UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE 2020-21: Group stage draw preview

The little silver lining that came out of the COVID-19 pandemic was the flurry of football fixtures being played every other day. And now, only a couple of months removed from last season’s Champions League final, the Road to Turkey begins. 

The Champions League group stage draw will take place to determine the group stage draws. Like every year, there will be four pots with teams from all parts of Europe in them. 

The draw will take place on 1st October, at 5 PM UK time. It will be held in Nyon, Switzerland at the house of European Football. 

Seeding and country protection will be in place. In other words, teams from the same national league cannot participate in the same group. 

The Group Stage Pots: 

Pot 1

Bayern Munich

Sevilla

Real Madrid

Liverpool

Juventus

Paris Saint-Germain

Zenit Saint Petersburg

Porto

Pot 2

Barcelona

Atletico Madrid

Manchester City

Manchester United

Shakhtar Donetsk

Borussia Dortmund

Chelsea

Ajax

Pot 3

Dynamo Kyiv or Gent

RB Leipzig

Inter Milan

Lazio

Atalanta

Pot 3 or 4

Red Bull Salzburg or Maccabi Tel Aviv

Olympiakos or Omonia

Krasnodar or PAOK

Lokomotiv Moscow

Marseille

Club Brugge

Pot 4

Borussia Monchengladbach

Istanbul Basaksehir

Rennes

Slavia Prague or Midtjylland

Molde or Ferencvaros

Champions League Group Stage Matchdays

Once the 32 teams have been placed in their respective groups, fans across the world can get set for the pinnacle of European football. 

Here are the matchdays for the group stage of the Champions League:

• October 20-21
• October 27-28
• November 3-4
• November 24-25
• December 1-2 
• December 8-9

Teams from the group stage will face each other twice. Once at home and the other away. Six sets of fixtures will be played out in the group stages. 

The top two teams from each of the groups will progress to the knockout stages, starting with the round of 16. 

The draws and the matchdays will be announced later by UEFA. 

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