CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: GUIDE TO THE GROUP STAGE DRAW

The Grimaldi Forum in Montecarlo will host the 2023/24 Champions League group stage draw on Thursday 31 August (18:00 CEST). The Rossoneri, who reached the semi-final last season, go into the starting blocks with great hunger to have another great campaign. But how does the draw work? Let's find out!

RULES32 teams are taking part in this year's competition, 26 of which have qualified directly while the remaining six will go through the play-offs. The 32 teams be separated into four pots. Pot 1 contains reigning champions Manchester City, Europa League winners Sevilla, and the six winners of the remaining highest-ranked national division: Napoli, Barcelona, PSG, Benfica, Bayern München and Feyenoord. The other pots will be determined by the teams' respective UEFA club coefficient. In pot 2, we have Real Madrid, Arsenal, Manchester United, Borussia Dortmund, Porto, Atlético Madrid, Inter and Leipzig.

AC Milan will be drawn from pot 3, along with Lazio, Shakhtar Donetsk, Salisburgo, Crvena Zvezda, Sporting Braga, PSV Eindhoven and Copenhagen. In pot 4, we have Newcastle United, Lens, Union Berlin, Galatasaray, Celtic Glasgow, Real Sociedad, Young Boys and Royal Antwerp. Under the current format, teams from the same association may not be drawn into the same group.

The eight groups will be distinguished by colour: groups A, B, C and D will be red whilst groups E, F, G and H will be blue. In order for paired clubs from the same country to play on separate days, when one of the clubs is drawn in one of the red groups (A, B, C or D), the other paired club, once drawn, will automatically be assigned to one of the four blue groups (E, F, G or H). These are the pairings of teams that will definitely have to play on different days: 

• Manchester City - Manchester United
• Sevilla - Atlético Madrid
• Barcelona - Real Madrid
• Napoli - Lazio
• Bayern - Dortmund
• PSG - Lens
• Benfica - Porto
• Feyenoord - PSV
• Inter - AC Milan
• Leipzig - Union Berlin
• Arsenal - Newcastle

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE 2023/24 DATESMatchday 1: 19/20 September 2023Matchday 2: 3/4 October 2023Matchday 3: 24/25 October 2023Matchday 4: 7/8 November 2023Matchday 5: 28/29 November 2023Matchday 6: 12/13 December 2023

18 December 2023: Round of 16 DrawRound of 16: 13/14/20/21 February and 5/6/12/13 March 2024

15 March 2024: Quarter-final, Semi-final and Final DrawQuarter-finals: 9/10 and 16/17 April 2024

Semi-finals: 30 April/1 May and 7/8 maggio 2024

The Final will take place on Saturday 1 June at Wembley, London.

The AC Milan PUMA Kits for 2023/24 are available: buy them now!