The Champions League draw 2022/23 is set for 5pm UK time – and this might be one of the strongest seasons that the competition has known since 1993.
That's when the tournament was rebranded from the European Cup and in that time, English sides have only won six editions of the competition, despite dominating over the years and reaching plenty of finals.
Manchester City head into Pot 1 today, with Liverpool, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur in Pot 2 – so what's the best and worst-case scenario for each side?
Champions League draw 2022/23: The easiest possible group for the English clubs
Manchester City are at an advantage to their Premier League rivals in this draw. As champions of England, they're given top billing in this year's Champions League and placed into Pot 1 alongside the other domestic title holders, plus Eintracht Frankfurt, who won the Europa League.
According to the coefficient, City's easiest possible pool would contain RB Leipzig from Pot 2 and Maccabi Haifa from Pot 4. Bayer Leverkusen are the lowest-ranked team in Pot 3, but since a German team would already have filled a space in that group – only one club per league is permitted at this stage of the draw – Sporting would have to be the final team.
Liverpool, Chelsea and Tottenham, however, are placed into Pot 2, along with the likes of Barcelona, Juventus, Atletico Madrid and Sevilla. The team with the lowest coefficient in Pot 1 is AC Milan – making a group with the Rossoneri, Leipzig, Sporting and Maccabi Haifa the easiest for the other English sides.
All three Prem giants would probably fancy their chances more, however, against the likes of Porto and Ajax from Pot 1 – champions of Portugal and Netherlands respectively, who are perhaps weaker than Milan. Not to mention Eintracht Frankfurt, who are probably beatable, too.
According to the coefficient, the easiest group for Pot 4 dwellers Rangers and Celtic, meanwhile, would see Ajax, Tottenham and Leverkusen all join them.
And now the hardest possible group for the English clubs…
Again, Manchester City are lucky that they can avoid the likes of Bayern Munich and Real Madrid in their group – but they could still end up in a group of death. The most difficult group by the coefficient would see the Sky Blues face Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund and Rangers.
There are other huge names that Pep Guardiola would want to avoid. Juventus and Atletico in Pot 2, Red Bull Salzburg and Inter Milan in Pot 3 and Marseille and Celtic in Pot 4 would all be trickier trips.
For Liverpool, Chelsea and Tottenham, swap out Barcelona for Real Madrid and that's a pretty formidable group of death. Equally, switching Dortmund for Salzburg and dropping in Bayern Munich or PSG would be a scenario that no side would want to see.
The hardest group for both Scottish teams would probably involve Real Madrid, Liverpool and Dortmund.
