Champions League draw looms

Date: Thursday, 30 August
Time: 1700 BST
Follow the draw on the BBC Sport website, mobile and BBC Radio 5live

The draw for the Champions League group stages takes place on Thursday at 1700 BST with six British teams among the 32 names in the hat.

Celtic edged out Spartak Moscow on penalties, while Arsenal completed a comprehensive 5-0 aggregate win over Sparta Prague to progress.

Liverpool and Rangers booked their passage on Wednesday, joining Chelsea and Manchester United in the hat.

Both Sevilla and AEK Athens will be in the draw despite playing next Monday.

The second-leg tie between the pair was postponed following the death of the Spanish club's 22-year-old defender Antonio Puerta.

Sevilla, who hold a 2-0 lead from the first leg, will be among the group of second seeds while AEK Athens are ranked among one of the bottom seeds.

Uefa general secretary David Taylor told uefa.com: "The draw will take place on Thursday at 1700 BST, as scheduled.

"There are additional complications this season related to the tragic and unforeseen circumstances that caused the postponement of the AEK Athens v Sevilla match.

"This means that both clubs will be 'provisionally' entered in this season's competition."

Uefa splits the 32 entrants into four pots of eight teams, divided according to their current European ranking.

Each group will contain one team from the top seeds, one from the second seeds, one for the third and one from the fourth.

The Old Firm clubs will not play their group games on the same evening, but will divide them between Tuesdays and Wednesdays, Uefa said.

To ensure that sides from the same country play on separate days, the eight groups will be distinguished by colour: Groups A-D will be red and Groups E-H blue.

When a paired club is drawn, for example, into one of the red groups, the other paired club - once it has been drawn - will automatically be assigned to one of the four blue groups.

Teams from Pot 1 will be provisionally placed in the first position within their groups, teams from Pot 2 will provisionally take the second spot in their sections, and so on.

Source: BBC Sport