Viking and Fenerbahce Secure Spots in Finalized Champions League Draw Pots

Viking defeated Dinamo Zagreb 3-1 to clinch a 5-3 aggregate victory, joining Fenerbahce and AEK Athens in the 36-team league phase field.

Viking secured their inaugural appearance in the Champions League proper on Wednesday night following a 3-1 victory over Dinamo Zagreb, which finalized a 5-3 aggregate triumph. The Norwegian side joins Fenerbahce in the 36-team field after the Turkish club ended a qualification drought stretching back to the 2008-09 campaign by overcoming Lyon 3-2 on aggregate. AEK Athens also confirmed their participation by delivering a 4-0 home win against Levski Sofia, breaking a scoreless deadlock from the first leg to return to the tournament for the first time since 2018-19. These results solidified the four seeding tiers for Thursday’s league phase draw.

Key details

Paris Saint-Germain, the two-time defending champions, headline Pot 1 alongside last season's finalists Arsenal. The top seeding bracket is dominated by Spanish representation, including Real Madrid, Barcelona, and Atlético Madrid. Completing the elite group are Liverpool, Manchester City, Bayern Munich, and Inter Milan. UEFA determined these rankings based on club coefficients accumulated over the preceding five-year period in continental competition. Each participant will face eight different opponents—two from each pot—split evenly between four home fixtures and four away matches.

Manchester United returns to Europe’s premier stage after a two-year absence, taking a position in Pot 2. This second tier includes Europa League titleholders Aston Villa, as well as former European Cup winners Borussia Dortmund and FC Porto. The remaining slots in Pot 2 are occupied by Roma, Sporting CP, Club Brugge, Real Betis, and PSV Eindhoven. Unlike previous iterations of the tournament, there are no traditional four-team groups; instead, all 36 clubs are ranked in a single unified league table to determine progression to the knockout rounds.

Pot 3 features Bodo/Glimt, who enter the draw following a streak of victories against Manchester City, Atlético Madrid, and Inter Milan during the early months of the calendar year. They are joined by Feyenoord, Lille, Napoli, RB Leipzig, Villarreal, Shakhtar Donetsk, and Galatasaray. The inclusion of these clubs ensures that even teams from the third tier possess significant recent experience in deep knockout runs. The draw process will utilize automated software to handle the complexities of the 144 total matches scheduled for this opening phase.

Latest developments

Several debutants occupy Pot 4, most notably Sabah from Azerbaijan and LASK Linz representing Austria. Italian outfit Como, under the management of Cesc Fabregas, will also make their first-ever appearance in the competition. The final seeding group is rounded out by Slavia Prague, Slovan Bratislava, Stuttgart, and Lens. These clubs face the steepest mathematical challenge, as the new format requires a top-24 finish to remain in contention beyond the initial eight-match schedule.

The 2026-27 regulations state that the eight highest-ranked teams in the final league table will bypass the initial knockout round to enter the round of 16 directly. Clubs finishing between 9th and 24th place must compete in a two-legged playoff to secure the remaining eight berths in the bracket. Any team finishing 25th or lower will be eliminated from European competition entirely, with no drop-down mechanism into the Europa League. This structure increases the stakes for every goal scored across the 18-day match calendar.

Pot 1: Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Liverpool, Inter, Man City, Arsenal, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid. Pot 2: Borussia Dortmund, Roma, Sporting CP, Aston Villa, Porto, Man United, Club Brugge, Real Betis, PSV. Pot 3: Feyenoord, Lille, Bodo/Glimt, Napoli, RB Leipzig, Villarreal, Fenerbahçe, Shakhtar Donetsk, Galatasaray. Pot 4: Slavia Prague, Slovan Bratislava, Stuttgart, AEK Athens, LASK, Como, Lens, Viking, Sabah.