The draw for the league phase of the 2026-27 Champions League will take place on Thursday in Monaco and will see Barcelona discover who they will face this season in Europe’s premier club competition.
Hansi Flick’s side suffered a heartbreaking defeat to Atletico Madrid in the quarter-finals last season and will be determined to improve on that showing in the coming Champions League campaign.
Barcelona will be in Pot 1 for the draw along with defending champions Paris Saint-Germain, beaten finalists
Arsenal and La Liga rivals Atletico and Real Madrid. Bayern Munich, Liverpool, Manchester City and Inter are also among the top-rated teams.
There are also plenty of big names scattered throughout the other pots. Three-time European champions Manchester United are back in the competition and in Pot 2 along with Europa League winners Aston Villa, while the likes of Roma, Dortmund, Napoli and Porto are also in contention this year.
Here’s a look at how the pots are shaping up ahead of the final round of play-off fixtures taking place later today.
Which team is in each pot?
Pot 1
- Paris Saint-Germain
- Bayern Munich
- Real Madrid
- Liverpool
- Inter
- Manchester City
- Arsenal
- Barcelona
- Atletico Madrid.
Pot 2
- Borussia Dortmund
- Roma
- Sporting
- Aston Villa
- Porto
- Manchester United
- Club Brugge
- Real Betis
- PSV.
Pot 3
- Feyenoord
- Lille
- Napoli
- RB Leipzig
- Villarreal
- Shakhtar Donetsk
- Galatasaray.
Pot 3 or 4 (to be confirmed)
- Bodo/Glimt
- LASK
- Sabah
- Slavia Prague
- Stuttgart
- Como
- Lens
- Fenerbahce or Lyon
- Dinamo Zagreb vs Viking
- Slovan Brastislava or Celje
- Levski Sofa or AEK Athens.
How the draw works
There will be 36 teams in the draw for the 2026-27 Champions League, 29 qualified automatically at the end of last season and a further seven will make their way through qualifiers that conclude this week.
The 36 teams will be split into the four separate pots for the draw, with Pot 1 featuring the highest-ranked teams and Pot 4 the lowest. The rankings are based on UEFA’s club coefficients from the five-season period ending at the conclusion of 2025-26.
Every team in the draw will play two teams from each pot in the league phase. Teams from the same country cannot play either other, meaning Barcelona will not face any La Liga opposition in the league phase of the competition.
How far do you think Barcelona will go in this season’s Champions League? Share your predictions in the comments below!
