With 2022 being a World Cup year, the 2022-23 UEFA Champions League group stage will be a sprint.
Normally the World Cup wouldn't affect Europe's premier club competition, but with Qatar 2022 kicking off in late November, FIFA has required that all other tournaments and leagues must be shut down a week prior to accommodate the quadrennial.
That means the Champions League group stage will be condensed into a shorter timeframe than usual, and the first games will be played less than two weeks after the group stage draw.
With the impending fixture congestion forming the backdrop, many of the usual suspects in Europe's top club tournament found out their respective pathways to the knockout stages on Thursday in Istanbul.
Among the most interesting match-ups coming out of the draw are Barcelona striker Robert Lewandowski facing his old side, Bayern Munich, as both teams were drawn into Group C, while former Borussia Dortmund wunderkind Erling Haaland will meet his old squad as a member of Manchester City in Group G.
Here are the full groups as drawn:
2022-23 UEFA Champions League groups
Group A
- Ajax
- Liverpool
- Napoli
- Rangers
Group B
- Porto
- Atletico Madrid
- Bayer Leverkusen
- Club Brugge
Group C
- Bayern Munich
- Barcelona
- Inter Milan
- Viktoria Plzen
Group D
- Eintracht Frankfurt
- Tottenham Hotspur
- Sporting
- Marseille
Group E
- AC Milan
- Chelsea
- RB Salzburg
- Dinamo Zagreb
Group F
- Real Madrid
- RB Leipzig
- Shakhtar Donetsk
- Celtic
Group G
- Manchester City
- Sevilla
- Borussia Dortmund
- Copenhagen
Group H
- Paris Saint-Germain
- Juventus
- Benfica
- Maccabi Haifa