The 2026\/27 Champions League is already under way through the qualifying rounds, but the competition\u2019s main league phase begins next month, when the draw is finally made on Aug. 27 at 12 p.m. ET, 9 a.m. PT, 5 p.m. BST and 6 p.m. CET.<\/p>\n
Five Premier League clubs are waiting to learn their eight opponents, and the structure of the draw gives them a clear idea of what lies ahead. Each side will face two teams from each of the four pots, with one home match and one away match against every pot. They cannot be drawn against another English club, and they are also limited to a maximum of two opponents from the same nation.<\/p>\n
Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City have been placed in Pot 1, while Aston Villa and Manchester United are in Pot 2. Some teams are still to be confirmed because qualification ties remain to be completed.<\/p>\n
Among the stronger Pot 1 names, Paris Saint-Germain stand out as the side most clubs would want to avoid. They are the back-to-back Champions League winners after beating Arsenal in last season\u2019s final and eliminating Liverpool in the previous two campaigns. Real Madrid and Bayern Munich are also major threats, while Barcelona are likely to be especially unwelcome for English teams.<\/p>\n
There are still more manageable possibilities elsewhere. In Pot 1, Atl\u00e9tico Madrid and Inter are viewed as the least daunting of the most difficult options, even if both remain serious tests. In Pot 2, Club Brugge and PSV Eindhoven do not inspire the same concern as some of the other names around them, while Villa and United themselves will also be awkward draws.<\/p>\n
From Pot 3, Shakhtar Donetsk and Feyenoord look like the softer options. Shakhtar\u2019s matches are being played at Stamford Bridge because of the ongoing conflict between Ukraine and Russia, while Azerbaijani debutants Sabah are the least established side in the field. Celje, if they progress past Slovan Bratislava, would also be among the more routine assignments.<\/p>\n
Borussia Dortmund remain one of the most awkward European opponents, having reached the final in 2024, while Sporting CP are another side from Pot 2 that will not be welcomed lightly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Champions League league phase draw arrives on Aug. 27, with five Premier League clubs watching closely.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18766,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1647,172],"tags":[1836,1162,1047],"class_list":["post-18767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-champions-league","category-epl","tag-2026-27-premier-league","tag-analytics","tag-champions-league"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18767\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}