There are only three places left to be awarded to finalize the four hats that will be used for the Champions League draw (scheduled for August 25 in Istanbul).
Only three teams are missing. 29 of the 32 participants in the group stage of the Champions League are known after the return play-off matches which were played on Tuesday evening (SL Benfica, Maccabi Haifa and Viktoria Plzen validated their ticket). Therefore, the four hats for the August 25 draw are almost finalized.
The first two are complete: the No. 1 seed (with the best national champions, including Paris Saint-Germain, holders and winners of the Europa League), the No. 2 with the eight best clubs remaining at the UEFA coefficient. Hat 3 is almost closed. It only remains to be seen whether Rangers FC will be able to beat PSV Eindhoven in the play-offs or whether their place in this pot will be taken by Bayer Leverkusen, who have already qualified. With regard to hat 4 of Olympique de Marseile (which can no longer hope for an upgrade), the return play-offs on Wednesday evening will allow the last vacant places to be allocated.
As a reminder, the draw of the eight pools of four teams is not complete. Two clubs from the same country cannot be in the same pool. They can also be prevented from being in the same half of the table, depending on parameters related to TV broadcasters.
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The pot line-up ahead of Wednesday’s games:
► Hat 1: Real Madrid (defender), Eintracht Frankfurt (Europa League winner), Bayern Munich, Manchester City, Paris Saint GermainFC Porto, Ajax, AC Milan.
► Hat 2: Liverpool, Chelsea, FC Barcelona, Juventus, Atlético de Madrid, Sevilla CF, RB Leipzig, Tottenham.
► Hat 3: Borussia Dortmund, Shakhtar Donetsk, RB Salzburg, Inter, SSC Napoli, SL Benfica, Sporting CP, Rangers FC or Bayer Leverkusen.
► Hat 4: Bayer Leverkusen or PSV Eindhoven, Olympic MarseilleClub Brugge, Celtic FC, Viktoria Plzen, Maccabi Haifa, Dinamo Zagreb or Bodo/Glimt, FC Copenhagen or Trabzonspor.
Clubs marked in italics are still participating in the play-off stage and must therefore qualify for the group stage.