The draw for the Champions League group stages will take place one month from today. Although the qualifying rounds are still ongoing, some of the participants have already been confirmed – including all the teams in pot one.

Though they currently occupy seventh place in the UEFA club rankings, Borussia Dortmund did not make it into pot one, where the champions of the top seven national associations and the title holders make up the eight contestants. The DFB Cup winners, who have 124,899 points in the rankings, are in pot two alongside Barcelona, Atlético Madrid, Paris St. Germain and the two Manchester clubs. The Black & Yellows will therefore not face any of those teams in the group stages, which kick off in mid-September.

BVB could face any of the clubs in pot one apart from fellow Bundesliga outfit Bayern Munich, meaning that Real Madrid, Chelsea, Juventus, Benfica, Monaco, Spartak Moscow and Shakhtar Donetsk are all possible opponents. The groups will be completed by a team from pot three, which already includes the likes of Basel and Anderlecht, and pot four.

Should all of the favourites (the teams with the most points in the ranking list) qualify for the group stages, the strongest-possible draw that BVB could face – based entirely on coefficients and therefore on performances over the course of the last five years rather than current form – would include Real Madrid, Napoli and Besiktas. The weakest group, on paper at least, would see the Black & Yellows square off against Shakhtar Donetsk, Liverpool and Feyenoord.

But big names like Liverpool go to show that "on paper" counts for very little. (br)