It is the competition that all footballers dream of playing in, the Champions League is the top prize in European football and it gives players the chance to show their ability at the highest level. Last season’s Champions League final involved Liverpool and Real Madrid, with Liverpool goalkeeper Karius having a night to forget after two mistakes handed the trophy to Los Blancos.
Champions League odds 2018/2019
Later today the groups will be decided now that all of the preliminary qualification matches have been played. An exit by Celtic was one of the biggest surprises, as they went out to AEK Athens.
How the pots are decided
The teams are sorted into pots; Pot 1 includes the champions, Europa League champions and the league champions of six highest ranking nations. Pots 2, 3 and 4 are decided by club coefficient rankings. Despite Liverpool making the final last season, their failure to qualify for Champions League football for a number of seasons in the last five years will put them in Pot 3, giving them a potentially more difficult group.
Who are the favourites to win the Champions League 2018/19?
Defending champions Real Madrid will be without star man Ronaldo and manager Zinedine Zidane, so the bookies are not backing them to pick up their fourth successive trophy. Manchester City is installed as favourites with most bookies and Juventus, Barcelona and PSG follow them with the next shortest odds.
Champions League odds 2018/2019
The full list of teams and their pots:
Pot 1
- Real Madrid
- Atletico Madrid
- Barcelona
- Bayern Munich
- Manchester City
- Juventus
- Paris Saint-Germain
- Lokomotiv Moscow
Pot 2
- Borussia Dortmund
- Porto
- Manchester United
- Shakhtar Donetsk
- Benfica
- Napoli
- Tottenham
- Roma
Pot 3
- Liverpool
- Schalke
- Lyon
- Monaco
- Ajax
- CSKA Moscow
- Valencia
- PSV Eindhoven
Pot 4
- Viktoria Plzen
- Club Brugge
- Galatasaray
- Young Boys
- Inter Milan
- Hoffenheim
- Red Star Belgrade
- AEK Athens
How to watch the Champions League draw
The draw takes place at 6 pm CET and will be shown on BT Sport 2 or you can live stream from Uefa.com.