Champions League Draw LIVE: Man Utd, Chelsea, Spurs, Liverpool, Man City group stage fate

Champions League Draw Man Utd Chelsea LiverpoolGETTY

Champions League Draw LIVE: Man Utd and Chelsea are among the teams in the group stage

Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City and Tottenham are all in the pot for the group stage draw.

Chelsea are top seeds and start in Pot 1 after winning the Premier League title last season.

They join national champions Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Juventus, Benfica, Monaco, Spartak Moscow and Shakhtar Donetsk in the top pot.

Manchester United and Manchester City are in Pt 2 – United qualifying by virtue of their Europa League victory last season.

Three Spanish clubs – Barcelona, Atletico Madrid and Sevilla – are also in Pot 2.

Tottenham and Liverpool are in Pot 3 alongside the likes of Roma, Napoli and Olympiakos.

And Scottish champions Celtic sit in Pot 4.

Follow all the updates LIVE with Express Sport as we count down to the draw…

Group A: Benfica, Manchester United, Basel, Spartak Moscow

Group B: Bayern Munich, PSG, Anderlecht, Celtic

Group C: Chelsea, Atletico Madrid, Roma, Qarabag

Group D: Juventus, Barcelona, Olympiakos, Sporting

Group E: Spartak Moscow, Sevilla, Liverpool, Maribor

Group F: Shakhtar Donetsk, Manchester City, Napoli, Feyenoord

Group G: Monaco, Porto, Besiktas, Leipzig

Group H: Real Madrid, Dortmund, Tottenham, APOEL

*Groups will update as the draw is made

Antonio Conte Champions League ChelseaGETTY

Antonio Conte’s Chelsea are in Group C

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE GROUP STAGE DRAW LIVE

17:46: Pot 4 underway…

RB Leipzig, the team no one wanted from Pot 4, joins Group G. The easy group. Qarabag get Group C alongside Chelsea, Atletico Madrid and Roma.

Feyenoord join Manchester City in Group F.

Scottish champions Celtic go into Group B. They’ll face Bayern, PSG and Anderlecht. A nice group. Scott Brown filing his studs, thinking of Neymar.

Spartak Moscow go into Manchester United’s Group A, Maribor join Liverpool in Group E and Tottenham will travel to APOEL.

Montage Six!

17:45: They leave the glossiest ’til last! Cristiano Ronaldo wins Champions League Forward of the League. The trophy looks pretty rubbish compared to his personal hoard. He scored twice in the Champions League final over Juventus in Cardiff.

Diamond studded earrings bigger than my head. 

He says something that I can’t quite get. It won’t have been important anyway. Something about winning trophies.

Now on to Pot 4…

17:36: Pot 3, including Liverpool and Tottenham, is being drawn…

Basel have been drawn in Manchester United’s Group A.

Liverpool will play Sevilla and Spartak Moscow in Group E, while Tottenham are in Group H alongside Real Madrid and Dortmund.

Roma join Chelsea and Atletico Madrid in Group C. Manchester City are joined by Naopli in Group F. 

Montage five!

17:35: Luka Modric wins the Champions League Midfielder of the Season award. This is turning into a Real Madrid parade. Oh joy.

Unlike Totti, Modric doesn’t fill his suit with raw animalistic magnetism. He looks like a kid on a school trip. Still, he’s a better midfield than anyone in Europe so… can’t laugh.

17:28: What a thrilling award that was. We’re onto Pot 2 now. Barcelona, the Manchester clubs, Porto, etc.

Chelsea will face Atletico Madrid in Group C! You can hear Diego Costa’s screams from Brazil.

As for Manchester United, they get Group A top seeds Benfica. Hmm.

Manchester City have the arduous task of a trip to Shakhtar Donetsk. Ouch!

Barcelona and Juventus are the big draw in Group D.

Montage four!

17:25: Now it’s time for the UEFA Champions League defender of the season! What fun. We get a tasty little montage of… Sergio Ramos! With all the gladiatorial music to boot. Restrained applause from the club delegates in the arena there.

17:20: Chelsea are the first English side out of the hat (naturally). They will be top seeds in Group C.

Monaco go into Group G. Surely that’s the group everyone wants! Real Madrid are in Group H. Best avoid that one.

Champions League draw is underway…

17:15: Everyone’s favourite Joe 90 lookalike Giorgio Marchetti is here to take us through the draw.

The thirty-two teams are seeded, with the champions of the top national leagues in the top pot.

Teams from Russia and Ukraine can’t be drawn together.

First up is the top seeds from Pot 1, who will automatically go into their groups.

Champions League drawGETTY

The Champions League trophy is what they’re all fighting for

Montage three!

Gianluigi Buffon wins Champions League Goalkeeper of the Season for last term.

No argument really. Plenty of saves on his montage.

Andriy Shevchenko in the house

Chelsea legend (I’m sure you’ll all agree) is the representative of the 2018 Champions League final.

He comes on stage and has a brief chat before heading to his pot of balls.

The final will be played in Kiev on 26 May 2018.

Liverpool Champions LeagueGETTY

Liverpool are into the Champions League group stage

Montage two!

Before the draw we’re being treated to an award. The President’s Award to be precise. Francesco Totti is being given some sort of lifetime achievement award.

The big achievement for Totti over the past five years is how he’s kept on going.

Totti retired from football after a career at Roma at the end of last season. A real legend who fills out his suit nicely.

Montage alert!

We’re 30 seconds into the draw presentation and we’re already onto the montages.

If you were (un)lucky enough to watch the draws for some of the qualifying rounds you may see an upturn in quality.

No expenses spared from UEFA making sure you know This. Is. The. Best. Tournament. In. The. World!

Worst / best case scenario

Celtic posted a tweet earlier asking fans who they would like to draw, party and avoid.

The majority seemed to want Liverpool in the group stage, with Barcelona as the big club to avoid.

Chelsea have played Barcelona in their last two Champions League group stages.

It’s not quite as bad as Arsenal facing Bayern every knockout stage since the stone age but Celtic would prefer to avoid Barca.

Looking at the Pots, Manchester United and Manchester City will want to avoid Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Juventus.

A trip to Ukraine and Russia probably doesn’t suit either side. Monaco are probably the weakest side in Pot 1.

As for Pot 4, everyone will want to avoid RB Leipzig, who are far stronger than their coefficient and subsequent seeding suggests.

Real Madrid Cristiano RonaldoGETTY

Real Madrid and Cristiano Ronaldo won the Champions League last season

How Man City reached the Champions League group stage

Manchester City finished third in the Premier League last season but their efforts were still deemed a failure under manager Pep Guardiola.

If Klopp thinks there’s pressure on his to deliver at Liverpool it’s nothing compared to Guardiola.

He must win a trophy this season and at least reach the Champions League semi-finals or questions will be raised over his future at the Etihad.

How Liverpool reached the Champions League group stage

Liverpool finished fourth in the Premier League last season and beat Hoffenheim in a two-legged playoff this month to secure their progression to the group stage.

The Reds cruised to a 6-3 aggregate win.

This is the big time for manager Jurgen Klopp and expectations are on his shoulders.

European and domestic success was why Liverpool appointed Klopp less than two years ago.

How Tottenham reached the Champions League group stage

Spurs finished second in the Premier League and will rue not challenging Chelsea closer for domestic honours.

They endured a disastrous Champions League group stage last season – playing their home games at Wembley.

They’ll be back at the 90,000-seater stadium this term.

How Chelsea reached the Champions League

Antonio Conte won the Premier League in his first season in charge of Chelsea and the Blues are in Pot 1 for the draw today.

Chelsea didn’t have European football to contend with last season and a tough group stage here may test Conte’s men.

The boss still wants to sign more players before deadline day in order to give him the best chance of winning trophies on both fronts.

Manchester United win Europa LeagueGETTY

Manchester United qualify for the Champions League after winning the Europa League

How Man Utd reached the Champions League

Manchester United earned their place in the Champions League group stage courtesy of winning the Europa League.

United finished fifth in the Premier League last season but did the job in the final against Ajax.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic was a bystander due to injury but he has today confirmed he has re-signed for United.

Could we see him in the knockout stages?

When is the Champions League draw?

The draw is scheduled to start at 5pm UK time (6pm CET)*. It’s taking place in Monaco – the home of one of last season’s surprise clubs.

Monaco won Ligue 1 and also reached the Champions League semi-finals last season.

They are in Pot 1 for this draw but their squad has been decimated over the summer transfer window, with a host of key players leaving.

They’re certainly not the feared team they were late last term.

*Note: Of course the draw is meant to start at 5pm but if the Carabao Cup draw this morning was anything to go by it’ll finish when you’re ready for bed.

Welcome

Welcome to our coverage of the Champions League group stage draw!

Who doesn’t love a draw? All the drama, all the ex-players talking rubbish, all those montages!

Real Madrid won the competition last season and are one of the favourites to defend their title for a second successive year.

The Premier League have FIVE clubs representing England in the draw, with Scottish champions Celtic making it a Big Six to keep an eye on.


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