All you need to know: Champions League group stage draw

The draw for the group stage of the Champions League will take place at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco on Thursday evening.

Here is all you need to know about the draw

When is the draw?

The draw is due to start at 5pm Irish time on Thursday evening.

Where can I watch the draw?

It will be available to stream live on the RTÉ News channel and RTÉ Player.

How will it work?

The 32 teams will be split into eight groups of four, drawn from four seeded pots.

Pot 1 will feature European champions Manchester City, Europa League winners Sevilla and the domestic champions of the six highest-ranked European association: Barcelona, Napoli, Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain, Benfica and Feyenoord, who are included as Manchester City also won the English title).

Pots two to four will be based on the UEFA club coefficient rankings.

Pot 2: Real Madrid, Manchester United, Inter Milan, Borussia Dortmund, Atlético Madrid, RB Leipzig, Porto, Arsenal.

Pot 3: Shakhtar Donetsk, Red Bull Salzburg, AC Milan, Braga, PSV Eindhoven, Lazio, Red Star Belgrade, FC Copenhagen.

Pot 4: Young Boys, Real Sociedad, Galatasaray, Celtic, Newcastle United, Union Berlin, Royal Antwerp, Lens.

As usual, teams from the same country will be kept apart until at least the quarter-final stage. Pairings and any other restrictions will be announced ahead of the draw.

What else do we need to know about the format?

The teams play each other home and away between September and December as usual, with the top two progressing to the Champions League last 16.

The teams finishing third enter the Europa League knockout round play-offs, where they will face the runners-up from the Europa League group stages for a place in the last 16 of that competition.

The Europa League and Europa