Supercomputer is the new star of the Champions League draw

Everything is new in the upcoming Champions League season. If Salzburg beat Dynamo Kyiv today, it will be the first time in history that two Austrian top-flight teams will be represented in the same year. Two-time winners Sturm have already secured their place in the party of greats. But it's not just the red-white-red representatives who will be first. The format of Europe's most important club competition also features a completely new look. Overview

Instead of the previous 32 teams, there will be 36 teams this season. Therefore, the previous classic format, whereby the newcomers to the knockout stage were drawn into eight groups of four, is no longer applicable. Instead, all 36 participants have been summed up in a combined table. Instead of the previous six matches, each team will have eight matches in the new round of the league. Instead of the previous two matches against just three different clubs, each of the 36 participating teams will have eight matches against eight different opponents in the round of 16. Four of them at home, four away. Two opponents from each team will be drawn from the four draw pots.

Promotion, mid-season or end-of-season

At the end of the league stage, the teams ranked 1st to 8th in the overall table have qualified for the round of 16. The teams ranked 9th to 24th will play in an intermediate round for a place in the round of 16. For the clubs ranked 25th to 36th, the European Cup season is over.

The draw for the new Champions League will take place on Thursday at 6pm (Live on Sky Sports) in Monte Carlo. Since more than 1,000 lottery balls and 36 lottery pots were required due to the increase in the top division and the new format, the pairings will now be determined by a computer. Starting with the first draw pot, the clubs are drawn manually one by one – and immediately afterwards the computer assigns the teams to their eight opponents. This process is repeated until all 36 teams know their opponents. Matches against clubs from the same country are eliminated before the knockout stage, with each team allowed to play a maximum of two teams from the same country.

Four lottery pots

There are still seven open spots in the field of participants; according to the current situation, the lottery pots will look like this. One bowl: Real Madrid, Manchester City, Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain, Liverpool, Inter Milan, Dortmund, Leipzig, Barcelona; The second bowl: Leverkusen, Atletico Madrid, Atalanta Bergamo, Juventus, Torino, Benfica Lisbon, Arsenal, Brugge, Shakhtar Donetsk, Milan; The third vessel: Feyenoord, Sporting Lisbon, PSV Eindhoven, Celtic Glasgow; The fourth vessel: Monaco, Aston Villa, Bologna, Girona, Stuttgart, Sturm, Stade Brest.