Everything You Wanted to Know About The Champions' League Group Stage Draw

As the group stage draw for the UEFA Champions League is nearing - it is to take place this afternoon, Thursday 27 August - in Monaco, it's time to review what we know so far about this year's Champions League. 32 teams are going to compete in the 2015-2016 Champions' League group stage matches. 22 of the 32 teams qualified automatically for the groups after they finished first in their league. The remaining ten qualified through the playoffs. The teams who have reached the group stage are divided into four pots, and eight groups of four teams will be drawn. The teams in Pot 1 are made up of the seven league champions as well the winners of last year's tournament. Pots 2, 3 and 4 are determined by 2015 UEFA club coefficients, based on the teams' performances in the competition in the last five years. This week the pots were confirmed. These are the teams for each pot: Pot 1: Barcelona, Bayern München, Chelsea, Benfica, Paris, Juventus, Zenit and PSV Eindhoven. Pot 2: Real Madrid, Atlético, Porto, Arsenal, Manchester United, Valencia, Bayer Leverkusen and Manchester City. Pot 3: Shakhtar Donetsk, Sevilla, Lyon, Dynamo Kyiv, Olympiacos, CSKA Moskva, Galatasaray and Roma. Pot 4: BATE Borisov, Borussia Mönchengladbach, Wolfsburg, Dinamo Zagreb, Maccabi Tel-Aviv, Gent, Malmö and Astana.

Important Facts to Know about the Draw

  In the draw one team will be picked from each pot, to form eight groups with four teams overall. Two clubs from the same league (country) cannot compete against each other, and therefore each team can include only one club from each league. For example, Arsenal and Manchester United can't be in the same group as they can't compete against each other in the tournament. In addition, due to the political tension between Russia and the Ukraine, clubs from the two countries will not be included in the same group. The draw ceremony will also include the vote for the 2014-15 UEFA Best Player in Europe, with nominees being Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Luis Suárez; the best female player will also be awarded.

Interesting Trivia about This Year's Group Stage

  Several interesting things are happening in this year's group stage in the Champions League competition:

• Spain is the first country to have five teams which qualified for the group stage (Real Madrid, Atlético, Barcelona, Sevilla and Valencia).
• Israeli team Maccabi Tel Aviv has qualified for this year's group stage, after a hiatus of 11 years. During the playoffs, Maccabi Tel Aviv, led by midfielder Eran Zahavi, drew 1:1 against FC Basel.
• There is a chance of a "super-group" coming out of the draw: Barcelona with Manchester United, Roma or Wolfsburg; or Chelsea with Real Madrid, Roma and Wolfsburg.
• An interesting draw is in store for Barcelona, as it can only be drawn against Manchester City, Arsenal, Manchester United, Leverkusen or Porto. Therefore, there's quite a high chance of Barcelona competing against an English team.

All that is left now is waiting for the draw this afternoon. Are you excited yet?