Who can Chelsea face in Champions League? Dream and nightmare draw revealed

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Evening Standard

·26. August 2025

Who can Chelsea face in Champions League? Dream and nightmare draw revealed

Blues are back at Europe’s top table after a two-season absence

Your matchday briefing on Chelsea, featuring team news and expert analysis from Dom Smith

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Chelsea will discover their opponents in the league phase of the Champions League later this week.

It is a return to Europe’s top table for the current Conference League winners following a two-season absence and things have changed since the last time the Blues played a fixture in this competition.

The previous group stage of eight groups consisting of four teams each has been ditched in favour of a new league format.

As a result, all 36 teams will be separated into four pots and two will be drawn from each. They will face eight different opponents, playing four matches at home and four away.

While Chelsea are among the top seeds for the draw, they can still face the likes of holders Paris Saint-Germain - who they beat in the Club World Cup final last month - and La Liga champions Barcelona.

The draw takes place on Thursday, August 28, 2025 from 5pm BST and much of it will be automated due to the sheer number of fixtures to be organised.

The play-off ties across Tuesday and Wednesday will decide the remaining qualifiers and complete the subsequent pots before Enzo Maresca’s discovers the size of the task he faces this season.

Which pot are Chelsea in for the Champions League draw?

Chelsea have been placed in Pot 1, despite their current coefficient which has them sat 14th in UEFA’s rankings for European teams.

Who can Chelsea face in the Champions League draw?

The ceremony will produce eight opponents for every team, two from each pot. That means Chelsea will play two of the top-ranked clubs.

They cannot play a team from their own country (Arsenal, Liverpool, Tottenham, Newcastle or Manchester City) at this stage and can only play a maximum of two teams from a different association.

Pot 1: PSG, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Inter Milan, Borussia Dortmund, Barcelona

Pot 2: Bayer Leverkusen, Atletico Madrid, Atalanta, Villarreal, Juventus, Eintracht Frankfurt

Pot 3: PSV, Ajax, Napoli, Sporting, Olympiacos, Slavia Prague, Bodo/Glimt, Marseille

Pot 4: Galatasaray, Union Saint-Gilloise, Athletic Club, Pafos, Kairat