Liverpool's UEFA Champions League Group Stage fate is now a little clearer

Liverpool have a little more clarity on their UEFA Champions League group stage fate as pot one is now complete.

The UEFA Champions League is going to be a bit confusing this season as a new format comes into play. The Group Stage has been transformed: it's now one big group.

Teams will play eight games - four at home, four away - and the top eight will head into the last 16. The next 16 teams will then play two-legged ties to determine the other eight in the last 16.

25th through 36th? Gone, never to be seen again. Or at least, they can't drop down into the UEFA Europa League anymore.

The fixtures will be determined by each club being placed into one of four 'pots'. They'll then have their fixture list drawn, consisting of two clubs from each of the four pots.

So even if you're in pot one, you'll still play two other clubs from pot one. There's international 'protection', so you can't face anyone from your own nation - unless you're one of the countries to have more than four participants. In that case, there's a chance that the fixture list would necessitate that two clubs from the same nation are pitted against one another.

Okay, so that's how it works. Here's what it means for Liverpool.

Liverpool in the UEFA Champions League group stage

Liverpool will be in pot one, thanks to their coefficient. They're joined by Manchester City, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain, Inter, Borussia Dortmund, Barcelona and RB Leipzig in that.

So we know Liverpool will face two of those clubs in the group - one at home, one away.

Pot two is nearly complete. Arsenal, Bayer Leverkusen, Atletico Madrid, Atalanta and Benfica will certainly be there. It's likely that Club Brugge, Rangers and Shakhtar Donetsk join them, but the latter two must still qualify. Brugge need to win their league title in order to secure their place.

And so Liverpool will also face two of those clubs (in all likelihood). Pots three and four are messier and require a lot of qualifying before we know who will be there.

As things stand, though, Liverpool have some idea of the task they face if they're to make an impact in the new format.