There is a long summer ahead, but with the season at an end in the major European leagues we can now see the beginnings of how next year's Champions League will shape up. We already know 26 of the 32 teams that will enter the group stage and what pot they will be in after the culmination of the Champions League and Europa League finals.
Sevilla FC will form part of pot two after being in pot one last year as a result of winning the Europa League. In pot one, we have the winners of the six highest-ranking leagues: Manchester City, Atlético Madrid, Bayern Munich, Inter Milan, Lille and Sporting Lisbon. The seventh team is Villarreal CF, Europa League champions, while Chelsea booked their ticket in pot one last night after winning the Champions League.
26 of the 32 group stage teams have already qualified
Sevilla FC are joined in pot two by Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, Juventus, Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester United, Liverpool and Borussia Dortmund. Therefore, Julen Lopetegui's team will not cross paths with any of them in the group stage, although they would not have been able to be in the Spanish teams' groups regardless of their pot.
Pot three is guaranteed to have Ajax, RB Leipzig, Porto, Zenit and Atalanta, while AC Milan, Bruges, and Wolfsburg will be in the last. Dinamo Kiev and Besiktas can end up in pot three or four depending on the final list of participants. After that, we will have to see who comes out on top in the qualifying rounds to seal the last six spots. Amongst the favourites to do so would be Monaco, Benfica, Spartak Moscow, Shakhtar Donetsk, PSV Eindhoven, Olympiakos, Rangers and Celtic.