Pot 1 promises no favours, but the real dangers lurk deeper
Manchester City will discover their Champions League League Phase opponents tonight in Monaco, with the draw scheduled for 18:00 CET. Having secured second place in the Premier League last season, City enter Europe's premier competition for the 17th time, but this campaign carries a distinctly different weight.
This is City's first European venture without Pep Guardiola, who stepped down at the end of the 2025-26 season after a decade in charge. Enzo Maresca, his former assistant, now stands in the dugout, tasked with delivering just the club's second Champions League title.
Under the format introduced two years ago, City will face eight teams in the League Phase. Seeded in Pot 1, they avoid Premier League rivals Liverpool and Arsenal, with UEFA regulations preventing same-association clashes at this stage. That leaves a familiar list of European heavyweights as potential opponents: PSG, Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Inter Milan and Atletico Madrid.
Of those, Inter and Atletico appear the more favourable draws. City famously beat Inter in the 2023 final to claim their first European crown, and ousted Atletico in the 2021-22 quarter-finals. History, however, offers little comfort against the tournament's other giants.
Real Madrid have become something of a grim reaper for City over the past two seasons, ending their campaigns in the knockout playoffs in 2025 and the Round of 16 last term. On both occasions, the 15-time champions won home and away. The prospect of facing Madrid again is one City would absolutely dread.
PSG, the two-time defending champions, are another side to avoid. Their last meeting in the League Phase of 2024-25 ended in a 4-2 defeat for City, a result that still lingers.
The middle pots offer a mix of hope and hazard
From Pot 2, Club Brugge are the side everyone hopes to face, while Real Betis have qualified for the Champions League for the first time since 2005-06. Shakhtar Donetsk should not pose too many problems, and City made light work of Villarreal last season with a 2-0 away win. Yet AS Roma and Borussia Dortmund are the big guns in this pot, and Portuguese champions Porto can ruffle feathers too.
Napoli are the pick of Pot 3, and City could face a repeat of last season's opening fixture, which they won 2-0. RB Leipzig are strong dark-horse candidates, though Galatasaray's encouraging recent record against big sides means they cannot be underestimated. Como, under Cesc Fabregas, are making their Champions League debut after a dominant Serie A campaign, and Stuttgart can offer a challenge as well.
Pot 4, meanwhile, features lesser-quality sides, with Slovan Bratislava and Viking, making their first appearance, the pick of the bunch.
One quirk of the draw: City can only face a maximum of two teams from the same league. So if they draw two Spanish sides from the earlier pots, Villarreal becomes off-limits. Similarly, two Italian teams would rule out Como. It adds a layer of strategy to what is otherwise a lottery.
For Maresca, the draw will set the tone for a European campaign that begins a new era. The names in the pots are familiar; the hope is that the script takes a different turn this time.