UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE. The 2022-2023 Champions League groups were revealed this Thursday, August 25, during the draw made by UEFA at the end of the day. The calendar is known, the date of the first matches set for September 6 …
The 2022-2023 version of the Champions League begins in a few days with the launch of the group stage on September 6! Yesterday Wednesday, three clubs joined the elite of European football at the final whistle of the play-offs. Glasgow Rangers, Copenhagen and Dinamo Zagreb thus qualified last for the premier competition in Europe. But before the start of this Champions League, a draw has been scheduled for Thursday, August 25 from UEFA headquarters. The composition of the groups, and in particular the opponents of PSG and OM, the two French clubs qualified this season, are now known.
For this new European epic, PSG will be in the last group, Group H, and will be opposed to Juventus Turin, Benfica Lisbon and Maccabi Haifa. Olympique de Marseille inherits a group deemed affordable, with Frankfurt, Tottenham and Sporting Lisbon. A full-bodied Group C looms with the Bayern Munich, Barça and Inter Milan on the bill. Relive the draw in our live:
Here is the complete composition of the 8 groups of the Champions League 2022-2023, according to the draw carried out at UEFA headquarters on August 25, 2022:
- Group A: Ajax AmsterdamLiverpool, Napoli, Glasgow Rangers
- Group B: Porto, Atletico Madrid, Bayer Leverkusen, Brugge
- Group C: Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Inter Milan, Viktoria Plzen
- Group D: Frankfurt, Tottenham, Sporting Lisbon, OM
- Group E: AC Milan, Chelsea, Salzburg, Zagreb
- Group F: real MadridLeipzig, Donetsk, Celtic Glasgow
- Group G: Manchester City, Sevilla, Borussia Dortmund, FC Copenhagen
- Group H: PSG, Juventus, Benfica Lisbon, Maccabi Haifa
A total of 32 clubs have qualified for this 2022-2023 Champions League. Before the draw, the opponents were divided into 4 pots which made it possible to randomly establish balanced groups between the behemoths of Real Madrid, Manchester City, AC Milan, Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain ( pot 1 being composed of the defending champions, the UEFA winners Europa League and champions of the six highest ranked nations) and the more modest clubs on paper such as Dinamo Zagreb, Club Brugge or Olympique de Marseille.
Hat 1
Real Madrid (ESP), Eintracht Frankfurt (GER), Manchester City (ENG), AC Milan (ITA), Bayern Munich (GER), Paris Saint-Germain (FRA), FC Porto (POR), Ajax Amsterdam (HOL).
Hat 2
Liverpool (ENG), Chelsea (ENG), FC Barcelona (ESP), Juventus (ITA), Atlético de Madrid (ESP), Sevilla FC (ESP), RB Leipzig (GER), Tottenham Hotspur (ENG).
Hat 3
Borussia Dortmund (GER), RB Salzburg (AUT), Shakhtar Donetsk (UKR), Inter Milan (ITA), Napoli (ITA), Benfica (POR), Sporting CP (POR), Bayer Leverkusen (GER).
Hat 4
Glasgow Rangers (ECO), Dinamo Zagreb (CRO), Olympique de Marseille (FRA), FC Copenhagen (DAN), Club Brugge KV (BEL), Celtic (ECO), Viktoria Plze (CZE), Maccabi Haifa (ISR).
If we do not yet know the details of the matches at the time of writing these lines, we already know the calendar of the different days of this Champions League version 2022-2023. After kicking off on September 6 and 7, UEFA invited football fans to meet on September 13 and 14 for the rest of the competition, before three more days in October and the end of the group stage. in November.
The group stage of the Football Champions League will therefore be played from Tuesday September 6, 2022 to Wednesday November 2, 2022 while the knockout stage will take place from Tuesday February 14, 2023 to Wednesday May 17, 2023. As for the final, it is scheduled for June 10, 2023 at the Atatürk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul. The calendar was then drawn up as follows by UEFA:
Group stage
- Day 1: September 6-7, 2022
- Day 2: September 13-14, 2022
- Day 3: October 4-5, 2022
- Day 4: October 11-12, 2022
- Day 5: October 25-26, 2022
- Day 6: November 1-2, 2022
Final phase
- Round of 16: February 14-15-21-22 and March 7-8-14-15, 2023
- Quarter-finals: 11-12 and 18-19 April 2023
- Semi-finals: May 9-10 and 16-17, 2023
- Final: June 10, 2023
UEFA wanted a reform of the Champions League, the latter was enacted this Tuesday, May 10 for the 2024/2025 season. To put it simply, the group stage will be replaced by a mini championship with 36 teams in total against 32 currently . Each club will face eight different teams (four at home, four away) and will therefore play two more matches than with the current format. Thereafter, the eight best teams of this first phase will be directly qualified for the final phases, and the clubs classified between the 9e and the 24e place will face each other in round-trip matches in play-offs to complete the final draw.
Thanks to this reform, France obtains a 3rd direct qualifying place for the group stage of the Champions League since it is currently the 5th European nation. This reform also inflates the number of matches since from 2024, 225 matches will be scheduled instead of the current 125. In the team Wednesday May 11, the president of UEFA Aleksander Ceferin justified this change. “Just because something is working well doesn’t mean you should never change anything again
he explained. Always try to improve. […] Believe me, it’s not made for the big clubs. […] It will be much more interesting. In the current formula, in the group stage, we know which clubs will qualify after two or three matches.”
The TV rights battle continued to rage ahead of this Champions League season. UEFA has awarded the French TV rights for the “Big Ears Cup” to beIN Sports and Canal+, which thus ensure the broadcasting of the Champions League. RMC Sport will co-broadcast with Canal the two best Champions League posters until 2024 and beIN SPORTS will offer all the remaining matches.