UCL Group stage Draw

The draw for the opening phase of the tournament proper is to take place in Istanbul from 5pm BST, setting up the eight groups of four teams.

Based on their UEFA coefficient, the Reds will be in Pot 2 for the draw and know they will face one of Atletico Madrid, Bayern Munich, Inter Milan, Lille, Sporting CP or Villarreal from Pot 1.

Potential opponents from Pot 3 and Pot 4 will be confirmed following the conclusion of the play-off round on Wednesday night.

At this stage, Liverpool cannot face a fellow Premier League club.

The first matchday of the group stage is set for September 14/15, with further fixtures on September 28/29, October 19/20, November 2/3, November 23/24 and December 7/8.

The perfect draw in terms of ease of opponent and travel distance:

Sporting
Ajax
Brugge/Malmö

Zenit might be a good out from pot 3 as well but that's a long and cold away trip in November/December. Ajax would be a fun team to play against again and I'm sure fans would enjoy Amsterdam now that travelling is on again.

Pot 1: Lille ; they are struggling this season after their manager left.
Pot 3: Ajax ; not the weakest team but they love to play football, which would suit us.
Pot 4: Sheriff Tiraspol* ; with all due respect, they seem to be by far the weakest team in the competition.

Bonus: Lille and Amsterdam are short trips.

*not through yet, but they won the first leg against Dinamo Zagreb 3-0 and it's 0-0 at HT.

Now that the pots are confirmed there doesn't seem to be any nightmare scenarios for us, at least in the group stage.

Ideally we'd avoid the likes of Bayern, Atletico, and Inter from Pot 1, but even if we draw one of them we should be fine as there doesn't appear to be an awkward 'Napoli' sort of side in Pot 3 to mess things up. Porto and Leipzig are possibly the biggest threats in Pot 3 but we've had no problem dispatching them in recent years so there's nothing to fear there.

The real danger with a draw like this where Pot 2 is stronger than Pot 1 is that there could be several groups with two strong teams, thereby increasing the chances that we may have to face a big team in the Round of 16 if we reach it.

For example it's possible that we could see these groups:

Chelsea/Real Madrid
Atletico/Juventus
Bayern/United
Man City/Barcelona
Inter/PSG

Villareal/Dortmund
Lille/Liverpool
Sporting/Sevilla

If we win our group in that scenario we'd be facing a high probability of facing one of Real/Atletico/Juventus/Bayern/Barcelona/Inter/PSG/Dortmund in the Round of 16, and only a very small chance of facing one of Villareal/Sporting/Sevilla.

A possible group of European royalty:

Bayern
Liverpool
Ajax
AC Milan

That would be a really fun group to watch.

Pot 1

Bayern Munich
Atletico Madrid
Villarreal
Inter Milan
Sporting CP
Lille

Pot 3

Porto
Ajax
RB Leipzig
Benfica
Atalanta
Zenit St Petersburg
Shakhtar Donetsk
Salzburg

Pot 4

Club Brugge
Young Boys
AC Milan
Malmo
Wolfsburg
Besiktas
Dynamo Kiev
Sheriff Tiraspol

Best will be Lille, us, Salzburg and Sheriff.

Best draw would be Lille, Salzburg and Sheriff.

Prediction is Inter, Zenit and Malmo

Best draw would be Lille, Salzburg and Sheriff.

Prediction is Inter, Zenit and Malmo

All i know for sure is Man City will get Sheriff.

All i know for sure is Man City will get Sheriff.

Then get Sporting Lisbon second round, Ajax quarters and Lile semis (if they get that far).

I've never seen a team have a more consistent easy route than those lot and they still mess it up.

Honestly only team Id like to avoid is Bayern

Only team I want to avoid is Atletico

Uefa sure know how to drag things out don't they

What the F**k is this draw so far... feels like I'm watching the Eurovision.

Tell you what, there isn't many teams in any pot that I fear too much....

Damn, Dortmund drawn against Sporting, was hoping we'd be in that group

Real getting Inter is good though.

Damn we got Atletico in our group

Atletico, f***

The one team I didn’t want us to get.

Wish they’d got someone else instead of Ivanovic to do the draw, looks like an emotionally awkward robot.

People will undoubtedly be happy with City drawing PSG, but that creates a potential nightmare fixture in the Round of 16. If we and City win the group we could be drawn against PSG.

Same goes with Bayern/Barcelona.

That Lille/Sevilla group is so poor

Messi vs Ronaldo again earlier than we thought in the battle of the oil clubs, just need City to confirm Ronaldo now.

Time for revenge on Atletico.

People will undoubtedly be happy with City drawing PSG, but that creates a potential nightmare fixture in the Round of 16. If we and City win the group we could be drawn against PSG.

Same goes with Bayern/Barcelona.

That Lille/Sevilla group is so poor

I’d be more concerned playing Sevilla than I would Barca.
But let’s qualify before worrying about who we may or may not get in the next round.

Glad we avoided Leipzig. City looks like a very tough group