Champions League Draw Day: 36 Clubs, Four Pots and a Villa Story Worth Watching
Europe's marquee draw lands Thursday evening in Monaco, with the full fixture list out by Saturday and the league phase kicking off September 8.
The 2026/27 Champions League takes shape Thursday: the league phase draw is set for 18:00 CET at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco, per UEFA, and by the time it's done all 36 clubs will know the eight opponents standing between them and the knockout rounds.
How it works
The 36 teams are split into four pots of nine. Each club draws two opponents from every pot — eight matches in all, four home and four away — with draw software doing the pairing. The top eight in the single league table go straight to the round of 16; teams finishing 9th through 24th head to a two-legged playoff, and the bottom 12 are out of Europe entirely.
The English contingent
According to Sky Sports, Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City sit in Pot 1 alongside PSG — who arrive as back-to-back European champions — plus Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Inter, Barcelona and Atlético Madrid. Aston Villa, seeded in Pot 2 as Europa League winners, and Manchester United complete a five-club English contingent. Just as striking is who's missing: Chelsea, Tottenham and Newcastle all failed to qualify. One quirk to watch, per Sky: Liverpool cannot be drawn at home to Real Madrid, since regulations bar identical home fixtures three seasons running.
Dates that matter
UEFA says the full fixture list — dates and kickoff times included — arrives by Saturday, August 29, with the league phase starting Tuesday, September 8. The Europa League and Conference League draws follow Friday at 13:00 CET in Monaco. The road ends at the Estadio Metropolitano in Madrid on June 5, 2027.
The league phase format enters its third season, and its lesson so far is that the draw matters less than the calendar it creates: two winnable home dates in September can shape a club's whole European winter. By Saturday, everyone will know exactly what kind of winter they've drawn.