The 2015-2016 Uefa Champions League Campaign kicks off in a matter of weeks with the group stage draw set to hold today evening in Monaco, France
The play-offs for the 2015 Uefa Champions League season is over and all 32 teams that qualified for the tournament are confirmed as the group stage draw comes up later this evening, August 27, 2015. Here are some few things you need to know about the group stage draw.
UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE GROUP STAGE DRAW 2015
The group stage draw takes place on Thursday (Today), August 27, 2015 in Monaco, France at 5:45pm CET (4:45pm BST). Not only the group stage draw will be carried out during the ceremony as votes and presentation for the 2014-2015 UEFA Best Player in Europe award for both men and women will also be done.
All 32 teams that qualified for the group stages have been officially confirmed and are already seeded into four pots for the draw:
POT 1: FC Barcelona, Chelsea FC, Bayern Munich, Juventus, Benfica, Paris Saint Germain, Zenit St. Petersburg, PSV Eindoven
POT 2: Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, Arsenal FC, FC Porto, Manchester United, Manchester City, Valencia, Bayer Leverkusen,
POT 3: Sevilla, Olympique Lyonnais, CSKA Moscow, Galatasary, AS Roma, Shakhtar Donetsk, Dynamo Kyiv, Olympiacos
POT 4: Borussia Mönchengladbach, Wolfsburg, Dinamo Zagreb, Maccabi Tel-Aviv, Malmö, BATE Borisov, Astana, Gent.
Seeding…
Clubs are not just put in pots randomly as there are some standards that determine which pot a certain club is in. POT 1 consists of holders and Champions of the Leagues of the Top 7 association of Uefa: Spain, England, Germany, Italy, Portugal, France and Russia. PSV made POT 1 because Barcelona won the UCL as well as their League meaning the Champion of Holland makes it. The three other pots are decided according to each team's UEFA Club Coefficient.
Pairing…
– A team cannot meet another team from the same pot in the group stage. Example: Barcelona who is in POT 1 cannot meet any of the other seven teams from POT 1 meaning each group consists of at most one club from each pot.
– A team can not meet another team from the same League/Country in the group stage. Example: Barcelona who are in POT 1 cannot meet Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid and Valencia from POT 2, meaning their only possible opponents from POT 2 are Arsenal, FC Porto, Man United, Man City and Leverkusen. This means that the four teams in a group must be from different countries.
2015/2016 UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE IMPORTANT DATES
The group stage draw will be held in Monaco today but other draws – the Round of 16 draw, the Quarter final draw and the Semi-final draw will all be held in Nyon, Switzerland with the final in May to be played at San Siro, Milan. Here are the dates for every event in the 2015-2016 Uefa Champions League Calender.
Group Stage Draw: August 27, 2015
Match-day 1: 15/16 September, 2015
Match-day 2: 29/30 September, 2015
Match-day 3: 20/21 October, 2015
Match-day 4: 3/4 November, 2015
Match-day 5: 24/25 November, 2015
Match-day 6: 8/9 December, 2015
Round of 16 Draw: 14 December, 2015 at 12:00 CET in Nyon, Switzerland;
Round of 16 First Leg Games: 16/17 and 23/24 February, 2016
Round of 16 Second Leg Games: 8/9 and 15/16 March, 2016
Quarter-final Draw: 18 March, 2016 at 12:00 CET in Nyon, Switzerland;
Quarter-final First Leg Games: 5/6 April, 2016
Quarter-final Second Leg Games: 12/13 April, 2016
Semi-final Draw: 15 April, 2016 at 12:00 CET in Nyon, Switzerland;
Semi-final First Leg Games: 26/27 April, 2016
Semi-final Second Leg Games: 3/4 May, 2016;
Final: 28 May, 2016 at 20:45 CET in San Siro, Milan, Italy.
Last season's final was a bit different from the past editions as it was played in June due to the FIFA World Cup 2014 schedule. However, the final returns in May next year and will be staged in the iconic stadium San Siro
