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Liverpool will discover its eight Champions League group phase opponents on Thursday, with the draw set to take place at 5pm UK time (12pm ET) in UEFA's Nyon headquarters.
And the qualified teams and their associated pots are almost complete. There are six teams from England in the competition because of good performances in recent years, and Tottenham winning the Europa League, and the four pots are determined by UEFA club coefficient.
Every Champions League team will face two sides from each pot, with the top eight teams in the Swiss-style 32-team league automatically heading into the last-16. Those who finish ninth to 24th will face the play-offs and an extra two fixtures.
Liverpool is in Pot One, which also consists of Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Inter Milan, Borussia Dortmund, and Barcelona, and fellow Premier League teams Manchester City and Chelsea.
Arsenal will be in Pot Two alongside Bayer Leverkusen, Atletico Madrid, Atalanta, Villarreal, Juventus, and Eintracht Frankfurt. The remaining sides for this pot are yet to be confirmed.
PSV Eindhoven, Ajax, Napoli, Sporting Lisbon, Olympiakos, Slavia Prague, Marseille, and Bodo/Glimt will all be in Pot Three.
Athletic Club, Galatasaray, Union Saint-Gilloise, Pafos, Kairat Almaty, and Newcastle are confirmed as being in Pot Four.
The pots will be finalized on Wednesday when the final legs of qualifying are played. At the halfway stage, Qarabag is leading Ferencvaros by three goals to one, Benfica and Fenerbahce are level at 0-0, Club Brugge has a 3-1 lead over Rangers, and FC Copenhagen and Basel are tied at 1-1.
Last season, Liverpool won seven out of eight matches in the group phase, finishing top of the standings. It then faced eventual winner PSG in the first knockout round and was eliminated on penalties.
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In the 2024/25 campaign, Liverpool beat AC Milan, Bologna, RB Leipzig, Bayer Leverkusen, Real Madrid, Girona, and Lille. It lost 3-2 against PSV Eindhoven in a meaningless final fixture.
Having done so well in the early part of the tournament last season and going on to win the Premier League, Arne Slot was asked in March, ahead of the second leg against PSG, if his side was the best in Europe.
"It's a nice compliment to get, but the best team in Europe has to win the Champions League," Slot said. "We are far away from that, starting with a very difficult game tomorrow and then all the difficult ones that are coming up because we have seen the draw.
"I think the best team in Europe at the moment is still Real Madrid as they won this competition last season. Someone else can say something different but, for us, we first have to win it before we can say it."
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