The Champions League draw will take place on Thursday with Arsenal discovering their opponents in the league phase of the competition
Arsenal are in Pot 1 of the Champions League league phase draw
Arsenal are in Pot 1 of the Champions League league phase draw (Photo by Kristian Skeie - UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images)
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Arsenal will discover who they will face in the league phase of the Champions League today as the draw is conducted in Monaco. The Gunners were painfully beaten by Paris Saint-Germain in the final last season, with the match going to penalties and defender Gabriel Magalhaes missing the decisive spot kick.
Mikel Arteta will want to go one step further this campaign and will no doubt use the heartbreak of May as motivation. Speaking after the defeat in Budapest, Arteta said: "[I feel] pain - that’s it. When you are so close in the competition and today you are a few penalty kicks away from winning the biggest club football competition, that’s the way we should feel."
He added: "You have to go through that pain, digest it and turn it into fuel and improve to reach a different level. It will demand a different level with the quality around Europe."
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The league phase draw for this season's Champions League is set to get underway at 5pm today (Thursday, August 27) and Arsenal will finally discover their eight opponents. The draw is done by a supercomputer, which automatically selects the eight opponents by one touch of a button.
Arsenal are in Pot 1 and will play two teams from each of Pot 1, Pot 2, Pot 3 and Pot 4. The pots are allocated based on UEFA's club coefficient rankings, which reflects results in European competitions across a five-year period ending in 2025/26.
Alongside the Gunners in Pot 1 are PSG, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Liverpool, Inter, Man City, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid. The north Londoners cannot be drawn against Inter, however, as they have faced the Italian giants in the last two seasons in the league phase of the competition. UEFA rules prevent teams meeting at this stage of the competition in three successive years.
Arsenal will play their first league phase match in the week commencing September 7, with matchday 8 scheduled for January 27. Teams who finish in the top eight of the league phase go straight through to the round of 16, while the teams finishing in 9th to 24th place will compete in a two-legged knockout phase play-off to secure their path to the last 16. The final is scheduled to take place on June 5 at Atletico Madrid's Riyadh Air Metropolitano Stadium.
Champions League draw pots in full:
Pot 1
Paris (FRA)
Bayern München (GER)
Real Madrid (ESP)
Liverpool (ENG)
Inter (ITA)
Man City (ENG)
Arsenal (ENG)
Barcelona (ESP)
Atleti (ESP)
Pot 2
B. Dortmund (GER)
Roma (ITA)
Sporting CP (POR)
Aston Villa (ENG)
Porto (POR)
Man Utd (ENG)
Club Brugge (BEL)
Real Betis (ESP)
PSV (NED)
Pot 3
Feyenoord (NED)
Lille (FRA)
Bodø/Glimt (NOR)
Napoli (ITA)
Leipzig (GER)
Villarreal (ESP)
Fenerbahçe (TUR)
Shakhtar (UKR)
Galatasaray (TUR)
Pot 4
Slavia Praha (CZE)
S. Bratislava (SVK)
Stuttgart (GER)
AEK Athens (GRE)
LASK (AUT)
Como (ITA)
Lens (FRA)
Viking (NOR)
Sabah (AZE)