UEFA Champions League draw results: Every group for 2022/23 UCL after event in Istanbul

The road to Istanbul began in Istanbul as the 2022/23 UEFA Champions League group stage draw was held on Thursday, August 25 in the city that will host the final in June 2023.

The 32 clubs that qualified for the group stage — 26 automatic qualifiers along with six teams that earned berths via the qualifying rounds — found out their fate as the names were pulled out of the pots at the glitzy ceremony.

The eight groups are set and there is an obvious candidate for Group of Death: Bayern Munich, Barcelona and Inter Milan are the big names in Group C, which also features Czech side Viktoria Plzen. 

But more notably, those pairings also delivered a Robert Lewandowski revenge match against former club Bayern Munich. A stellar run with the Bavarian giants ended with a contentious departure over the summer. He'll be keen to show that he made the right move in joining Barcelona. 

Another player revisiting his old club will be Manchester City's big summer signing Erling Haaland, who goes back to Borussia Dortmund where he became a world star. His departure was on very different terms compared to Lewandowski's.

Another Group of Death candidate is Group H, where PSG will take on former star Angel Di Maria, who now wears Juventus colors. Benfica will be no pushover in that group, and Maccabi Haifa will be excited to cause an upset after a surprise run through qualifying to the group stage.

Meanwhile, Tottenham Hotspur and Real Madrid will be very pleased with their group draws, and Group A should provide guaranteed entertainment (Ajax, Liverpool, Napoli and Rangers).

Champions League groups 2022/23

Champions League draw updates from 2022/23 ceremony in Turkey

1:20 p.m. ET:  That brings the ceremony to a close. Kudos to UEFA for not holding up the draw with all the awards. The group stage matches are right around the corner, kicking off on Tuesday, Sept. 6.

1:20 p.m. ET:  Surprise, surprise. The Men's Player of the Year award goes to Karim Benzema and he's on stage to accept it. Benzema calls Carlo Ancelotti the best coach he's ever had in some lengthy comments with the presenters.

1:15 p.m. ET:  Barcelona's Alexia Putellas wins the Women's Player of the Year for the second season in a row. And she's slightly limping, a clear sign of the knee injury that kept her out of Euros 2022.

1:06 p.m. ET:  Carlo Ancelotti receives the Men's Coach of the Season. And he's there to accept it and offers a lengthy acceptance speak in English. He lists all five grandchildren in his thank you's. And he also recognizes Arrigo Sacchi for being a teacher to him when he coached him at AC Milan.

1:02 p.m. ET:  After the draw we get the remaining award winners. The winner of the Women's Coach of the Season is Sarina Wiegman who led England's women to Euro 2022 glory.

12:52 p.m. ET: On to the final pot (Pot 4).

Celtic: They can get any group and they got Real Madrid in Group F.

Marseille: Four groups available (A-D). And they get Group D. Spurs fans will be ecstatic.

FC Copenhagen: All groups available to them, and they get Man City's group.

Club Brugge: A, B, C, E and H are all available and they get Group B. Solid draw for Atletico Madrid.

Rangers: Two options, A or C. And they get Napoli, Liverpool and Ajax.

Dinamo Zagreb: They have all three remaining options available (C, E, and H). 

Maccabi Haifa: Either group fits for the Israeli side. And they get Group H with PSG and Juve.

Viktoria Plzen: And that leaves the Czech side which is fed to the Group of Death teams in Bayern Munich, Barcelona and Inter Milan.

12:43 p.m. ET: Already on to Pot 3.

Napoli: First team drawn and it has four possible options: A, B, C or D. And they get Group A and Liverpool.

FC Salzburg: All seven groups are available to the Austrian side. They get Group E.

Benfica: Three options. F, G and H. And they get PSG and Juventus.

Borussia Dortmund: Only Group G is available to the German side.

Bayer Leverkusen: They also have only one choice and that's Group B. Easy enough.

Sporting Lisbon: All three remaining groups are available to them (C, D, F). They join Spurs and Eintracht. 

Shakhtar Donetsk: Only one choice given Inter Milan also remain. Computer send them to face Real Madrid again.

Inter Milan: The last Pot 3 club joins Bayern and Barcelona. We have our Group of Death.

12:34 p.m. ET: Pot 2 is next. Here are the teams in order of their selection:

RB Leipzig: Groups E, F, G or H were the options and they landed in Group F. First time they're facing Real Madrid in the Champions League.

Juventus: Only Group G and H are the options and they get PSG. Angel Di Maria to face his ex-team.

Tottenham Hotspur: Spurs have five possibilities A-E. And it's Group D. Eintracht for Spurs. It was the ideal Pot 1 matchup for any team in Pot 2.

Liverpool: Three options for the Reds. A, B or C. And it's Group A with Ajax.

Sevilla: Three options -- B, C and G. The Spanish side gets G against Man City.

Barcelona: They only have two options, B or C. And the Blaugrana are paired with Bayern Munich for the second straight season. Robert Lewandowski faces his ex-club!

Chelsea: Only one choice for the Blues and that's with AC Milan in Group C

Atletico Madrid: And they go into B against FC Porto for the second straight season.

12:28 p.m. ET: Ajax Amsterdam is the first name drawn followed by FC Porto, Bayern Munich, Eintracht Frankfurt, and the rest. Each name that was pulled simply took up the next group. No issues with Pot 1. It's Pot 2 up next.

• Group A: Ajax Amsterdam
• Group B: FC Porto
• Group C: Bayern Munich
• Group D: Eintracht Frankfurt
• Group E: AC Milan
• Group F: Real Madrid
• Group G: Manchester City
• Group H: PSG

12:25 p.m. ET: What's abundantly clear from the explainer video is that this is a computer-assisted draw taking into account country clashes, TV pairings and other considerations. It's all about the computer. Pot 1 comes first.

12:21 p.m. ET: The head of competition for UEFA, Deputy General Secretary Giorgio Marchetti, is now on stage and explaining the draw process. A video is played to do the heavy lifting on the details.

12:16 p.m. ET: Turkey's own Hamit Altintop and former Man City star Yaya Toure are introduced. They'll be involved in the draw.

12:11 p.m. ET: After a special video, Arrigo Sacchi comes on stage to accept the award. "I never thought this would happen," he said. "I've always tried my best."

#Sacchi premiato durante i #SorteggiChampions pic.twitter.com/SQUOCIFZvq

— calciomercato.it (@calciomercatoit) August 25, 2022

Sacchi says that there are teams abroad that are closest to his soccer philosophy, moreso than teams in his native Italy. He insists that the sport needs to entertain and offer excitement.

12:07 p.m. ET: They'll start with an award and it's the President's Award. UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin is explaining why he decided to honor Arrigo Sacchi, calling him a visionary.

12:02 p.m. ET: The show is underway. Co-hosts Pedro Pinto and Reshmin Chowdhury kick things off and immediately kick it to a highlight sizzle reel from 2021/22.

11:45 a.m. ET: Neat little tidbit from Squawka. Teams that went perfect during the group stage. There have only been 10 in history, and three happened last season.

Perfect #UCL Group Stage campaigns:

◉ Milan (92/93)
◉ PSG (94/95)
◉ Spartak Moscow (95/96)
◉ Barcelona (02/03)
◉ Real Madrid (11/12)
◉ Real Madrid (14/15)
◉ Bayern (19/20)
◉ Bayern (21/22)
◉ Ajax (21/22)
◉ Liverpool (21/22)

We had three last season. 🤯#UCLdraw

— Squawka (@Squawka) August 25, 2022

11 a.m. ET: A reminder that we'll also get three awards announced at the event. Men's Player of the Year, Men's Coach of the Year, and a special President's Award.

✨ NOMINEES: UEFA Men's Player of the Year 2021/22 ✨

🇲🇫 Karim Benzema
🇧🇪 Thibaut Courtois
🇧🇪 Kevin De Bruyne

🗓️ #UEFAawards winners announced today at the #UCLdraw 🏆 pic.twitter.com/AZ0JbTJUmz

— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) August 25, 2022

✨ NOMINEES: UEFA Men's Coach of the Year 2021/22 ✨

🇮🇹 Carlo Ancelotti
🇪🇸 Pep Guardiola
🇩🇪 Jürgen Klopp

🗓️ #UEFAawards winners announced today at the #UCLdraw 🏆 pic.twitter.com/1zp8ZW1bna

— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) August 25, 2022

🏅🇮🇹 The UEFA President's Award goes to…Arrigo Sacchi!

UEFA president, Aleksander Čeferin - “The endless tactical innovations he introduced are today the foundations of any footballing playbook, mirrored by generations of coaches who have followed”.

Full #UEFAawards story: 👇

— UEFA (@UEFA) August 23, 2022

8:30 a.m. ET: It's been a while since this happened. The group stage will be more entertaining with both of them in it.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 First time since 2007/08 Celtic and Rangers are both in the group stage...#UCLdraw || #UCL pic.twitter.com/hKNv1OlGfv

— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) August 25, 2022

6 a.m. ET: We're six hours away from finding out if the following groups can become a reality. The Sporting News already came up with the draw we'd love to see.

The groups we'd all love to see from the Champions League draw tomorrow. 🤤 pic.twitter.com/0Oidqj1LH1

— 90min (@90min_Football) August 24, 2022

Champions League pots: How the 32 teams were seeded

There were four pots from which names were drawn to fill out Groups A through H. Each pot featured eight teams: 

Here's how the teams wound up in each pot:

Pot 1

Pot 1 consisted of the defending Champions League (Real Madrid) and Europa League (Eintracht Frankfurt) title winners, plus the reigning league champions from each of the top six nations in the UEFA country coefficient list.

Since Real Madrid are the Spanish league champions (a top-six nation) as well as defending UEFA Champions League holders, the Pot 1 spot reserved for the Spanish champions was assigned to the next best nation in the country coefficient list. In this case, that's the Netherlands and its reigning Eredivisie champion Ajax, who were elevated to Pot 1.

Pots 2-4

As for Pots 2, 3, and 4, those were based on the UEFA club coefficient list, which is a ranking based on a mathematical formula taking into account each club's performance in domestic and continental competitions over the past five years. Each club's UEFA club coefficient ranking is included in parentheses for Pots 2-4 above.

Can teams from the same country be drawn in the same group?

Clubs from the same country could not be drawn in the same group and had to be moved to the next available slot in a different group. The computer took care of that during the draw.

This was a consideration for 24 of the 32 participating clubs who hail from countries that have multiple entrants as indicated in the list below:

TV pairings: Teams who cannot play at the same time

In addition, UEFA paired together certain clubs from the same nation to ensure they don't play at the same time during the group stage (to optimise viewership audience).

As such, when any of the teams below were drawn into groups A-D, their paired team was automatically assigned (by the computer, of course) to one of groups E-H, and vice-versa: 

• Real Madrid and Barcelona 
• Eintracht Frankfurt and RB Leipzig 
• Manchester City and Liverpool
• AC Milan and Napoli 
• Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund 
• Paris Saint-Germain and Marseille 
• FC Porto and Benfica 
• Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur 
• Juventus and Inter Milan 
• Atletico Madrid and Sevilla 

Champions League draw TV channel, live stream

The 2022/23 UEFA Champions League group stage draw took place on August 25 at 18:00 local time in Istanbul, Turkey.

The event was televised in the UK and USA, and it was available to stream in other regions.

When does Champions League start?

The 2022/23 UEFA Champions League group stage will see the opening matchday on September 6-7. All matches will be played on Tuesdays or Wednesdays.

What's notable about this season's schedule is that all six group matchdays will take place in the span of eight weeks in order to wrap it up before the break for the 2022 FIFA World Cup which is being played for the first time in November and December.

Here are the key dates to circle on your calendar when it comes to the slate of Champions League group-stage matches:

Knockout stage schedule

The draw for the 2022/23 Champions League Round of 16 will take place on November 7, 2022 only a few days after the group stage wraps up. 

The draw for the remaining rounds (quarter-finals and semi-finals) of the 2022/23 Champions League knockout stage will take place on March 17, 2023.