UEFA Champions League Group Stage Draw: The Pots

The UEFA Champions League is down to its final 32 teams, setting the table for the group stage and its draw. The draw for the group stage, in all its pomp, circumstance and irritating music and dancing that turns a simple draw into a 90 minute affair, will take place on August 25 at 11:45 am ET in Monaco.

The 32 teams have been separated into four pots with eight teams in each pot. The pots have been determined using the UEFA coefficient to rank the 32 teams with the top eight ranked teams in pot one, the next eight ranked teams in pot two and so on. One team will be drawn from each pot to make up each group with teams from the same country not allowed to be in the same group.

Pot 1: Barcelona, Manchester United, Chelsea, Bayern Munich, Arsenal, Real Madrid, Porto, Internazionale

Pot 2: AC Milan, Olympique Lyonnais, Shakhtar Donetsk, Valencia, Benfica, Villareal, CSKA Moscow, Olympique Marseille

Pot 3: Zenit St. Petersburg, Ajax, Bayer Leverkusen, Olympiakos, Manchester City, Lille, Basel, BATE Borisov

Pot 4: Borussia Dortmund, Napoli, Dinamo Zagreb, APOEL, Trabzonspor, Genk, Viktoria Plzen, Otelul Galati

The group stage will be contested beginning on September 13 and will conclude on December 7, leading up to the knockout stage and tournament final on May 19 in Munich, Germany. Barcelona are the defending champions after toppling Manchester United in last year's final.