When and where is the draw?



The 2018/19 UEFA Champions League group stage draw ceremony started at 18:00CET on Thursday 30 August. It took place at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco and was streamed live on UEFA.com.

How does the draw work?

Real Madrid are defending champions once again ©AFP/Getty Images

• The 26 teams given direct entry to the group stage under the new competition system were joined by the six winners of the play-off ties.

• The teams were split into four seeding pots. Pot 1 consisted of the holders, the UEFA Europa League winners and the champions of the six highest-ranked nations. Pots 2 to 4 were determined by the club coefficient rankings.

• No team can play a club from their own association and, based on decisions taken by the UEFA Executive Committee, clubs from Russia and Ukraine could not be drawn in the same group.

• In the case of associations with two or more representatives, clubs were paired in order to split their matches between Tuesday and Wednesday, namely:

Real Madrid & Barcelona

Atlético Madrid & Valencia

Bayern & Dortmund

Man. City & Tottenham

Juventus & Internazionale Milano

Paris & Lyon

Lokomotiv Moskva & CSKA Moskva

Porto & Benfica

Man. United & Liverpool

Napoli & Roma

Schalke & Hoffenheim

Ajax & PSV Eindhoven

If a paired club was drawn, for example, in groups A, B, C or D, the other paired club – once drawn – was automatically assigned to one of groups E, F, G or H.

• The draw also established the groups for the UEFA Champions League path of the UEFA Youth League.

Who was involved in the draw?

ESP: Real Madrid, Atlético Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia

GER: Bayern München, Borussia Dortmund, Schalke, Hoffenheim

ENG: Manchester City, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur, Liverpool

ITA: Juventus, Napoli, Roma, Internazionale Milano

FRA: Paris Saint-Germain, Lyon, Monaco

RUS: Lokomotiv Moskva, CSKA Moskva

POR: Porto, Benfica

UKR: Shakhtar Donetsk

BEL: Club Brugge

TUR: Galatasaray

CZE: Viktoria Plzeň

SUI: Young Boys

NED: Ajax, PSV Eindhoven

GRE: AEK Athens

SRB: Crvena zvezda



Who was in which pot?



Ronaldo's Juventus are among the Pot 1 teams ©AFP/Getty Images

Pot 1

Real Madrid (holders)

Atlético Madrid (UEFA Europa League winners)

Barcelona

Bayern München

Manchester City

Juventus

Paris Saint-Germain

Lokomotiv Moskva

Pot 2

Borussia Dortmund 89.000

Porto 86.000

Manchester United 82.000

Shakhtar Donetsk 81.000

Benfica 80.000

Napoli 78.000

Tottenham Hotspur 67.000

Roma 64.000



Pot 3

Liverpool 62.000

Schalke 62.000

Lyon 59.500

Monaco 57.000

Ajax 53.500

CSKA Moskva 45.000

PSV Eindhoven 36.000

Valencia 36.000

Pot 4

Viktoria Plzeň 33.000

Club Brugge 29.500

Galatasaray 29.500

Young Boys 20.500

Internazionale Milano 16.000

Hoffenheim 14.285

Crvena zvezda 10.750

AEK Athens 10.000

Clubs' coefficients are determined either by the sum of all points won in the previous five years or by the association coefficient over the same period – whichever is higher (under a new system introduced for 2018/19 onwards). Where clubs have identical five-year coefficients, rankings are determined by coefficients in the most recent of the seasons on which the rankings are based, i.e. 2017/18.

UEFA awards

The following award winners were also due to be announced during the draw ceremony:

Season calendar



This season's final is taking place in Madrid ©Getty Images

18/19 September: Group stage, matchday one

2/3 October: Group stage, matchday two

23/24 October: Group stage, matchday three

6/7 November: Group stage, matchday four

27/28 November: Group stage, matchday five

11/12 December: Group stage, matchday six



17 December: Round of 16 draw

12/13/19/20 February: Round of 16, first leg

5/6/12/13 March: Round of 16, second leg

15 March: Quarter-final & semi-final draw

9/10 April: Quarter-finals, first leg

16/17 April: Quarter-finals, second leg

30 April/1 May: Semi-finals, first leg

7/8 May: Semi-finals, second leg

Saturday 1 June: Final – Estadio Metropolitano, Madrid

