The Soccer Chat - Online Soccer Community

Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal will all be among the top  seeds for Thursday's Champions League draw in Monaco - but could  still find themselves facing Real Madrid in the group stage.The English trio are among eight clubs in  the top pot meaning they will avoid the  likes of champions Inter Milan, Barcelona  and beaten finalists Bayern Munich. However Real Madrid are only in the  second pot of eight clubs and would  provide stiff opposition in the group phase, as would fellow Spanish side Valencia and  Werder Bremen. Tottenham, if they get past Swiss side  Young Boys tonight, would be in the third pot along with Rangers  meaning they would have to be in a group with strong sides from  the top two pots. UEFA's rules for the draw will see the 32  qualified teams allocated  into eight groups of four teams. Each group will contain a top seed,  plus one club each from the second, third and fourth pots. Each pot is determined by a club's UEFA coefficient but even the  fourth pot contains some teams the British clubs would hope to  avoid such as Spartak Moscow and Dutch champions FC Twente, the  side Steve McClaren managed until he moved to Wolfsburg. No English sides can play each other before the quarter-finals but  the trio of top seeds could face Rangers. Likely pots for Champions League draw: Pot one: Inter Milan, Barcelona, Man Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal, Bayern  Munich, AC Milan, Lyon. Pot two: Werder Bremen, Real Madrid, Roma, Shakhtar Donetsk,  Benfica, Valencia, Marseille, Zenit St Petersburg*. Pot three: Panathinaikos, Tottenham*, Rangers, Ajax*, Schalke,  Basle, Braga, FC Copenhagen*. Pot four: Spartak Moscow, Hapoel Tel Aviv, Sparta Prague*, FC  Twente, Rubin Kazan, CFR Cluj, Partizan Belgrade, Bursaspor. * if qualify tonight