How new-look Champions League draw works as Liverpool returns to revamped tournament

The draw for this season's Champions League takes place on Thursday 28 August, with Liverpool among the Premier League teams involved in the first edition of the competition in its new guise.

Previously, the competition featured eight groups of four teams, with each team playing every team in their group twice - once at home and once away.

However, a major shake-up means that, this season, 36 teams will take their place in one huge league table, with each team playing eight fixtures against eight different clubs.

One thing that hasn't changed is that, for the draw, the teams will be divided into four pots - with the strongest teams theoretically in pot 1, and the weakest teams theoretically in pot 4.

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The make-up of the pots is yet to be finalised as there are still seven places to be filled in the competition, with the remaining qualifying matches taking place on Tuesday 27 August and Wednesday 28 August.

Each side will then be drawn against two opponents from each of the four pots, with one team from each pot to be faced at home, and the other team from each pot to be faced away, making up each teams' eight fixtures.

The new structure means that teams from the same pot will face each other in the first stage of the competition for the first time.

Previously, teams from the same pot were separated until the knockout stage of the competition, with one team from each pot being drawn into groups of four.

As was the case previously, clubs cannot face a club from the same domestic league as them until the knockout stage of the competition, while clubs can also not play against more than two clubs from the same country (for example, it will not be possible for Liverpool to draw three teams from Spain during the league phase of the competition).

In terms of qualification for the knockout stage of the Champions League , the top eight clubs from the 36-team group will advance to the last 16, while the teams that finish between ninth and 24th will compete in a play-off to decide which other eight teams progress to the last 16.