UEFA Champions League draw 2013: Live coverage and analysis of the group stage

Blog: Barca Blaugranes.

Atlético Madrid, Porto and Zenit Saint Petersburg are all capable of not only qualifying, but topping this group. While they battle for the two qualification spots, poor lonely Austria Wien are expected to be sitting at the bottom of the table.

Favorites: Atlético Madrid

Atlético Madrid have been hugely impressive under coach Diego Simeone, qualifying for the Champions League by finishing third in La Liga last season. They lost star striker Falcao to Monaco earlier in the summer, though their capture of David Villa from Barcelona has gone some way to plugging the gap. Their best success in this competition came in 1973-74 when they were beaten finalists. While they aren’t expected to fare so well this time around, they can certainly make it through the group.

This really is almost impossible to predict, and while Marseille may perhaps be seen as the weakest of the four sides, no combination of finishing places would be too much of a surprise. It’s a tough test for all involved and will be fascinating to see how it develops.

As finalists last year, Dortmund are probably the most-fancied team to go through here. They’ve lost Mario Gotze, but they still have an excellent team full of great players in pretty much every position and will be the ultimate test for all the other teams in the group.

Favourites: Bayern Munich

Blog: Bavarian Football Works

Paris Saint-Germain have made an even bigger step up in quality this season and are expected to top their group. Benfica should also progress, though Olympiacos will look to upset the Portuguese side. Sadly for Anderlecht, they could be propping up their group for the second year in a row.

Favorites: Paris Saint-Germain

Despite their shaky start to the Ligue 1 season, there’s no doubt that Paris Saint-Germain are favorites to win this group. They were knocked out at the quarterfinal stage of the Champions League by Barcelona last season, and have strengthened their squad further this summer. Spending over €100 million, they’ve added Napoli’s prolific forward Edinson Cavani to their strike force and Roma’s young centre-back Marquinhos to their defence, after a brilliant breakthrough season in Serie A. Coach Laurent Blanc will be expecting his side to top the table, regardless of early teething problems.

Going Through: Bayer Leverkusen

Shakhtar have established themselves as fixtures in the knockout stage of the Champions League, but their recent sales have them looking a bit weak. Fernandinho, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Ravzan Rat and Willian have all left the club during the last two transfer windows. They’ve made some signings and will expect their young players to step up, but their first choice side isn’t as strong as Bayer’s.

The playoff round is over and the UEFA Champions League group stage draw can finally take place. On Thursday, all of the groups will be set for the European continent’s biggest club competition. Fortunately for everyone, UEFA makes it easy to catch the draw online.

No matter where you live, you can find a live stream of the draw at UEFA.com. A link to the stream will show up on their home page a few minutes before the draw begins. If you live in the United States and pay for a FOX Soccer 2 Go subscription, you can also catch the draw on that service.

The UEFA Champions League group stage doesn’t get underway until September 17, but the fun starts on Thursday when the groups are determined. Just after 11:30 a.m. ET, UEFA will conduct the draw for the group stage in Monaco.

If you’re wondering how the pots could potentially play out, here’s a tool to test various possibilities.