Champions League Group Stage Draw Date Set

Photo by Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/Getty Images

Liverpool are looking to defend their title.

Reigning European Champions Liverpool Football Club are going for back-to-back Champions League victories in this coming season. Soon they will find out how difficult that challenge will be when UEFA does the drawings for the group stage.

The drawing is set to take place this coming Thursday at 5PM BST/12PM EST in Monaco. You can watch the draw streamed live on UEFA’s website.

The group stage is made up eight groups with four different teams in each group. The teams are placed in pots according to club coefficients created by UEFA, with the eight strongest teams in pot 1 and the eight weakest in pot 4. One team from each pot is drawn to form the eight groups.

The four teams will then spend the fall and winter playing each other home and away, with the top two teams from each group advancing on to the knockout round.

Last season, Liverpool made it out of the group of death, which consisted of PSG, Napoli, and Red Star Belgrade, by a single goal in the final game against Napoli.

Liverpool are in pot 1 along with Chelsea, Barcelona, Manchester City, Juventus, Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain and Zenit St Petersburg. Tottenham Hotspur are in pot 2, but teams from the same leagues can’t face each other in the group stages.

The other pots won’t be set until the conclusion of Wednesday’s playoff games, but most of the teams are confirmed.

Are there any teams you’re hoping to avoid in the group stage? Let us know in the comments.

Source: liverpooloffside.sbnation.com