The Champions League draw: Everything you need to know

The draw for the Champions League group stage takes place on Thursday in Istanbul at 5pm. There are four Premier League teams involved along with Rangers and Celtic

REIGNING CHAMPS: Real Madrid's Karim Benzema lifts the trophy after winning the 2022 UEFA Champions League Final. Pic: Adam Davy/PA Wire.

The draw for the Champions League group stage takes place on Thursday in Istanbul.

32 teams will be drawn into eight groups of four with the top two advancing to the round of 16.

Teams from the same league can't be drawn in the same group. So the four Premier League teams can't be drawn together. Nor can the two Scottish Premiership sides.

Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, and Spurs cannot be drawn in the same group. Nor can fierce Scottish rivals Celtic and Rangers.

It is the first times that the Old Firm are in the competition together since 2007-08. Celtic qualified automatically and Rangers qualified by virtue of their play-off win over PSV Eindhoven on Wednesday night.

Premier League and Scottish Premiership teams can be drawn in the same group.

Clubs have been split into four pots, with one team from each making up a group. 

Pot 1 consists of the holders, Real Madrid, the UEFA Europa League winners, Eintracht Frankfurt, and the champions of the six highest-ranked nations (England, Italy, Germany, France, Portugal, and the Netherlands) who did not qualify via one of the 2021/22 titles. Pots 2 to 4 were determined by the club coefficient rankings.

Pot 1: Real Madrid, Eintracht Frankfurt, Manchester City, AC Milan, Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain, Porto, and Ajax.

Pot 2: Liverpool, Chelsea, Barcelona, Juventus, Atletico Madrid, Sevilla, RB Leipzig and Tottenham Hotspur.

Pot 3: Borussia Dortmund, Red Bull Salzburg, Shakhtar Donetsk, Inter Milan, Napoli, Benfica, Sporting and Bayer Leverkusen.

Pot 4: Rangers, Dinamo Zagreb, Marseille, Copenhagen, Club Brugge, Celtic, Viktoria Plzen and Maccabi Haifa.

The group stage kicks off on September 6/7 with the final taking place in Istanbul on June 10, 2023.

The competition will be taking a longer break than usual due to the mid-season Qatar World Cup taking place in November/December.

The group stage finishes on November 1/2 with the round of 16 first legs taking place on February 14/15.

Matchday 1: 6/7 September 2022 

Matchday 2: 13/14 September 2022 

Matchday 3: 4/5 October 2022 

Matchday 4: 11/12 October 2022 

Matchday 5: 25/26 October 2022 

Matchday 6: 1/2 November 2022 

Round of 16: 14/15/21/22 February & 7/8/14/15 March 2023 

Quarter-finals: 11/12 & 18/19 April 2023 

Semi-finals: 9/10 & 16/17 May 2023 

Final: 10 June 2023

The draw is due to begin at 5pm Irish time.