When and where
The group stage draw for the 2021-22 campaign takes place on Thursday 26 August at 18:00 (CET).
The ceremony is being held in Istanbul, Turkey, and will be assisted by Final ambassador Andriy Arshavin and special guest, Michael Essien.
How can I watch?
The draw is available to watch on BT Sport 1 in the UK and is also being streamed live on uefa.com.
You can also learn who City face in the group stages by keeping across mancity.com and our official app, as well as on Twitter: @ManCity.
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The format
City make up a 26-strong contingent of teams to have qualified automatically for this stage of the competition and will be joined by the six play-off winners from the two-legged qualifying rounds.
The teams are split into four seeding pots based on their domestic and European success in the previous campaign.
Pot 1 will consist of the holders, the UEFA Europa League winners and the champions of the six highest-ranked nations who did not qualify via one of the 2020/21 continental titles.
Pots 2-4 are determined by the UEFA coefficient rankings.
What pot will City be in?
Based on the above criteria, Pep Guardiola’s men will be in Pot One alongside Chelsea (ENG), Villarreal (SPA), Atletico Madrid (SPA), Bayern Munich (GER), Inter Milan (ITA), Lille (FRA) and Sporting Libson (POR).
City can’t be drawn to face any of their fellow Pot One members in the group stage, nor any of our fellow English sides in Liverpool and Manchester United.
Of those already confirmed in the group stages, we could face one from each of the following pots:
Pot Two: Real Madrid (SPA), Barcelona (SPA), Sevilla (SPA), Juventus (ITA), Paris Saint-Germain (FRA), Borussia Dortmund (GER).
Pot Three: Ajax (NED), RB Leipzig (GER), Atalanta (ITA), FC Porto (POR), Zenit (RUS).
Pot three or four: PLUS: Shakhtar Donetsk (UKR) or Monaco (FRA), RB Salzburg (AUS) or Brondby (DEN), Benfica (POR) or PSV Eindhoven (NED), Besiktas (TUR), Dynamo Kiev (UKR), Dinamo Zagreb (CRO) or Sheriff Tiraspol (MOL).
Pot Four: AC Milan (ITA), Wolfsburg (GER), Club Brugge (BEL), Young Boys (SWI) or Ferencvaros (HUN), Ludogorets (BUL) or Malmo (SWE).
When are the group stage games?
Matchday 1: 14/15 September
Matchday 2: 28/29 September
Matchday 3: 19/20 October
Matchday 4: 2/3 November
Matchday 5: 23/24 November
Matchday 6: 7/8 December
UEFA Awards
Three City stars and manager Pep Guardiola are also in contention to win prestigious UEFA awards following our exploits in last season’s memorable campaign.
Ederson, Ruben Dias and Kevin De Bruyne have each been shortlisted for the Goalkeeper, Defender and Midfielder of the season prizes respectively, while Guardiola is up for the manager of the season gong.
Our City quartet will each find out during the draw if they have picked up their respective awards, in recognition of their contributions to our inaugural Champions League final appearance, which saw us register 11 victories from a possible 12 matches en route to Porto.
