Confirmed 2022/23 Champions League group stage pots

Real Madrid have only just won the Champions League but the journey to next season’s competition is already upon us.

Qualifying rounds will take place throughout the summer, though a number of teams already know their potential opponents with pots beginning to take shape.

Here’s all you need to know.

There are four pots for the Champions League group stage draw. They are then allocated into eight groups of four in the draw on August 25.

Pot 1 is made up of the league champions from the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, Ligue 1 and Primeira Liga as well as the Champions League and Europa League winners.

Pots 2, 3 and 4 and then determined by UEFA club coefficient, which is determined by how well each side has done in Europe over the past five seasons.

As Real Madrid won both La Liga and the Champions League, the spare spot in Pot 1 will go to the winner of the seventh-ranked league in Europe, which is the Netherlands’ Eredivisie – Ajax won that division in 2022/23.

2022/23 Champions League Pot 1

Real Madrid
Eintracht Frankfurt
Manchester City
AC Milan
Bayern Munich
Paris Saint-Germain
Porto
Ajax

2022/23 Champions League Pot 2

Liverpool
Chelsea
Barcelona
Juventus
Atletico Madrid
Sevilla
RB Leipzig
Tottenham

2022/23 Champions League Pot 3

Borussia Dortmund
Red Bull Salzburg
Shakhtar Donetsk
Inter
Napoli
Sporting CP
Bayer Leverkusen

2022/23 Champions League Pot 4

Club Brugge
Celtic

2022/23 Champions League Pot 3 or 4

Marseille
2 winners from play-off round (League Path)
4 winners from play-off round (Champions Path)

2022/23 Champions League qualifying and play-off round

For teams who haven’t automatically qualified through league positions, qualifying rounds will determine who makes it into the Champions League.

Champions Path

All league champions who do not qualify directly for the group stage go into the Champions Path.

It includes:

Preliminary round (4 teams playing one-legged semi-finals and final) – 4 teams enter
First qualifying round (30 teams) – 29 teams enter, 1 winner of preliminary round
Second qualifying round (20 teams) – 5 teams enter, 15 winners of first qualifying round
Third qualifying round (12 teams) – 2 teams enter, 10 winners of second qualifying round
Play-off round (8 teams): 2 teams enter, 6 winners of third qualifying round

Teams eliminated from this path enter either the Europa League or Europa Conference League at different stages, depending on when they were knocked out.

Play-off round

Copenhagen
Trabzonspor

Third qualifying round

Crvena zvezda
Apollon Limassol

Second qualifying round

Dinamo Zagreb
Olympiacos
Viktoria Plzen
Maccabi Haifa
Zurich

First qualifying round

Qarabag
Malmo
Ludogorets Razgrad
Sheriff Tiraspol
CFR Cluj
Bodo/Glimt
Ferencvaros
Slovan Bratislava
HJK
The New Saints
F91 Dudelange
Lincoln Red Imps
Shamrock Rovers
Linfield
Zrinjski
Shakhtyor Soligorsk
Sutjeska Niksic
Ki Klaksvik
Lech Poznan
Hibernians
Tobol
Shkupi
PyunikRFS
Dinamo Batumi
Tirana
Ballkani

Preliminary round

LCI Levadia
La Fiorita
Inter Club d’Escaldes
Vikingur Reykjavik

League Path

The League Path includes non-champions who did not qualify directly for the group stage.

It includes:

Second qualifying round (4 teams) – 4 teams enter
Third qualifying round (8 teams) – 6 teams enter, 2 winners of second qualifying round
Play-off round (4 teams) – 4 winners of third qualifying round.

Two losers from the second qualifying round enter the Europa League’s Main Path qualifiers, while the four losers from the third qualifying stage and the two play-off round losers enter the group stage.

Third qualifying round