Lionel Messi wants his PSG to establish itself for the first time in Europe. Photo: REUTERS / Ronen Zvulun.
The draw for the group stage of the Champions League 2022-2023 will take place on Thursday 25 August in the Turkish city of Istanbulwhere the final of this season will also be played, more precisely at the Ataturk Olympic Stadium.
UEFA will divide the 32 qualifying teams into four pots, which will end up occupying the eight groups that will define the round of 16 of the competition. The last places of the tournament will be known in these hours, the most exciting of all those played by European clubs, with several qualifying matches.
The format of the draw will divide the teams into the following four categories: the first dish will consist of the reigning champion, the winner of the Europa League and the champions of the most important championships; while the other three drums, it will be formed according to the position of each team in the UEFA club rankings.
In this way it was announced that the first pot will consist of Real Madrid (reigning champion), Eintracht Frankfurt (Europa League champion), Manchester City, Milan, Bayern Munich, PSG, Porto and Ajax. In the second drum, Liverpool, Chelsea, Barcelona, Juventus, Atlético Madrid, Sevilla, Leipzig and Tottenham will be present.
That list includes everyone’s candidates, starting with Lionel Messi’s PSG, Mbappé and Neymar, who, together with Frenchman Christophe Galtier, promises to get to the last instances with a more established team than the previous season.
Another of the names that will leave it all behind to reach the final and win this trophy for the first time is Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City, which has long threatened the coup de grâce and now, with the arrival of Erling Haaland, has arguments to deliver the final blow.
And to them we must add Bayern Munich, a starter in these matters, which was enriched with the arrival of Sadio Mané and does not stop winning and scoring goals in the Bundesliga.
The Champions League can be for anyone … but it always ends up being for Real Madrid. He demonstrated this in the last edition, when Merengue, with a magnanimous Benzema, went through phases with definitions in extremis and showing its historical mystique until it brought the XIV “orejona” into its windows.
The other bands will be formed by Borussia Dortmund, Salzburg, Shakhtar Donetsk, Naples, Inter, Sporting Lisbon, Bayer Leverkusen, Marseille, Bruges and Celtic, among others, teams that can’t wait to surprise.
When is the draw for the Champions League
The draw for this new edition of the Champions League is announced for this Thursday at 13:00 (Argentine time) or will be broadcast to South America through the signal of ESPNbut fans will also have the opportunity to follow the ceremony in streaming, minute by minute, And through UEFA-TVthe digital channel of the highest body of European football.
Thus the final details of the draw begin to be defined and the teams begin to think about the great goal of reaching the great Champions League final, the one that will be played next time. June 10 in Istanbul.
This Champions League, full of Argentine players, will start playing from 6 to 7 September, with the first date of the group stage. And the closing of this phase is scheduled for 1 and 2 November, just before the start of the World Cup in Qatar.
Source: Clarin
