RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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The field is nearly set for this season's UEFA Champions League, Thursday's league phase draw setting the stage for the road to the final on June 5 at Madrid's Metropolitano Stadium.
Thursday's draw will take place once the final round of qualification wraps up this week, which will see the last seven teams fill in the field of 36 that will take part in the league phase. No matter how things shake out, a healthy mix of usual suspects and newcomers will each have eight games to prove they belong in the knockout rounds – and are maybe worthy of making a deep run, no matter how likely or unlikely it may be.
A handful of favorites to win the whole thing, like back-to-back champions Paris Saint-Germain and last season's finalists Arsenal, headline a group of teams that booked their spots in this season's competition months ago. Fellow heavyweights like Bayern Munich and Barcelona also make up the group, while Manchester United are back after two seasons away and Italian side Como are amongst the most notable newcomers to the competition.
As the clock ticks down to Thursday's draw, here's what you need to know before tuning in.
Date: Thursday, Aug. 27 | Time: 12 p.m. ET Location: Grimaldi Forum -- Monaco TV/Live stream: CBS Sports Golazo Network
All times U.S./Eastern; all matches to air on Paramount+
Tuesday, Aug. 25 Sabah vs. Hapoel Be'er Sheva, 12:45 p.m. (Hapoel Be'er Sheva leads 2-1 on aggregate) Bodo/Glimt vs. NEC Nijmegen, 3 p.m. (Bodo/Glimt leads 3-1 on aggregate) LASK vs. Celtic, 3 p.m. (Celtic lead 2-0 on aggregate)
Wednesday, Aug. 26 AEK Athens vs. Levski Sofia, 3 p.m. (teams tied 0-0 on aggregate) Lyon vs. Fenerbahce, 3 p.m. (teams tied 1-1 on aggregate) Viking vs. Dinamo Zagreb, 3 p.m. (teams tied 2-2 on aggregate) Celje vs. Slovan Bratislava, 3 p.m. (teams tied 1-1 on aggregate)
The 38 teams will be divided into four pots based on their five-year UEFA club coefficient – pot 1 will have the highest-ranked teams, while pot 4 will have the lowest-ranked teams. The reigning Champions League holders are always placed in pot 1. The teams – whose names will be on little slips of paper inside a little ball – will be placed into different bowls on the stage based on those pots.
As each team gets picked out of their bowl, a button will be pressed to randomly assign their schedule for the league phase. Regardless of what pot they are placed in, though, each team will face two teams from every pot and play a total of four games at home and four games away.
Over the course of the league phase, the teams will be ranked against each other in a single table. The top eight teams at the end of the league phase will advance straight to the round of 16, while teams ranked nine through 24 will then play each other in the knockout phase playoffs before moving on to the last 16.
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