Having reached the knock-out stages in last year’s competition, earning enough points in UEFA’s ranking system which is based on a club’s results in the competition over the previous five seasons, City will be seeded in Pot Two for the draw which takes place at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco at 4.45pm BST.
To ensure a fair draw, the 32 teams are split into four pots based on the 2014 UEFA club coefficients.
A place among the second seeds guarantees Manuel Pellegrini’s men will avoid fellow Pot Two sides Paris St Germain, Borussia Dortmund and Juventus.
However, the English champions will definitely face one of Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Benfica, Atletico Madrid, FC Porto.
Potential opponents from Pot Three include Galatasaray, Bayer Leverkusen, Olympiakos or Ajax, while Pot Four includes Roma and Monaco.
City will play one team from each of Pot One, Pot Three and Pot Four below.
Pot One
Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Chelsea, Benfica, Atletico Madrid, Arsenal, Porto
Pot Two
Schalke, Borussia Dortmund, Juventus, Paris Saint-Germain, Shakhtar Donetsk, Basel, Zenit St Petersburg, Manchester City
Pot Three
Bayer Leverkusen, Olympiakos, CSKA Moscow, Ajax, Liverpool, Sporting Lisbon, Galatasaray, Athletic Bilbao
Pot Four
Anderlecht, Roma, APOEL Nicosia, BATE Borisov, Maribor, Monaco, Ludogorets, Malmö
Remember that teams from the same country cannot draw one another.
To ensure teams from the same country play on separate days, the eight groups are distinguished by colour: Groups A–D red and Groups E–H blue.
When a paired club is drawn, for example, into one of the red groups, the other paired club – once it is drawn – is automatically assigned to one of the four blue groups.
City will kick-off their Champions League campaign with match day one on 16 or 17 September.
The further five match days occur on 30 September-1 October, 21–22 October, 4–5 November, 25–26 November, and 9–10 December 2014.
As ever, the third-placed team in the group will automatically go into the Europa League round of 32, while the eight group winners and runners-up advance to the knock-out rounds of the 2014/15 Champions League.
We’ll bring you the draw live from our official Twitter account @MCFC and have all of the reaction here on mcfc.co.uk shortly after.
