August is rolling into September, and that means that it’s almost time for the Champions League draw.
Yes, that’s right! Get ready for a needlessly lengthy show dedicated to football legends being unable to unscrew a mini plastic football, before explaining the over-complicated permutations of who could draw who instead of actually getting on with the thing.
Here’s everything you need to know about this years’ draw:
The draw takes place on Thursday from 4pm GMT, and will feature the 32 group stage teams in this years’ competition.
Tottenham found themselves in last season’s infamous ‘group of death’, with the likes of Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund, but actually finished as group winners in sensational style.
This year, in pot one, we can find the holders, Real Madrid, and the champions of the top European leagues, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Juventus, Manchester City, PSG and Lokomotiv Moscow.
Spurs find themselves in pot 2 this campaign, an upgrade from last year which is largely thanks to the top 4 failings of their London rivals Chelsea and Arsenal.
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Pot two is made up of Borussia Dortmund, Porto, Manchester United, Shakhtar Donetsk, Napoli, Roma and Tottenham Hotspur, with one of PAOK v Benfica to join that list after Wednesday evening.
Pot three consists of Lyon, Monaco, Schalke, Ajax and CSKA Moscow thus far, with the likes of Salzburg, PSV, Valencia and Viktoria Plzen all still contenders to join them.
Finally, the only fixed names in pot 4 so far are Bruges, Galatasaray, Young Boys, Inter, Hoffenheim and AEK Athens.
As far of a group of death goes this season, there are no real permutations that will match the strength of Spurs’ group last year, which came largely due to their pot 3 ranking.
This season a group of Barcelona, Tottenham, Monaco and Inter is one of the hardest that fans can expect.
As for the best case scenario, arguably Lokomotiv Moscow, Tottenham, PAOK and AEK Athens, would be the easiest set of ties on paper.
Who would you like to see in Tottenham’s group?
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