Following the conclusion of the Champions League playoffs on Wednesday evening, UEFA have been able to confirm which teams will be in each pot for the draw in Monaco on Thursday afternoon. Also in Pot 2 will be Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid and Porto.
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The 32 teams will be drawn into eight groups of four, to play each other home and away between September and December.
English giants Manchester United will have their fate decided by then, as they take on Belgian side Club Brugge in the second leg of their play-off tie – up 3-1 form the first leg.
Spain also lead Uefa’s club coefficient rankings – the system used to decide which leagues get most qualifying spots for its competitions – by a considerable margin.
Sevilla, among the aforementioned clubs has the least Champions League experience, but as they showed in the European SuperCup, they are quite capable of performing on top level.
Teams play two 15-minute periods of extra time with no golden goal.
Pot 1 will be made up of: Barcelona, Chelsea, Bayern Munich, Juventus, Benfica, Paris St Germain, Zenit St Petersburg and PSV Eindhoven.
Equally, those clubs in the second pot could hope to be paired in a group with PSV Eindhoven – moved up because Barcelona are both Champions League and La Liga holders – Olympiakos and group stage debutantes Malmo. Borussia Mönchengladbach, beaten finalists to Liverpool in 1977, will make their debut in the revamped European Cup. This is the major change from previous years as we’ve talked about before. Or how about Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Roma and Wolfsburg?
UEFA made the ruling in July 2014 to avoid fueling tension between the countries during conflict in eastern Ukraine between government forces and pro-Russian separatists.
Tomorrow, a bunch of ping pong balls get dumped into four shiny silver bowls and then taken right back out again, and those balls will determine Arsenal’s Champions League group.
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However, the Court of Arbitration for Sport this week dismissed an appeal by Panathinaikos, after UEFA said it had no conclusive evidence from Greece to deny Olympiakos its place.
