It’s more than a month later than usual, but the Champions League group stage draw is here.
Four Premier League clubs, led by champions Liverpool, will discover their opponents in the first round of Europe’s premier club competition this season.
Jurgen Klopp’s side are joined by Manchester City, Manchester United and Chelsea.
They will all be bidding to take the trophy off Bayern Munich’s hands, who beat PSG 1-0 in August’s final to win the Champions League/European Cup for the sixth time.
Other European heavyweights will also provide stiff competition, including the competition’s most successful club, Real Madrid, Italian giants Juventus and PSG, who will be desperate to go one-step further than last season.
When is the Champions League draw?
The ceremony will begin at 4pm on Thursday, with the group stage draw beginning a few minutes later.
As ever, it is being held at Uefa's headquarters - the House of European Football - in Nyon, Switzerland, but with club representatives appearing via video link rather than in-person.
The Europa League group stage draw will take place in the same venue from 11am on Friday.
How to watch the Champions League draw
As BT Sport holds the right to show Champions League football, they'll be the ones broadcasting the group stage draw.
Coverage will start on BT Sport 1 at 3.45pm, with reaction and analysis until 6pm.
Uefa will also be streaming the draw on its own website.
Who is in the Champions League draw?
The 32 clubs that have qualified for this year’s competition have been divided into four pots. They are:
Pot one
Bayern Munich (Champions League holders)
Sevilla (Europa League holders)
Real Madrid
Liverpool
Juventus
PSG
Zenit St Petersburg
Porto
Pot two
Atlético Madrid
Manchester City
Manchester United
Shakhtar Donetsk
Borussia Dortmund
Chelsea
Ajax
Pots three or four
Dynamo Kiev
RB Leipzig
Inter Milan
Olympiacos
Lazio
Atalanta
Lokomotiv Moscow
Marseille
Club Brugge
Borussia Mönchengladbach
İstanbul Başakşehir
Rennes
Ferencváros
FC Midtjylland
Red Bull Salzburg
FK Krasnodar
How the draw works
The eight groups will be made up of a team from each pot.
Pot one contains the reigning Champions League and Europa League holders, as well as the league champions of the six highest-ranked nations - Spain, England, Italy, France, Russia and Portugal.
The remaining 24 teams in pots two-four are ranked by their individual coefficient rankings, which are based on the clubs’ results in the Champions League and Europa League over the past five seasons.
Two clubs from the same country cannot be drawn against each other during the group stage, even if they go into the draw in different pots.
Champions League fixtures
Once the draw is made, fans will have less than three weeks to wait until the first matches.
The group stage schedule is:
Matchday 1: October 20/21
Matchday 2: October 27/28
Matchday 3: November 3/4
Matchday 4: November 24/25
Matchday 5: December 1/2
Matchday 6: December 8/9
