The draw for the group stage of the Champions League will be held on Thursday, August 26, as Inter, Juventus, Milan and Atalanta all await potentially tough opponents.
The 2021-22 edition of the tournament now has its complete set of entries this evening, as the play-offs were completed, including Roberto De Zerbi’s Shakhtar Donetsk.
There are four Italian clubs taking part in the group phase, but only Inter are in Pot 1 thanks to their status as Scudetto holders.
Juventus drop into Pot 2, with Atalanta promoted to Pot 3 for their third consecutive Champions League campaign.
Milan finished second in Serie A last season, but have been absent from this tournament for seven years, so must begin again in Pot 4.
The group matches run from September 14 to December 8, with the top two teams from each group reaching the Round of 16 knockout ties.
When is the Champions League draw?
The draw for the group stage of the Champions League is on August 26 at 18.00 CET (17.00 in the UK), from Istanbul.
There will be a ceremony during the draw in which the best players of 2020 will receive awards, including likely winner Jorginho for best midfielder of the Champions League last season with Chelsea.
Where can I watch the Champions League draw Live?
The Champions League draw can be watched on the official UEFA website, YouTube and social media channels.
Pot 1
Chelsea, Villarreal, Atletico Madrid, Manchester City, Bayern Munich, Inter, Lille, Sporting Lisbon
Pot 2
Real Madrid, Barcelona, Juventus, Manchester United, PSG, Liverpool, Sevilla, Borussia Dortmund
Pot 3
Porto, Ajax, RB Leipzig, Atalanta, Zenit, Benfica, Shakhtar Donetsk, RB Salzburg
Pot 4
Milan, Club Brugge, Young Boys, Malmoe, Wolfsburg, Besiktas, Dinamo Kiev, Sheriff
‘Ideal’ draw for us:
Pot 1 – Villarreal, Lille or Sporting
Pot 2 – Man Utd, Sevilla, Borussia Dortmund or Barcelona
Pot 3 – Happy to play any of those sides
To galvanise the team and get everyone up for it, it would be good to play PSG and have Donnarumma come back to the San Siro.
@Rosario 👍
Group of death
Manchester City
Paris Saint Germain
RB Leipzig
AC Milan
@Ngunde Peter
I’d much rather play Man City instead of Atleti or Chelsea. With Man City, you’re guaranteed an expansive style, which could A. allow us to play and B. allow Milan to stay organised and make use of counters. Chelsea and especially Atleti have the players to be compact and take advantage on counter attacks, and pick teams off. Being Milan’s first season back, we need more experience to play such rigid styles.
Wait and see. Once again, almost all English teams will be in the easy group. This is now a trend, CL or Euro/ FIFA qualifiers.
@mr bone.
There has been 2 all English finals in the last 3 seasons. They and the Spanish have been very consistent in not only getting out of the groups, but also making finals and semi finals. For Italy, it has been a disaster since Milan haven’t been in it. Juventus have contributed 2 finals, but Inter have struggled to even make it out of the groups. Last season, it was left to Atalanta to fly the flag.
Coefficients ultimately talk and unfortunately out track record over the past decade has been a disaster. 3 decades since success in the europa league and 10 years plus since the last Italian side to win champions.
Simone Inzaghi, i hear that you want Inter to be the first ever team in Pot A to make it to the Conference Cup after the group stage! You already own the Italian record as the only Italian team to fail to pass the Champion’s group stage 3 years in a Row – it’s a record nobody will ever come close to matching in Italy so there’s no need to extend it !!!
Mr Bone…absolutely. they do get the easier draws without question.
@ I MISS MARCO BRANCA AT INTER: You fail to realize that Inter Milan is the ONLY treble winner from Italy and the LAST team from Italy to win the champions league. GTFOH!!
@NKA85
😂😂😂 I see someone is living in a very very distant past. Aw dear 🤦🏻♂️
@NKA85
Absolutely no relevance anymore. That was 12 seasons ago. Those players have long gone. What’s Inter’s record in the last 3 seasons?
We could be in for a long (or more likely short), hard season in Europe for Serie A teams. There’s nothing amongst any of them to suggest they can go far.
Inter might actually do okay, despite their sales, mainly because Inzaghi seems like someone who can get the best from lesser players, as he did at Lazio.
Juve should come up short too, though if they get Ronaldo out and a decent forward in, they should get the knockouts. Allegri and Locatelli will improve them.
Atalanta might be the best hope, but they then went ahead and sold their best defender to a Europa Conference team. Sad days. If Musso, Lovato and Demeril play well, they could get QF.
Milan might do okay, but the last 16 would be an achievement for this squad. Like the rest of Serie A, it’s a long time since they were relevant in Europe.
Napoli, Lazio, and Roma could all go far in their comps, but we see them fail too year after year.
Sad to say it, but it looks like we’re entering an era of epl domination, with the Spanish now faltering after years of near total domination by them.
12 seasons since Serie A won the CL, and 23 since a EL win. Dreadful record.
@I miss Marco BRANCA at Inter Its funny you talk about records then fail to realise the only records that actually matters is the one that involves winning. That’s why when Inter will get announced during the group draw later they’ll also state that they’re the last to win it in Italy. Inter also reached the EL final bring also the last Italian team to reach the final in a European competition in the last 3-4 years. But you don’t see inter fans going on about that because second place doesn’t matter. The fact is during Juve dominance in the last decade they haven’t done anything special outside of Italy to represent the league other than scandal after scandal.
@ Branca
Your obsession with Inter is 2nd to none! So flattering 🙂
Ac Milan will win Champions League 2022/2023 cause champions league is in their DNA.Juve is just dominating in Italy but failing in Europe.They have been cursed in Europe.Welcome back Rossonerri.Time to shine just some more smart investments and we are back to the good old days.Maldini et Al and doing some shewd and impressive buyings despite cash strap.
Long Live The Diabolo
I breath Milan
@Ngunde Peter
Calm down lol. Milan are hopeless in Europe now, just like every other Serie A side. Those old victories are a distant memory.
Milan have played 16 CL knockout games since their win in 2007. How many have they won?
@solointer
Couldn’t have said it any better. What a troll that guy is. It seems he’s frustrated with his team so much that he had to find bad records from other teams, which no one cares about.
Anyway, it’s very possible there will be many group of deaths, with clubs from the big 4 european leagues, pitted against each other.