The draw for the new UEFA Women's Champions League group stage split the 16 contenders into four pools of four teams.

In all, 16 teams will compete in the competition's first group stage to be played with home and away games:

Holders: Barcelona (ESP)
Champions of the three highest-ranked associations: Paris Saint-Germain (FRA), Bayern München (GER), Chelsea (ENG)*
Round 2 winners: Arsenal (ENG), Benfica (POR), Breidablik (ISL), Häcken (SWE), HB Køge (DEN), Hoffenheim (GER), Juventus (ITA), WFC Kharkiv (UKR), Lyon (FRA), Real Madrid (ESP), Servette (SUI), Wolfsburg (GER)

*The four direct places in the group stage go to the holders and the domestic champions of the three associations ranked highest in the access list. As the holders (Barcelona) are also the domestic champion of one of the top-three associations (Spain), the group is completed with the champions of the association ranked fourth in the access list (England).

Draw procedure

For the purpose of the draw, the 16 clubs involved in the group stage are seeded into four pots of four.

Pot 1 consists of the holders and the three domestic champions of the associations ranked highest in the access list (i.e. Barcelona, Paris, Bayern and Chelsea). The remaining pots are composed in accordance with the club coefficient rankings established at the beginning of the season.

Four groups of four teams will be formed, each group consisting of one team from each seeding pot. Clubs from the same association cannot be drawn into the same group, with any other restrictions confirmed ahead of the draw.

POT 1

Barcelona (ESP) – title holders
Paris Saint-Germain (FRA) – French champions
Bayern München (GER) – German champions
Chelsea (ENG) – English champions

POT 2

Lyon (FRA) – coefficient 124.400
Wolfsburg (GER) – 97.100
Arsenal (ENG) – 27.700
Breidablik (ISL) – 17.000

POT 3

Häcken (SWE) – 16.100
Juventus (ITA) – 15.200
Hoffenheim (GER) – 15.100
Real Madrid (ESP) – 12.800

POT 4

WFC Kharkiv (UKR) – 9.100
Servette FCCF (SUI) – 7.600
HB Køge (DEN) – 6.900
Benfica (POR) – 5.600

Further restrictions

• In the case of associations with two representatives, these clubs will be paired in order to split their matches between the Tuesday and Wednesday or the Wednesday and Thursday of each matchweek. In the case of associations with three representatives, only two clubs will be paired. The pairings are: Barcelona & Real Madrid; Paris & Lyon; Bayern & Wolfsburg; Chelsea & Arsenal.
• Clubs from countries with severe winter conditions (Sweden, Iceland) will be assigned a position in their group which allows them to play away on matchday 6.

The top two teams from each group will progress to the quarter-finals.

All games will kick off at 18:30/18:45 CET or 20:45/ 21:00 CET.

Season calendar

Group stage
Matchday 1: 5/6 October
Matchday 2: 13/14 October
Matchday 3: 9/10 November
Matchday 4: 17/18 November
Matchday 5: 8/9 December
Matchday 6: 15/16 December

Quarter-final & semi-final draw
20 December

Quarter-finals
First leg: 22/23 March
Second leg: 30/31 March

Semi-finals
First leg: 23/24 April
Second leg: 30 April/1 May

Final (Juventus Stadium, Turin)
Date tbc