranked teams occupy Pot 4.
The intention behind this is to ensure each group can feature a mix of powers, up-and-coming teams, and longer shots. But based on how the teams fell in this season’s pot structure — for example, the mighty Liverpool find themselves in Pot 2, and Inter Milan and Benfica are in Pot 3 — a classic ‘Group of Death’ is likely unavoidable.
MORE: Complete list of all-time UEFA Champions League winners
| Pot 1 | Pot 2 | Pot 3 | Pot 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Real Madrid (Champions League) |
2-Liverpool | 19-Borussia Dortmund | 33-Rangers |
| Eintracht Frankfurt (Europa League) |
5-Chelsea | 21-RB Salzburg | 34-Dinamo Zagreb |
| Manchester City (1st, England) |
6-Barcelona | 22-Shakhtar Donetsk | 38-Olympique Marseille |
| AC Milan (1st, Italy) |
8-Juventus | 23-Inter Milan | 41-FC Copenhagen |
| Bayern Munich (1st, Germany) |
9-Atletico Madrid | 25-Napoli | 44-Club Brugge |
| PSG (1st, France) |
12-Sevilla | 27-Benfica | 51-Celtic |
| Porto (1st, Portugal) |
13-RB Leipzig | 28-Sporting CP | 55-Viktoria Plzen |
| Ajax (1st, Netherlands) |
14-Tottenham | 30-Bayer Leverkusen | 169-Maccabi Haifa |
In addition, UEFA pairs together certain clubs from the same nation to ensure they don’t play at the same time. As such, when any of the below teams are drawn into groups A-D, their paired team will automatically be assigned to groups E-H:
- Real Madrid and Barcelona
- Eintracht Frankfurt and RB Leipzig
- Manchester City and Liverpool
- AC Milan and Napoli
- Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund
- Paris Saint-Germain and Marseille
- FC Porto and Benfica
- Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur
- Juventus and Inter Milan
- Atletico Madrid and Sevilla
Champions League group tiebreaker rules
Every goal matters in the UEFA Champions League because it could come into play in the tiebreakers should teams finish even on points at the end of the group stage (three points for a win, one for a draw, none for a loss).
If two or more teams are tied in the group standings, there is a series of UEFA Champions League group stage tiebreakers outlined in the official tournament regulations:
- points obtained in group matches played among teams in question
- superior goal difference from group matches played among teams in question
- goals scored in group matches played among teams in question
- superior goal difference in all group matches
- goals scored in all group matches
- away goals scored in all group matches
- wins in all group matches
- away wins in all group matches
- disciplinary points total based only on yellow and red cards
- UEFA club coefficient
One quirk to the tiebreaker rules: if there are three or more teams deadlocked on points and tiebreakers No. 1-3 help to separate only one of those teams, then tiebreakers No. 1-3 are reapplied to any remaining teams that are still tied before moving on to tiebreakers No. 4-10.
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