On Thursday (18:00 CET), the attentions of the football world will turn to Monaco for the draw of the eight first-round groups of the 2018/19 UEFA Champions League. Hans-Joachim Watzke and Carsten Cramer will be representing BVB in the Principality.

With the play-offs now over, the 32 participating teams have been confirmed. These 32 teams will be drawn from four pots. Pot 1 contains the reigning champions (Real Madrid), the Europa League winners (Atlético Madrid) and the champions of the top six associations. Meanwhile, the eight teams in Pot 2 are determined by their UEFA coefficient, which measures sporting performance over the course of the past five seasons.

Borussia Dortmund are in Pot 2 and, as such, cannot face another club from this pot in the group phase of the competition. Furthermore, it is not possible to face an opponent from the same country at this stage. That means no meeting with Bayern Munich (Pot 1), Schalke 04 (Pot 3) or TSG Hoffenheim (Pot 4).

The draw for the individual groups is subject to even more regulations. For example, as the top representatives of the Bundesliga, Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund usually do not go into the same sides of the draw (Groups A-D and Groups E-H), which ensures they do not play on the same day of the week. (br)

The pots at a glance

Pot 1 Pot 2
Real Madrid Borussia Dortmund
Atlético Madrid FC Porto
FC Barcelona Manchester United
Bayern Munich Shakhtar Donetsk 
Manchester City Benfica
Juventus Napoli
Paris Saint-Germain Tottenham Hotspur
Lokomotiv Moscow AS Roma
   
Pot 3 Pot 4
Liverpool Viktoria Pilsen
FC Schalke 04 Club Brugge
Olympique Lyon Galatasaray
AS Monaco Young Boys
Ajax Inter Milan
CSKA Moscow TSG Hoffenheim
PSV Eindhoven Red Star Belgrade
FC Valencia AEK Athens

Matchdays in the group stage

18/19 September
02/03 October
23/24 October
06/07 November
27/28 November
11/12 December