What to anticipate in Thursday’s Champions League draw

The draw for the group stage of the Champions League will happen on the Grimaldi Discussion board in Monaco on Thursday night.

Right here the PA information company explains the way it will unfold.

When is the draw?

The draw is because of begin at 5pm UK time on Thursday night.

How will it work?

The 32 groups might be break up into eight teams of 4, with the 4 seeding pots not set to be confirmed till Thursday morning. The id of the ultimate qualifiers won’t be identified till Wednesday night.

Pot 1 will function European champions Manchester Metropolis, Europa League winners Sevilla and 6 home champions. Pots two to 4 might be based mostly on the UEFA membership coefficient rankings.

As standard, groups from the identical nation might be stored aside till not less than the quarter-final stage. Pairings and some other restrictions might be introduced forward of the draw.

What else do we have to know concerning the format?

The groups play one another dwelling and away between September and December as standard, with the highest two progressing to the Champions League final 16.

The groups ending third enter the Europa League knockout spherical play-offs, the place they are going to face the runners-up from the Europa League group phases for a spot within the final 16 of that competitors.

What else ought to we anticipate on Thursday evening?

UEFA plans to announce the 4 winners of its 2022-23 awards – males’s participant and coach, plus ladies’s participant and coach – through the draw ceremony. There might be specific deal with the ladies’s awards amid the unfolding disaster in Spanish soccer – two of the nation’s World Cup-winning crew, Aitana Bonmati and Olga Carmona, are nominated for the participant award whereas Jorge Vilda is nominated for the coach award.

What else ought to we glance out for this season?

The #UEFAExCo has authorized the ultimate format and entry checklist for UEFA membership competitions from the 2024/25 season.

No extra entry granted based mostly on membership coefficients.

Eight matches as a substitute of ten within the new league section.

Full particulars: #UCL #UEL #UECL

— UEFA (@UEFA) May 10, 2022

This season marks the ultimate 12 months of the group stage as we now have come to realize it. From subsequent season the 32-team group stage might be changed by a 36-team league section, with every crew taking part in eight matches on a seeded foundation.

Will probably be value conserving an eye fixed because the season progresses on the nation coefficients, that are based mostly on the collective efficiency of a rustic’s golf equipment within the three UEFA males’s membership competitions. One crew every from the 2 best-performing international locations will safe further locations within the league section, underneath modifications agreed at UEFA Congress in Vienna final 12 months.