Possible Champions League opponents

The pots for the group stage draw for the Champions League 2022/23 have been decided. So, FC Barcelona knows which teams it could potentially meet in the group stage of the competition that start on September 6 and 7, and will be finding out exactly who they'll play in Thursday's draw.

Barça will be in pot 2, meaning they will meet one team from each of pots one, three and four.

Pot 1

The theoretically strongest rivals are those in pot 1, which contains Eintracht Frankfurt (winners of the Europa League) and the winners of the seven highest ranked leagues in Europe. Barça cannot play the defending champion Real Madrid as they play in the same domestic competition:

Eintracht Frankfurt, Manchester City, AC Milan, Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain, Ajax and Oporto.

Pot 2

These are the teams in the same pot as Barça, so they will not be in the same group as the Catalans:

Liverpool, Chelsea, Juventus, RB Leipzig, Tottenham Hotspur (plus Atlético Madrid and Sevilla who Barça would not be able to meet anyway).

Pot 3

Borussia Dortmund, Salzburg, Shakhtar Donetsk, Inter Milan, Napoli, Sporting CP, Benfica and Bayer Leverkusen

Pot 4

Marseille, Bruges, Glasgow Celtic, Viktoria Plzen, Maccabi Haifa, Dinamo Zagreb, Glasgow Rangers and Copenhagen. 

Unusual schedule

Because of the World Cup being played in November and December, the groups are going to be played on a much tighter schedule than normal this season. The first games will be played on September 6 and it will all be over by November 2, so there will just be three weeks without European fixtures.