UEFA Champions League group stage draw

2015/16 UEFA Champions League group stage draw
Group A: Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid, Shakhtar Donetsk, Malmö

Group B: PSV Eindhoven, Manchester United, CSKA Moskva, Wolfsburg

Group C: Benfica, Atlético, Galatasaray, Astana

Group D: Juventus, Manchester City, Sevilla, Borussia Mönchengladbach

Group E: Barcelona, Bayer Leverkusen, Roma, BATE Borisov

Group F: Bayern München, Arsenal, Olympiacos, Dinamo Zagreb

Group G: Chelsea, Porto, Dynamo Kyiv, Maccabi Tel-Aviv

Group H: Zenit, Valencia, Lyon, Gent

The group stage draw as it happened

Group stage dates
Matchday one: 15–16/09/14
Matchday two: 29–30/09/14
Matchday three: 20–21/10/14
Matchday four: 03–04/11/14
Matchday five: 24–25/11/14
Matchday six: 08–09/12/14
Full season calendar

17.45CET, 27 August

Which teams were in which pots?

Pot 1: Barcelona, Bayern München, Chelsea, Benfica, Paris, Juventus, Zenit and PSV Eindhoven. There will be one side from pot 1 in each group.

• The remaing three pots, as usual, were decided by each team's UEFA club coefficient.

Pot 2: Real Madrid, Atlético, Porto, Arsenal, Manchester United, Valencia, Bayer Leverkusen, Manchester City
Pot 3: Shakhtar Donetsk, Sevilla, Lyon, Dynamo Kyiv, Olympiacos, CSKA Moskva, Galatasaray, Roma
Pot 4: BATE Borisov, Borussia Mönchengladbach, Wolfsburg, Dinamo Zagreb, Maccabi Tel-Aviv, Gent, Malmö, Astana

• No team can play a club from their own association and Russian and Ukrainian teams cannot meet.
• The draw also established the groups for the UEFA Champions League path of the expanded UEFA Youth League.
• The draw ceremony included the vote for and presentation of the 2014/15 UEFA Best Player in Europe Awards for men and women.

What was new about this draw?

Sevilla: in as UEFA Europa League winners©Getty Images

Qualifiers:

• As for every season since 1999/2000, 32 teams entered the draw and were split into eight groups of four, to play each other home and away.
• Twenty-two teams assured of their place were joined by the ten play-off winners.
• The teams included Sevilla, the first club to qualify as UEFA Europa League winners.
• As Valencia beat Monaco in the play-offs, Spain were the first nation to have five teams in the group stage.
• Astana were the first team from Kazakhstan to make it.
• Unlike in previous years, following a change in the regulations, pot 1 for the draw was formed by the holders and the champions of the top seven associations: Spain, England, Germany, Italy, Portugal, France and Russia.
• As Barcelona are also Spanish champions, the eighth-ranked Netherlands received the vacant seeding place.

Do seedings matter? We investigate...

The final is at San Siro©Getty Images

When will matches be played?

Group stage draw: 17.45CET, 27 August, Monaco
Matchday one: 15/16 September
Matchday two: 29/30 September
Matchday three: 20/21 October
Matchday four: 3/4 November
Matchday five: 24/25 November
Matchday six: 8/9 December

Round of 16 draw: 12.00CET, 14 December, Nyon
Round of 16, first leg: 16/17/23/24 February
Round of 16, second leg: 8/9/15/16 March
Quarter-final draw: 12.00CET, 18 March, Nyon
Quarter-final, first leg: 5/6 April
Quarter-final second leg: 12/13 April
Semi-final draw: 12.00CET, 15 April. Nyon
Semi-final, first leg: 26/27 April
Semi-final, second leg: 3/4 May
Final: 20.45CET, 28 May, San Siro