Champions League Draw: Fingers Crossed for Inter, Napoli, Roma, and Como
Everything is set for the draw for the Champions League group stage. The 2026–2027 edition will also feature a single group of 36 teams, with each team playing eight matches from September through January: Italy will be represented by Inter, the reigning Scudetto champion, and the three clubs that finished between second and fourth place in the 2025–2026 season—namely, Napoli, Roma, and Como, the latter making its European debut. All four are awaiting the draw’s outcome, fingers crossed.
The draw is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Thursday at the Grimaldi Forum in Monte Carlo, where the eight matches each club will face in the first phase will be determined. The rules stipulate two opponents for each of the four seeding pots, one home and one away match per pot, no matchups between teams from the same country, and a maximum of two opponents from the same nation.
Inter is in the first pot alongside Bayern, Real Madrid, PSG, Liverpool, Manchester City, Arsenal, Barcelona, and Atlético Madrid. Roma, meanwhile, is in the second pot along with Borussia Dortmund, Sporting, Aston Villa, Porto, Manchester United, Bruges, Betis, and PSV. Napoli, meanwhile, represents Italy in the third pot, which includes Feyenoord, Lille, Leipzig, Villarreal, Shakhtar, Galatasaray, Fenerbahçe, and Bodo/Glimt. Finally, Como is in the fourth pot, along with Slavia Prague, Stuttgart, Lens, AEK Athens, Viking, LASK, Sabah, and Slovan Bratislava.
Matchday 1 will be played between September 8 and 10, 2026; Matchday 2 between October 13 and 14; Matchday 3 between October 20 and 21; Matchday 4 between November 3 and 4; the fifth between November 24 and 25, the sixth between December 8 and 9, the seventh between January 19 and 20, and the final matchday entirely on January 27, with all matches in the latter case taking place simultaneously. The top eight teams advance directly to the round of 16, while the teams finishing in places 9 through 24 will compete in a playoff for a spot in the round of 16.
PSG is the defending champion: the Parisian club successfully defended its title in the 2025–2026 season, defeating Arsenal 4–3 in a penalty shootout in the final—with Gabriel missing the decisive kick— after the score was tied 1–1 at the end of regulation and extra time (Havertz scored in the 6th minute for the Gunners, and Dembelé equalized in the 65th minute on a penalty kick).
