The Champions League league phase draw arrives on Thursday, and the 36 qualified clubs will finally see the eight opponents that shape their road ahead. It is one of the biggest dates on the calendar because the new format creates a different path for every team.
Paris Saint-Germain enter as the reigning champions after beating Arsenal in Budapest in May, and every club in the field will be hoping to avoid the kind of schedule that turns a campaign into a struggle. With the old group stage gone, this draw now carries far more uncertainty and intrigue.
When the draw begins
The league phase draw takes place on Thursday, August 27, with kickoff scheduled for 5:00 p.m. BST. That is the moment the season’s European roadmap becomes clear.
How the pots are set up
The 36 clubs are split into four pots based on European ranking, and each side will receive two opponents from each pot. The result is a full eight-match schedule that no other club will share exactly. The setup keeps the field balanced while still producing plenty of difficult combinations.
| Pot | Clubs |
|---|---|
| Pot 1 | Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Liverpool, Inter Milan, Manchester City, Arsenal, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid |
| Pot 2 | Borussia Dortmund, Roma, Sporting, Aston Villa, Porto, Manchester United, Club Brugge, Real Betis, PSV Eindhoven |
| Pot 3 | Feyenoord, Lille, Bodo/Glimt, Napoli, RB Leipzig, Villarreal, Shakhtar Donetsk, Galatasaray, winner of Fenerbahce vs Lyon |
| Pot 4 | Winner of Dinamo Zagreb vs Viking, winner of Slovan Bratislava vs Celje, Slavia Prague, VfB Stuttgart, LASK, winner of Levski Sofia vs AEK Athens, Como, Lens, Sabah |
What makes this format different
This is no longer the familiar four-team group setup. Since the switch in 2024/25, the Champions League has used a Swiss-style league phase, which means every club plays eight different opponents rather than home-and-away mini groups. That change makes the draw more open, more unpredictable, and much harder to map out in advance.
The draw process moves through the pots one by one, assigning fixtures until every team has a complete list. One clear rule remains in place: clubs cannot be drawn against another team from their own country. That restriction prevents domestic clashes from crowding the schedule and helps keep the competition varied.
By the end of the evening, the bracket of possibilities will vanish and the real debate will begin: which teams landed a favorable run, and which ones drew a brutal path to the knockout rounds?