Group stage draw: which teams are in which pots?

The new-look UEFA Champions League group stage draw takes place on Thursday 27 August at 17.45CET, streamed live in our DrawCentre, which will have all the build-up from the Grimaldi Forum, Monaco and across Europe.

Which teams are in which pots?

Pot 1: Barcelona, Bayern München, Chelsea, Benfica, Paris, Juventus, Zenit and PSV Eindhoven. There will be one side from pot 1 in each group.

• The remaing three pots, as usual, are decided by each team's UEFA club coefficient.

Pot 2: Real Madrid, Atlético, Porto, Arsenal, Man. United, Valencia, Bayer Leverkusen, Manchester City
Pot 3: Shakhtar Donetsk, Sevilla, Lyon, Dynamo Kyiv, Olympiacos, CSKA Moskva, Galatasaray, Roma
Pot 4: BATE Borisov, Borussia Mönchengladbach, Wolfsburg, Dinamo Zagreb, Maccabi Tel-Aviv, Gent, Malmö, Astana

All details subject to final confirmation of UEFA after the play-offs

• No team can play a club from their own association, with the exact draw procedure to be confirmed before the ceremony.
• The draw also establishes the groups for the UEFA Champions League path of the expanded UEFA Youth League.
• The draw ceremony includes the vote for and presentation of the 2014/15 UEFA Best Player in Europe Awards for men and women.

What is new about this draw?

Sevilla: in as UEFA Europa League winners©Getty Images

Qualifiers:

• As for every season since 1999/2000, 32 teams will enter the draw and be split into eight groups of four, to play each other home and away.
• Twenty-two teams are assured of their place, to be joined by the ten play-off winners.
• The teams include Sevilla, the first club to qualify as UEFA Europa League winners.
• As Valencia beat Monaco in the play-offs, Spain are the first nation to have five teams in the group stage.
• Astana are the first team from Kazakhstan to make it.
• Unlike in previous years, following a change in the regulations, pot 1 for the draw will now be formed by the holders and the champions of the top seven associations: Spain, England, Germany, Italy, Portugal, France and Russia.
• As Barcelona are also Spanish champions, the eighth-ranked Netherlands receive the vacant seeding place.

Do seedings matter? We investigate...

The final is at San Siro©Getty Images

When will matches be played?

Group stage draw: 17.45CET, 27 August, Monaco
Matchday one: 15/16 September
Matchday two: 29/30 September
Matchday three: 20/21 October
Matchday four: 3/4 November
Matchday five: 24/25 November
Matchday six: 8/9 December

Round of 16 draw: 12.00CET, 14 December, Nyon
Round of 16, first leg: 16/17/23/24 February
Round of 16, second leg: 8/9/15/16 March
Quarter-final draw: 12.00CET, 18 March, Nyon
Quarter-final, first leg: 5/6 April
Quarter-final second leg: 12/13 April
Semi-final draw: 12.00CET, 15 April. Nyon
Semi-final, first leg: 26/27 April
Semi-final, second leg: 3/4 May
Final: 20.45CET, 28 May, San Siro