Barcelona, Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid and Real Sociedad will later today learn their opponents for the Champions League group stage.
Beaten semi-finalists from successive seasons Barca and Madrid are both listed amongst the top seeds for Thursday afternoon’s group phase draw, whilst Atletico Madrid are back in the competition for the first time since 2009-10.
Meanwhile, La Real’s 4-0 aggregate Play-off round win over Lyon secured last night at San Sebastian has guaranteed the Basques a second ever appearance in the competition.
Atleti are dropped into pot two of the seeding, due to Arsenal’s progression through that same Play-off round, whilst Real Sociedad enter into pot four.
At this stage of the competition, teams from the same country cannot be drawn against each other.
During the UEFA Gala in Monaco that is hosting the draw, the European football body will also hand out the UEFA Best Player in Europe Award to one of Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Franck Ribery.
Champions League seeding
Pot one: Bayern Munich, BARCELONA, Chelsea, REAL MADRID, Manchester United, Arsenal, Porto, Benfica
Pot two: ATLETICO MADRID, Shakhtar Donetsk, AC Milan, Schalke, Marseille, CSKA Moscow, Paris Saint-Germain, Juventus
Pot three: Zenit St Petersburg, Manchester City, Ajax, Borussia Dortmund, Basel, Olympiacos, Galatasaray, Bayer Leverkusen
Pot four: FC Copenhagen, Napoli, Anderlecht, Celtic, Steaua Bucharest, Viktoria Plzen, REAL SOCIEDAD, Austria Vienna.
