As It Happened: UEFA Champions League Group Stage Draw

Welcome to Nigerianeye's live coverage of the Champions League group stage draw.


The draw for this year's Champions League group stage takes place at 5pm BST in Monaco at the Grimaldi Forum, with the likes of defending champions Real Madrid, Barcelona, and Liverpool soon knowing their opponents.

Man City, Man United and Tottenham round off the rest of the Premier League representatives.

Real Madrid, as winners of last year's competition, are seeded in pot one – with Barcelona and Atletico Madrid – while Pep Guardiola's title-winning side are also among one of eight top seeds.

Man United and Spurs are both in pot two, while finalists Liverpool are in danger of being placed in group three – and in the "group of death".












Thanks for joining our live coverage of the draw!

- Complete Champions League 2018-19 Group Stage

See the full line-up below...

Group A: Atletico Madrid, Borussia Dortmund, Monaco, Club Brugge

Group B: Barcelona, Tottenham, PSV, Inter

Group C: PSG, Napoli, Liverpool, Red Star Belgrade

Group D: Lokomotiv Moscow, Porto, Schalke, Galatasaray

Group E: Bayern Munich, Benfica, Ajax, AEK Athens

Group F: Manchester City, Shakhtar Donetsk, Lyon, Hoffenheim

Group G: Real Madrid, Roma, CSKA Moscow, Viktoria Plzen

Group H: Juventus, Manchester United, Valencia, Young Boys

- Ronaldo named Forward of the Season

- The third seeds have all been drawn and there are some tasty ties emerging!

Group A: Atletico Madrid, Borussia Dortmund, Monaco

Group B: Barcelona, Tottenham, PSV

Group C: PSG, Napoli, Liverpool

Group D: Lokomotiv Moscow, Porto, Schalke,

Group E: Bayern Munich, Benfica, Ajax

Group F: Manchester City, Shakhtar Donetsk, Lyon

Group G: Real Madrid, Roma, CSKA Moscow

Group H: Juventus, Manchester United, Valencia

- Modric crowned Midfielder of the Season

- Cristiano Ronaldo is set for a return to Old Trafford after Manchester United were drawn with Juventus in Group H.

Here's how the groups are shaping up:

Here's how they look so far...

Group A: Atletico Madrid, Borussia Dortmund

Group B: Barcelona, Tottenham

Group C: PSG, Napoli

Group D: Lokomotiv Moscow, Porto

Group E: Bayern Munich, Benfica

Group F: Manchester City, Shakhtar Donetsk,

Group G: Real Madrid, Roma

Group H: Juventus, Manchester United

- Ramos wins Defender of the Season

- Top seeds are drawn!

Here's how they look so far...

Group A: Atletico Madrid

Group B: Barcelona

Group C: PSG

Group D: Lokomotiv Moscow

Group E: Bayern Munich

Group F: Manchester City

Group G: Real Madrid

Group H: Juventus

- Navas named Goalkeeper of the Season

- As a precursor for tonight's draw, UEFA will hand out six awards as part of their Best Player award ceremony – where David Beckham is set to receive his UEFA President's Award as well.

Here are the nominees. Who do you hope will win?

Goalkeeper
Alisson Becker (Roma/Liverpool)
Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus/PSG)
Keylor Navas (Real Madrid)

Defender
Marcelo (Real Madrid)
Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid)
Raphaël Varane (Real Madrid)

Midfielder
Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City)
Toni Kroos (Real Madrid)
Luka Modrić (Real Madrid)

Forward
Lionel Messi (Barcelona)
Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid/Juventus)
Mohamed Salah (Liverpool)

Women's Player of the Year
Pernille Harder (Wolfsburg)
Ada Hegerberg (Lyon)
Amandine Henry (Lyon)

- UEFA Player Awards to be announced before draw

Don't forget that the UEFA player awards will also be announced during today's group stage draw, during the supposed preamble to the actual draw itself! It is not the same as the FIFA Best Awards, and it is certainly not the same as the Ballon d'Or Award – it's a completely different entity (we know, we know).

Award categories include: Men's Player of the Year, Women's Player of the Year as well as each Goalkeeper, Defender, Midfielder and Forward of the 2017/18 UEFA Champions League season.

Looks like Liverpool starlet Mo Salah is a frontrunner...


TEAMS BY POT

Pot 1: Real Madrid (ESP), Atletico Madrid (ESP), Barcelona (ESP), Bayern Munich (GER), Manchester City (ENG), Juventus (ITA), Paris Saint-Germain (FRA), Lokomotiv Moscow (RUS)

Pot 2: Borussia Dortmund (GER), Porto (POR), Manchester United (ENG), Shakhtar Donetsk (UKR), Napoli (ITA), Tottenham Hotspur (ENG), Roma (ITA), Benfica (POR)

Pot 3: Liverpool (ENG), PSV Eindhoven (NED), Schalke 04 (GER), Lyon (FRA), Monaco (FRA), Ajax (NED), CSKA Moscow (RUS), Valencia (ESP)

Pot 4: Club Brugge (BEL), Galatasaray (TUR), Young Boys (SUI), Inter Milan (ITA), Hoffenheim (GER), AEK Athens (GRE), Red Star Belgrade (SRB), Viktoria Plzen (CZE)

There are four pots of eight teams, and one team from each pot will form a group to create eight in total – and teams from the same association are not allowed face each other.