Champions League draw - LIVE!

European football’s top table is back on the agenda as the 32 teams who have made it to the Champions League draw proper learning their group stage fate.

The Premier League’s four representatives are again Manchester United, Man City, Liverpool and current holders Chelsea - who beat Pep Guardiola’s side in last season’s final.

The foursome are again tipped to go far in the competition but will face plenty of tests against the continent’s biggest and best - including a PSG side now boasting Lionel Messi and Sergio Ramos, among other big names.

Group A | Man City, PSG, RB Leipzig, Club Brugge

Group B | Atletico Madrid, Liverpool, FC Porto, AC Milan

Group C | Sporting, Dortmund, Ajax, Besiktas

Group D | Inter Milan, Real Madrid, Shakhtar, Sheriff

Group E | Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Benfica, Dynamo Kyiv

Group F | Villarreal, Manchester United, Atalanta, Young Boys

Group G | Lille, Sevilla, Salzburg, Wolfsburg

Group H | Chelsea, Juventus, Zenit, Malmo

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Champions League draw

• Group-stage draw in full

18:24 , Malik Ouzia

And the men’s award goes to... Chelsea’s Jorginho! Who, erm, lost to N’Golo Kante in the midfielders award. But hey ho.

18:23 , Malik Ouzia

Our penultimate award is for Uefa Women’s Player of the Year and the Barcelona dominance continues as Alexia Putellas claims the award.

18:20 , Malik Ouzia

And it only tallies then that the men’s winner is Thomas Tuchel, who of course took over at Chelsea midway through the season and led them to Champions League glory.

18:18 , Malik Ouzia

Still a few more awards to get through here, starting with the Uefa Women’s Coach of the Year. No surprises here - it’s Lluis Cortes, coach of the all-conquering Barcelona side that hammered Chelsea in last season’s Champions League final.

Here is a reminder of the draw in full...

18:16 , Malik Ouzia

Group A | Man City, PSG, RB Leipzig, Club Brugge

Group B | Atletico Madrid, Liverpool, Porto, AC Milan

Group C | Sporting, Borussia Dortmund, Ajax, Besiktas

Group D | Inter Milan, Real Madrid, Shakhtar Donetsk, Sherrif

Group E | Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Benfica, Dynamo Kyiv

Group F | Villarreal, Man United, Atalanta, Young Boys

Group G | Lille, Sevilla, Salzburg, Wolfsburg

Group H | Chelsea, Juventus, Zenit, Malmo

18:16 , Malik Ouzia

Group E | Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Benfica, Dynamo Kyiv

18:15 , Malik Ouzia

Group D | Inter Milan, Real Madrid, Shakhtar Donetsk, Sherrif

18:14 , Malik Ouzia

Group H | Chelsea, Juventus, Zenit, Malmo

18:13 , Malik Ouzia

Group A | Man City, PSG, RB Leipzig, Club Brugge

18:12 , Malik Ouzia

Group G | Lille, Sevilla, Salzburg, Wolfsburg

18:11 , Malik Ouzia

Group B | Atletico Madrid, Liverpool, Porto, AC Milan

18:10 , Malik Ouzia

Group C | Sporting, Borussia Dortmund, Ajax, Besiktas

18:09 , Malik Ouzia

Group F | Villarreal, Man United, Atalanta, Young Boys

18:05 , Malik Ouzia

Just the pot four teams to come but before that it’s time to recognise the men’s and women’s forwards of the season.

And the winners are... Erling Haaland and Jennifer Hermoso, of Borussia Dortmund and Barcelona.

18:04 , Malik Ouzia

Group C | Sporting, Borussia Dortmund, Ajax

18:03 , Malik Ouzia

Group B | Atletico Madrid, Liverpool, Porto

18:03 , Malik Ouzia

Group G | Lille, Sevilla, Salzburg

18:02 , Malik Ouzia

Group F | Villarreal, Man United, Atalanta

18:01 , Malik Ouzia

Group A | Man City, PSG, RB Leipzig

18:00 , Malik Ouzia

Group H | Chelsea, Juventus, Zenit

17:59 , Malik Ouzia

Group E | Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Benfica

17:58 , Malik Ouzia

Group D | Inter Milan, Real Madrid, Shakhtar Donetsk

We’ve seen this before...

17:55 , Malik Ouzia

Pot three, on we go...

17:54 , Malik Ouzia

Time for the midfielders of the season awards. Chelsea’s N’Golo Kante will be a popular winner of the men’s prize, with Barcelona’s Alexia Putellas taking the women’s award.

17:52 , Malik Ouzia

Group F | Villarreal, Man United

17:52 , Malik Ouzia

Group G | Lille, Sevilla

17:51 , Malik Ouzia

Group E | Bayern Munich, Barcelona

17:50 , Malik Ouzia

Group H | Chelsea, Juventus

17:49 , Malik Ouzia

Group A | Man City, PSG

17:49 , Malik Ouzia

Group B | Atletico Madrid, Liverpool

17:48 , Malik Ouzia

Group D | Inter Milan, Real Madrid

17:46 , Malik Ouzia

Group C | Sporting, Borussia Dortmund

17:44 , Malik Ouzia

On to pot two. Plenty of big-hitters in here...

17:42 , Malik Ouzia

And after that thrilling round of draws, we’re on to our our next award, for the best men’s and women’s defenders of last season’s Champions League.

Manchester City’s Ruben Dias is the men’s winner, while PSG’s Irene Paredes takes the women’s prize.

17:41 , Malik Ouzia

Group E | Bayern Munich

Group F | Villarreal

Group G | Lille

Group H | Chelsea

17:39 , Malik Ouzia

Group A | Man City

Group B | Atletico Madrid

Group C | Sporting

Group D | Inter Milan

17:39 , Malik Ouzia

Apologies, we were experiencing a few technical issues there but we are back up and running just in time for the start of the draw.

We’re starting with allocating each of the pot one teams to a group...

17:38 , Tom Doyle

The Champions League draw is underway!

17:35 , Tom Doyle

We are almost underway...

Our first award of the night...

17:20 , Malik Ouzia

The Uefa President’s Award, as was annouced earlier this week, has been given to Denmark captain Simon Kjaer and the medical staff who saved Christian Eriksen’s life after his collapse at Euro 2020.

17:09 , Tom Doyle

We begin with the Uefa awards ceremony for the previous year...

17:04 , Malik Ouzia

We kick things of with a montage of some of last season’s “memorable” moments (I’d forgotten almost all of them).

17:01 , Tom Doyle

We are live from Istanbul...

A reminder of the pots before we get going...

16:55 , Malik Ouzia

Plenty of big names arriving...

16:50 , Malik Ouzia

Let’s remind ourselves of how last year’s competition ended...

16:36 , Malik Ouzia

The stage is set...

16:24 , Malik Ouzia

What would a nightmare draw look like?

16:17 , Malik Ouzia

Let’s take Chelsea, the sole London representative and the defending champions as our example and see what a bit of a group of death might look like.

I reckon you could make a fair case that pot two is stronger than pot one and the Blues could end up with any of Barcelona, Real Madrid, PSG, Borussia Dortmund and Juventus. Given they can’t get Man United or Liverpool, Sevilla are their only other option.

In pot three, the likes of Porto, Ajax and RB Leipzig have all gone deep in the competition in recent years, while AC Milan are the European heavyweights in pot four.

Awards season

15:52 , Malik Ouzia

It’s not just the draw that’s taking place this afternoon - across the course of the ceremony there will be a host of awards handed out.

There will be goalkeeper, defender, midfielder and forward awards for the best players in both the men’s and women’s Champions Leagues, plus there Men’s and Women’s Coach and Player of the Year gongs will be dished out.

Champions League draw dates

15:19 , Malik Ouzia

Matchday 1 | 14/15 September

Matchday 2 | 28/29 September

Matchday 3 | 19/20 October

Matchday 4 | 2/3 November

Matchday 5 | 23/24 November

Matchday 6 | 7/8 December

Draw rules

14:52 , Malik Ouzia

The 32 teams will be split into four seeding pots, with pot 1 containing the holders (Chelsea), the Europa League winners (Villarreal) and the champions of the six highest-ranked nations who didn’t qualify by winning a 2020/21 continental title.

Pots 2 to 4 are determined by the club coefficient rankings. No team can play a side from their own association.

Associations with two teams will have clubs paired to split matches over Tuesdays and Wednesdays - and two pairing will be made for associations with four or more teams to accommodate TV audiences. That means Man City and United should play on separate days.

Zenit cannot be drawn with Dynamo because of a Uefa rule since 2014 keeping Russian and Ukrainian teams apart.

Champions League pots

14:22 , Malik Ouzia

Pot One: Chelsea, Bayern Munich, Manchester City, Atlético Madrid, Villarreal, Inter Milan, Sporting Lisbon, Lille

Pot Two: Real Madrid, Barcelona, Juventus, Manchester United, Paris Saint-Germain, Liverpool, Sevilla, Borussia Dortmund

Pot Three: Porto, Ajax, RB Leipzig, Atalanta, Zenit Saint Petersburg, Benfica, RB Salzburg, Shakhtar Donetsk

Pot Four: AC Milan, Club Brugge, Wolfsburg, Young Boys, Malmo, Besiktas, Dynamo Kiev, Sheriff Tiraspol

When is the draw?

13:50 , Malik Ouzia

Date: The Champions League group-stage draw takes place today - Thursday, August 26, 2021 - in Istanbul, Turkey.

UK time: The draw will commence at 5pm BST.

13:20 , Malik Ouzia

With everything that went on over the summer with Euro 2020, it feels like an awfully long time ago that Chelsea were edging out Manchester City in that all-English final at the end of last season.

And perhaps that’s no bad thing - the previous season’s pandemic-delayed conclusion meant that the qualifying rounds for one tournament had begun before the final of the last had even been played.

Either way, the return of Europe’s premier club competition is not far away...

Here we go

13:10 , Alex Young

You can almost hear the music already.

It’s Champions League draw day. Are you ready?