Alex MacQuoid
The UEFA Champions League league phase draw takes place on Thursday, 27 August 2026 at 18:00 CEST / 17:00 BST (UK) / 19:00 EEST (Kyiv) / 16:00 GMT/UTC / 12:00 ET, with the ceremony held at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco. This is the draw that sets all eight league phase fixtures for each of the 36 clubs in the 2026/27 season, and you can watch the live video stream online of the Champions League draw for free on this page.
The free stream is provided by UEFA and may be geo-restricted in some territories. TipsGG is not responsible if the player does not work in your region.
Where and when to watch the Champions League draw live stream
The 2026/27 league phase draw starts on 27 August 2026 at 18:00 CEST (17:00 in the UK, 19:00 in Kyiv, 16:00 GMT, 12:00 ET). All UEFA draws are live and free to watch on UEFA.com and UEFA.tv, so you only need the button above to follow the ceremony LIVE from any device — desktop, tablet, mobile or smart TV. And if you want to compare prices on the outright markets before the fixtures are known, our rundown of the best football betting websites is a good place to start.
Champions League draw 2026/27: the 36 qualified teams
Of the 36 competing clubs, 29 booked their place through their domestic league finishes in 2025/26. The remaining seven spots were settled in a qualifying competition that began earlier this month and finished less than 24 hours before the draw: Bodo/Glimt, LASK, Sabah, Fenerbahce, Viking Stavanger, Slovan Bratislava and AEK Athens completed the field.
England supplies five entrants (Arsenal, Manchester City, Manchester United, Aston Villa, Liverpool) and Spain five (Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, Villarreal, Real Betis). Italy has four (Inter Milan, Napoli, AS Roma, Como) and Germany four (Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, RB Leipzig, VfB Stuttgart). France is represented by Paris Saint-Germain, RC Lens and LOSC Lille, the Netherlands by PSV Eindhoven and Feyenoord, and Portugal by FC Porto and Sporting CP. Completing the line-up are Club Brugge, Galatasaray, Fenerbahce, Shakhtar Donetsk, Slavia Prague, Bodo/Glimt, Viking Stavanger, LASK, Sabah, Slovan Bratislava and AEK Athens.
How the Champions League league phase draw works
The 36 qualified teams are split into four pots of nine, seeded on UEFA’s club coefficient ranking covering the five-season period that ended with 2025/26. Pot 1 holds the highest-ranked sides, Pot 4 the lowest. Every club is drawn against eight different opponents — two from each of the four pots — with four of those games at home and four away. Clubs cannot be drawn against a team from their own country.
- Pot 1: PSG, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Liverpool, Inter Milan, Manchester City, Arsenal, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid
- Pot 2: Borussia Dortmund, AS Roma, Sporting CP, Aston Villa, FC Porto, Manchester United, Club Brugge, Real Betis, PSV Eindhoven
- Pot 3: Feyenoord, LOSC Lille, Napoli, RB Leipzig, Villarreal, Shakhtar Donetsk, Bodo/Glimt, Galatasaray, Fenerbahce
- Pot 4: Slovan Bratislava, VfB Stuttgart, Slavia Prague, AEK Athens, Como, RC Lens, Sabah, LASK, Viking Stavanger
Once the eight matchdays are complete, the top eight in the single league table go straight through to the round of 16. The clubs placed ninth to 24th enter the knockout phase play-offs, while the 12 teams ranked 25th to 36th are eliminated when the league phase ends.
Champions League draw: key dates for the 2026/27 season
Now in its third year, the league phase begins in September and runs until late January, with the knockout rounds following in the spring and the champions crowned in early June.
- Matchday 1: 8-10 September 2026
- Matchday 2: 13-14 October 2026
- Matchday 3: 20-21 October 2026
- Matchday 4: 3-4 November 2026
- Matchday 5: 24-25 November 2026
- Matchday 6: 8-9 December 2026
- Matchday 7: 19-20 January 2027
- Matchday 8: 27 January 2027
- Knockout play-offs: 16-17 and 23-24 February 2027
- Round of 16: 9-10 and 16-17 March 2027
- Quarter-finals: 6-7 and 13-14 April 2027
- Semi-finals: 27-28 April and 4-5 May 2027
- Final: Saturday 5 June 2027
Two further draws follow this one: the knockout phase play-off draw on 29 January 2027 and the round of 16 draw, which completes the bracket, on 26 February 2027. The final will be staged at the Estadio Metropolitano, home of Atletico Madrid — the second Champions League final at the venue after 2019, when Liverpool beat Tottenham 2-0 in an all-English decider.
Champions League draw preview: who are the contenders?
Paris Saint-Germain arrive at the draw as back-to-back winners and are chasing a historic third consecutive title. They held their nerve in a cagey final last season, retaining the trophy by beating Arsenal 4-3 on penalties after a 1-1 draw over extra time at the Puskas Arena in Budapest, Gabriel blasting his spot kick over Matvey Safonov’s crossbar. That made PSG the first club to retain the trophy since Real Madrid’s three-year reign from 2016 to 2018, and earlier this month they added a second straight UEFA Super Cup with a 2-1 win over Aston Villa, Desire Doue’s 61st-minute strike standing after a video review on a marginal offside call.
The list of clubs ready to strip them of the crown in this 72nd edition is long. Real Madrid and Barcelona lead the Spanish challenge, Manchester City and Liverpool the English one, and Bayern Munich remain Germany’s standard-bearers — all five are in Pot 1 alongside PSG, Inter Milan, Arsenal and Atletico Madrid, so none of them can be drawn against each other from that pot. With Pot 2 stacked with sides such as Manchester United, Borussia Dortmund, Porto and Sporting, and Pot 3 containing Napoli, Villarreal, Galatasaray and Fenerbahce, there is no soft route through this format and no obvious favourite until the fixtures are on the board.
UEFA Champions League draw live stream LIVE
The Champions League draw live stream begins on Thursday, 27 August 2026 at 18:00 CEST / 17:00 UK / 19:00 Kyiv / 16:00 GMT / 12:00 ET from Monaco. Use the button above to follow the free live stream of the 2026/27 league phase draw on TipsGG from any device and find out who your club plays this autumn. Note that the UEFA stream may be geo-restricted in some countries.