All you need to know before Liverpool's Champions League draw as Reds could face familiar opponent

The 2024/25 UEFA Champions League draw is set to take place in Monaco at 5pm on Thursday.

This season will see the Champions League take a new format, in which Liverpool will play 8 different teams in a ‘league phase’ that will replace the traditional group stage of the competition.

36 teams will contest the league phase and the following 32 teams have already confirmed their places in the competition:

AC Milan, Arsenal, Aston Villa, Atalanta, Atletico Madrid, Barcelona, Bayer Leverkusen, Bayern Munich, Benfica, Bologna, Borussia Dortmund, Brest, Celtic, Club Brugge, Feyenoord, Girona, Internazionale, Juventus, Liverpool, Manchester City, Monaco, Paris Saint-Germain, PSV Eindhoven, RB Leipzig, Real Madrid, Red Bull Salzburg Salzburg, Shakhtar Donetsk, Sparta Praha, Sporting CP, Sturm Graz, Stuttgart, Young Boys.

The list includes Red Bull Salzburg managed by former Liverpool assistant manager, Pep Lijnders, who defeated Dinamo Kyiv 3-1 on aggregate in the play-offs on Tuesday night, and could now face the Reds in the new league format.

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Four more qualifying matches are due to take place this evening. These are:

Qarabağ vs GNK Dinamo (0-3 after 1^st leg)

S. Bratislava vs Midtjylland (1-1 after 1^st leg)

Crvena Zvezda vs Bodø/Glimt (1-2 after 1^st leg)

Slavia Praha vs Lille (0-2 after the 1^st leg)

Who could Liverpool play?

The 36 teams are split into four pots based on their UEFA coefficient ranking, and then each side is drawn against two teams from each pot, with one game played at home and the other played away.

During the league phase Liverpool cannot be drawn against another Premier League club.

The sides who finish in the top eight of the league phase will advance directly to the round of 16 but the teams who finish in ninth to 24^th will play in a knockout round to see who advances.

Liverpool will be making their return to the competition after a one year absence and new head coach Arne Slot will be looking to impress in continental competition.

Liverpool’s European heritage

Liverpool have won the Champions League (formerly the European Cup) six times, more than any other British club. This total is only bested by AC Milan, who have won the cup seven times, and Real Madrid, who have won the competition a record 15 times.

The Reds are one of 19 previous winners who have confirmed their place in the competition already and will be looking to add a seventh Champions League to the club’s trophy cabinet.

Many of the current Liverpool squad will remember the painful loss to Real Madrid in the 2022 Champions League final in Paris and will want to once again reach the summit of European football.

A successful European campaign could also convince Liverpool stars Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold to committ their futures to Liverpool, with all three being out of contract at the end of the season.

Liverpool will kick off their Champions League campaign on either the 17th,18th or 19th of September.