Who Could Napoli, Inter, Atalanta And Juventus Face In The 2025-26 UCL League Phase?

The UCL draw will be conducted on August 28 with teams from Italy’s Serie A keen to find out their opponents. 

Napoli, Inter, Atalanta and Juventus are the four participants who will all learn their fate from 6pm CEST (12pm ET). The draw will be undertaken at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco.

The Nerazzurri – who finished as runners-up last season – have been placed in pot 1. La Dea and the Old Lady are in pot 2 with Antonio Conte’s side in pot 3.

As soccer fans from across the globe will recall, the new look ‘league phase’ format will be implicated once again. It was used for the first time in 2024-25 which had a number of changes from the group stages.

🆕 2025/26 league phase line-up!#UCLdraw | #UCL pic.twitter.com/K7c5CNlmpx

— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) August 27, 2025

How Does The UCL Draw Work?

With the 36 participants now determined, the UCL draw simply works by picking out the teams and fixtures via their pot numbers. Therefore pot 1 will be conducted first until pot 4 is completed.

In theory, not much has changed from the old group stage but there are four more teams included in the competition now as opposed to 32.

Here is a breakdown of the timings for the entire UCL draw:

Pot 1: 6.31 p.m. CEST / 12.31 p.m. ET
Pot 2: 6.44 p.m. CEST / 12.44 p.m. ET
Pot 3: 6.55 p.m. CEST / 12.55 p.m. ET
Pot 4: 7.03 p.m. CEST / 13.03 p.m. ET
Draw concludes: 7.08 p.m. CEST / 13.08 p.m. ET

What Is The New UCL Format?

With the new-look UCL format in place, many will be wondering whether the UCL final would ever be held in the US? That is something that will no doubt be discussed in the coming years.

For now though, the Champions League is staying in Europe so how does the new format actually work? Instead of 32 teams spread across eight groups, 36 clubs are placed in a league.

From that, each participant will play eight fixtures. Four at home and four away. Teams from the same country cannot face each other in the league phase.

Nor can teams be drawn against more than one opponent from the same nation. Therefore, Inter could not face Napoli and nor could either team play two clubs from England.

• Teams finishing 1st-8th automatically qualify for the last 16
• Those who finish 9th-24th enter into the playoffs with the winners progressing to the last 16
• Clubs who place 25th-36th are eliminated altogether. Nobody drops into the UEL.

What will be the next name on the trophy? ✒️#UCLdraw pic.twitter.com/4b1CIsXsES

— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) August 28, 2025

UCL Pots For 2025-26

Pot 1:

PSG
Real Madrid
Bayern Munich
Liverpool
Barcelona
Man City
Chelsea
Inter
B. Dortmund

Pot 2:

Arsenal
Atletico Madrid
Atalanta
Juventus
B. Leverkusen
Benfica
Villarreal
E. Frankfurt
C. Brugge

Pot 3: 

Tottenham
Napoli
Marseille
PSV
Sporting CP
Bodo/Glimt
Ajax
Olympiacos
S. Prague

Pot 4:

Newcastle
Athletic Club
Monaco
Galatasaray
U. Saint-Gilloise
Qarabag
Copenhagen
Kairat
Pafos