Champions League brackets, draws: Rangers between Milan and the second bracket

June 2 – 10.04pm – MILAN

Not even time to close the 2023-24 edition with the fifteenth victory for Carlo Ancelotti’s Real Madrid and it’s already time to think about the next one. The new Champions League will debut very soon, on July 9th with the matches of the first preliminary round. The 36-man formula however provides for the division into 4 merit bands, with each participant facing two teams from each band. Draw scheduled for August 29th. With farewell to the old balls. The clubs will in fact be selected manually, but then the computer will compose the brackets of 9 teams each, taking approximately 35 minutes for the entire process (the same duration as the current format).

the Italians

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Italian champions Inter are the only ones who will be placed in first place. Juventus and Atalanta are certain to enter second, while debutant Bologna (as far as the Champions League is concerned, the rossoblù in fact played in the ’64-65 edition, eliminated only on the toss of a coin by Anderlecht) will be in fourth . However, Milan’s position is uncertain, currently in second place. However, the Rossoneri could slip into third if the only team ahead of them in the UEFA rankings, i.e. Glasgow Rangers, who will enter the scene in the third round, qualifies for the group stage from the playoffs. It is true that this year the specific weight of the groups has certainly decreased compared to the past, given the new formula, which however does not exclude the possibility of derbies between teams from nations with 5 teams, i.e. Italy and Germany. It is equally true that being in a higher bracket, you have less chance of encountering strong teams if placed in a lower bracket.

CRITERIA

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The criteria for assigning the brackets have also changed: “The 36 teams will be divided into four pots of nine – reads the UEFA regulation – based on the individual ranking established at the start of the season (coefficient over five seasons, including the previous)”. A novelty therefore because the first pot in the Champions League will include the European champion team and the top eight in the club ranking, therefore it will not be enough to have won the national championship to enter it. Pots 2, 3 and 4 “will include all other teams in their ranking order”, exactly as has been the case so far.

first band

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It will be made up of Manchester City, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Paris Saint Germain, Liverpool, Borussia Dortmund, Leipzig, Barcelona and Inter.

second tier

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Atalanta, Juventus, Bayer Leverkusen, Atletico Madrid, Benfica, Arsenal, Bruges and Shakhtar Donetsk are safe. At the moment there would also be Milan, last of the 9 in terms of UEFA coefficient (59) and therefore the first to be relegated to third if a team with a higher coefficient qualified from the playoffs. The only ones in the running are Glasgow Rangers (63).

third tier

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Only Feyenoord, Sporting Lisbon and PSV Eindhoven are already certain.

fourth tier

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Here we find the Italian fifth, Bologna. Sturm Graz and Brest are the other two safe ones. The rest of the placements (for both third and fourth) will depend on the outcome of the preliminaries. The teams that “dance” are Celtic Glasgow, Monaco, Aston Villa, Girona and Stuttgart.

first preliminary round

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These are the 28 clubs (all national champions) that will take part in the first preliminary round (draw on 18 June, matches on 9-10 and 16-17 July): Qarabag (Azerbaijan), Slovan Bratislava (Slovakia), Ludogorets (Bulgaria), Hjk Helsinki (Finland), Flora (Estonia), FCSB (Romania), Kí (Faroe Islands), Shamrock Rovers (Ireland), Lincoln Red Imps (Gibraltar), The New Saints (Wales), Pyunik (Armenia), Rfs Riga ( Latvia), Petrocub Hincesti (Moldova), Ballkani (Kosovo), Borac Banja Luka (Bosnia), Dinamo Batumi (Georgia), Celje (Slovenia), Hamrun Spartans (Malta), Larne (Northern Ireland), Dinamo Minsk (Belarus) , Panevezys (Lithuania), Ordabasy (Kazakhstan), Vikingur Reykjavik (Iceland), Struga (North Macedonia), Decic (Montenegro), Egnatia (Albania), Ue Santa Coloma (Andorra) and Virtus (San Marino).

SECOND PRELIMINARY ROUND

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In the second preliminary round (draw on 19 June, matches on 23-24 and 30-31 July) the path will be divided between champion teams and placed teams. Among the champion teams, 10 will enter the game: Ferencvaros (Hungary), Paok Thessaloniki (Greece), Maccabi Tel Aviv (Israel), Bodo Glimt (Norway), Midtjylland (Denmark), Sparta Prague (Czech Republic), Malmo (Sweden). , Apoel Nicosia (Cyprus), Jagiellonia Białystok (Poland) and Qarabag (Aze). And then four teams placed in the process: Fenerbahçe (Turkey), Dinamo Kiev (Ukraine), Partizan Belgrade (Serbia) and Lugano (Switzerland).

third preliminary round

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In the third qualifying phase (draw on 22 July, matches on 6-7 and 13 August) the 12 champion teams will compete to qualify 6 clubs for the play-offs. In the placed path, 6 teams will come into play: Glasgow Rangers (Scotland), Slavia Prague (Czech Republic), Salzburg (Austria), Lille (France), Union Saint-Gilloise (Belgium) and Twente (Holland).

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play-offs

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In addition to the qualifiers from the previous rounds, at the last stage (draw on 5 August, matches on 20-21 and 27-28 August), 4 champion teams will enter the game: Red Star Belgrade (Serbia), Young Boys (Switzerland), Dinamo Zagreb (Croatia) and Galatasaray (Turkey), who will challenge the 6 qualifiers of the third round: the 5 winners go to the single group of the Champions League. There will be 4 teams that have qualified and reached this round: they will compete for 2 places in the main draw.