Champions League: group stage draw – live updates!

• Latest news from the 4pm BST draw in Geneva
• Explained: the teams, pots, dates and format
• And you can email Niall or tweet @niallmcveigh

1.07pm BST

Look, we all know how this works by now. 5pm CET, somewhere in Switzerland. Thirty-two teams in four pots, redirected into eight groups via the medium of plastic mini footballs in salad bowls. At least one extremely talented former footballer will have trouble opening said mini-balls.

Someone will be dumped into a hellishly difficult group, commonly known as “the Slavia Prague”. There will be a weird group with four middling teams of very similar ability. There will be shoehorned awards, arcane TV broadcast rules and of course, Pedro Pinto. So let’s get on with it, shall we?

Continue reading...

More...