Manchester City sealed their place in the Champions League group stage with a comfortable 6-0 aggregate victory over Steaua Bucharest in the playoff round on Wednesday night, and will be in pot 2 for Thursday’s draw.
Pot 1 contains the seeded teams, featuring holders Real Madrid and the champions of the top seven leagues: Barcelona, Leicester City, Bayern Munich, Juventus, Benfica, PSG and CSKA Moscow.
City slot into the second pot with the best performing clubs in Europe over recent seasons, placing them alongside Atletico Madrid, Borussia Dortmund, Arsenal, Sevilla, Porto, Napoli and Bayer Leverkusen.
Tottenham Hotspur could face a difficult group as they are in pot 3 — which means they will definitely draw one of the six-non English teams from pot 2 and a seeded team.
Borussia Monchengladbach were handed a huge boost by the failure of Ajax and Salzburg to book their places on Wednesday night, which elevated them from pot 4 into pot 3.
Russian Premier League runners-up Rostov, the only debutants in the competition this season, are the lowest-ranked club after qualifying by thrashing Ajax.
The draw for the group stage of the Champions League takes place at 5 p.m. BST, midday ET on Thursday, Aug. 25. No team can play a club from their own association, while Dynamo Kiev cannot be drawn in the same group as CSKA Moscow or Rostov for political reasons.
The draw ceremony also includes the 2015-16 UEFA Best Player in Europe awards for men and women.
DRAW POTS
Seeded Pot 1: Real Madrid (holders), Barcelona, Leicester City, Bayern Munich, Juventus, Benfica, PSG, CSKA Moscow
Pot 2: Atletico Madrid, Borussia Dortmund, Arsenal, Manchester City, Sevilla, Porto, Napoli, Bayer Leverkusen
Pot 3: FC Basel, Tottenham Hotspur, Dynamo Kiev, Lyon, PSV Eindhoven, Sporting CP, Club Brugge, Borussia Monchengladbach
Pot 4: Celtic, AS Monaco, Besiktas, Legia Warsaw, Dinamo Zagreb, Ludogorets Razgrad, FC Copenhagen, Rostov
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