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Champions League draw set for Thursday evening


Four Spanish teams will feature in the Champions League group stages draw at the Monte Carlo Congress Centre on Thursday, with Villarreal having been eliminated by the meeting's local team Monaco in the preliminary stage of the competition.

Real Madrid and Barcelona take their place in Pot 1 due to their status as Champions League holders and Spanish league winners respectively.

Leicester City, Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern Munich, Benfica, Juventus and CSKA Moscow make up the rest of the top seeded teams.

Atletico Madrid and Sevilla sit in Pot 2 alongside Borussia Dortmund, Arsenal, Porto, Napoli and Bayer Leverkusen. They will be joined by Manchester City if Pep Guardiola's side secure their qualification against Steaua Bucharest.

In the unlikely event that Manchester City's 5-0 first-leg victory doesn't prove sufficient, Swiss side Basel will be bumped up to Pot 2 while Steaua Bucharest would enter the fray in Pot 4.

Tottenham, Dynamo Kiev, Lyon, PSV Eindhoven, Sporting Lisbon and Club Brugge are confirmed for Pot 3, while Monaco, Besiktas, Legia Warsaw and Ludogorets occupy Pot 4.

Scottish side Celtic have guaranteed their place in the group stages, but they will have to wait until the conclusion of tonight's play-offs to know which Pot they will occupy.

The final seeding allocations will be confirmed after the conclusion of Ajax-Rostov (1-1), Copenhagen-Apoel Nicosia (1-0), Young Boys-Borussia Monchengladbach (1-3), Dinamo Zagreb-Red Bull Salzsburg (1-1) and Steaua Bucharest-Manchester City (0-5), with UEFA's coefficient system used to populate the four pots.

The group stages will be held between September 13 and December 7, with the draw for the knockout stages slated for December 12.

In addition to revealing the group stage match-ups, UEFA will also use Thursday's ceremony to unveil the winner of their Best Player in Europe award.

Cristiano Ronaldo is widely considered the favourite to beat out Gareth Bale and Atletico Griezmann, with the women's award to be contested by Ada Hegerberg of Norway, Amandine Henry of France and Dzsenifer Marozsan of Germany./ShikoNews

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