Champions League: Clubs await group stage draw
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE DRAW
Venue: Monaco Date: 30/08/2012 Start: 1645 BST
Coverage: Live text commentary on the BBC Sport website.
Manchester City could be drawn against the league champions of Germany, Spain and Italy in Thursday's draw for the Champions League group stages.
Premier League winners City, who went out in the group stage last season, are in pot two and may face Borussia Dortmund, Real Madrid and Juventus.
Reigning champions Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United are in pot one.
The draw consists of 32 teams in four pots and will divide them into eight groups of four.
The clubs that qualified for the group stages on Wednesday are yet to be assigned pots, but Celtic are expected to be in pot four.
City are in pot two because their Uefa co-efficient is not as high as their rivals in pot one.
This proved a drawback last season when they were drawn with eventual losing finalists Bayern Munich, plus Italian side Napoli and Villarreal of Spain.
Manchester United also went out at the group stage last season, while Arsenal were eliminated in the last 16 by AC Milan.
Chelsea won the tournament for the first time in their history by beating Bayern on penalties in the final at the German side's stadium.
The group stages start on 18/19 September and finish on 4/5 December.
Likely pots:
Pot One: Chelsea, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Manchester United, Bayern Munich, Arsenal, Porto, AC Milan.
Pot Two: Valencia, Benfica, Shakhtar Donetsk, Zenit St Petersburg, Schalke, Manchester City, Braga.
Pot Three: Olympiakos, Ajax, Anderlecht, Juventus, Paris St Germain, Galatasaray.
Pot Four: Borussia Dortmund, BATE Borisov, Dinamo Zagreb, Malaga, Montpellier, FC Nordsjaelland.
Celtic, Lille, Spartak Moscow, CFR Cluj and Dynamo Kiev yet to be assigned pots having come through qualifiers on Wednesday.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/19414170
