British clubs set to learn Champions League fate
Top seeds Arsenal, Manchester United and Chelsea will be hoping to avoid La Liga giants Real Madrid when the Champions League group stage draw is made in Monaco this evening.
Jose Mourinho’s side are in pot two for tonight’s draw and could face any of the five British clubs to have qualified for the group stages.
Harry Redknapp’s Tottenham, who sealed their place in the draw with a 6-3 aggregate victory over Swiss side Young Boys last night, could be pitted against reigning champions Inter Milan or Spanish champions Barcelona.
Teams cannot be drawn against others from the same pot or the same country, therefore Spurs cannot face any of their Premier League rivals until the quarter-final stage.
UEFA’s seedings are based on a ranking system which takes into account performances in European competition over the last five seasons.
The draw for the Champions League group stages gets underway at 1700BST.
Pots for Champions League draw:
Pot one: Inter Milan, Barcelona, Man United, Chelsea, Arsenal, Bayern Munich, AC Milan, Lyon.
Pot two: Werder Bremen, Real Madrid, Roma, Shakhtar Donetsk, Benfica, Valencia, Marseille, Panathinaikos.
Pot three: Tottenham, Rangers, Ajax, Schalke, Basle, Braga, FC Copenhagen, Spartak Moscow.
Pot four: Hapoel Tel Aviv, FC Twente, Rubin Kazan, Auxerre, CFR Cluj, Partizan Belgrade, MSK Zilina, Bursaspor.
