Seeding for the 2022-23 Champions League group stage draw was confirmed after Real Madrid’s Champions League triumph Saturday.

Real Madrid were already guaranteed one of the eight top-seeded places in next season’s tournament by winning La Liga.

As a result of the Spanish club’s victory over Liverpool in the Champions League final, the vacant top-seeded spot reserved for the Champions League winner has gone to Ajax – the winner of UEFA’s seventh-ranked league, the Eredivisie, according to Dale Johnson of ESPN.

Pot 1: Real Madrid (Spain), Manchester City (England), AC Milan (Italy), Bayern Munich (Germany), Paris Saint-Germain (France), Eintracht Frankfurt (Germany/Europa League winners), FC Porto (Portugal), Ajax (Netherlands)

The eight clubs in Pot 2 are also confirmed, with three representatives from Spain and England, respectively. It includes four previous Champions League-winning clubs in Barcelona, Juventus, Liverpool, and Chelsea.

While Pot 1 is comprised of teams crowned champions in their respective leagues last season, as well as the winners of the Champions League and Europa League, Pots 2-4 are determined by UEFA’s five-year coefficient of performances in European competition.

Pot 2: Barcelona (Spain), Sevilla (Spain), Atletico Madrid (Spain), Juventus (Italy), Liverpool (England), Chelsea (England), Tottenham Hotspur (England), RB Leipzig (Germany)

Every spot in Pot 3 is spoken for except one, as Benfica must go through the Champions League qualifying stage before their berth is confirmed. If the Portuguese club fails, either Rangers, Marseille, or Dinamo Zagreb could elevate from Pot 4 to Pot 3.

Pot 3: Inter Milan (Italy), Napoli (Italy), Borussia Dortmund (Germany), Bayer Leverkusen (Germany), Red Bull Salzburg (Austria), Shakhtar Donetsk (Ukraine), Sporting CP (Portugal), Benfica (pending qualification)

Only Scottish champions Celtic and Belgian league winners Club Brugge are confirmed for Pot 4, with the remaining six spots to be determined after Champions League qualifying.

The draw for the Champions League group stage is set to take place on Aug. 25 before the 2022-23 tournament kicks off in September.

Never rule out Real Madrid in this competition.

Exactly eight months after a group-stage defeat to Sheriff Tiraspol seemed to signal the end of an era for the Spanish giants, Carlo Ancelotti’s experienced side overcame Liverpool in the Champions League final with a 1-0 win.

The victory marks Real Madrid’s record-extending 14th European Cup success.

Here’s where the Stade de France showpiece was won and lost:

The Courtois final

The speed Thibaut Courtois uses to fling his upper body to the ground defies physics. Attempts fired low to either side of the Belgian’s ankles should be his weakness – it’s a lot of room for his 6-foot-7 frame to cover in an instant – but Courtois made saves that perhaps no other ‘keeper of a similar stature would get close to.

Courtois was an easy choice for man of the match.

The Real Madrid No. 1 pawed away or blocked nine Liverpool shots in an authoritative display bookended by two excellent pieces of elasticity to deny Mohamed Salah. Courtois set the tone in the 16th minute, diving low to push away a bobbling effort from the Egyptian superstar. But his best piece of shot-stopping came eight minutes before the end of normal time when Salah infiltrated a rare opening in Real Madrid’s rearguard.

Fabinho launched a ball forward when he spotted Salah starting a run behind Ferland Mendy, and the Reds attacker excellently tamed the ball before closing in on Courtois’ goal. Salah’s shot was well struck, heading toward the bottom corner, but Courtois was down quickly and deflected the ball out for a corner with his wrist.

David Alaba leaped into the netminder’s arms. Eder Militao and Dani Carvajal congratulated him. Courtois let out a guttural roar – he wasn’t going to be beaten.

There were other shots that Courtois had no business getting to, including a Sadio Mane effort he pushed onto the post during the first half. Overall, he made a tournament-high 55 saves during Los Blancos’ victorious run.

For context, Alisson made 14 saves during Liverpool’s Champions League journey. Manchester City’s Ederson made 57 stops throughout the whole 2021-22 Premier League campaign.

Karim Benzema is a frontrunner for the Ballon d’Or after his prolific season, including a 10-goal outburst during the knockout rounds. Goals from Brazilian duo Rodrygo and Vinicius Junior fueled Real Madrid’s semifinal and final successes. But it wouldn’t be inaccurate to suggest Courtois was the most important player behind his team’s latest continental triumph.

Alexander-Arnold gets caught out

Ibrahima Konate was imperious at the back. The Frenchman justified his selection ahead of Joel Matip early on, keeping pace with Vinicius before effortlessly nudging the winger aside and carrying the ball upfield.

Konate’s concentration was almost immaculate as he repeatedly stepped in with crucial interceptions and tackles, and his decision-making was faultless when he mopped up behind Trent Alexander-Arnold.

But on a rare occasion when Konate wasn’t there to do the dirty work for him, Alexander-Arnold erred.

Alexander-Arnold’s positioning was narrow while he kept at Benzema’s heels, but he should’ve quickly switched his focus while Konate also kept tabs on the striker. He belatedly glanced over his shoulder at Vinicius around 30 yards from goal but still didn’t do anything about it. Alexander-Arnold merely trotted back without tracking a white shirt and helplessly watched as Federico Valverde’s delivery skipped across Liverpool’s 18-yard box to Vinicius’ right foot.

There will be a temptation to level most blame at Liverpool’s attackers after Saturday’s loss, and there are legitimate concerns after they failed to score in 330 minutes across their finals in the League Cup, FA Cup, and the Champions League this season. Maybe a long, intense campaign took its toll. Salah and Mane both played their 70th match of the season at the Stade de France, while Real Madrid had the luxury of resting players after winning La Liga in April.

But no amount of fatigue can explain Alexander-Arnold’s inexcusable and avoidable error. It cost his team. Either Jurgen Klopp devises ways to give the Liverpudlian more support as he increasingly becomes a target for opponents – Jordan Henderson was briefly protecting Liverpool’s right side early in the game but was soon relieved of those duties – or Alexander-Arnold quickly gets to grip with the basics of tracking a wide man.

Carvajal steps up

Unlike his fellow right-back Alexander-Arnold, Dani Carvajal was a reliable defensive presence. The veteran tallied four tackles, two interceptions, and three clearances, and ensured Luis Diaz had a frustrating outing until Klopp substituted the Colombian winger in the 64th minute.

And within 12 second-half minutes, Carvajal denied Liverpool a likely goal before kickstarting the attack for Vinicius’ strike.

The supreme quality of Alexander-Arnold’s right foot is unquestionable, and his delivery soon after the interval seemed to quiver with anticipation as it flew toward the back post. It was destined for Diaz’s head, but Carvajal was also tracking the cross and pushed his shoulder into Diaz to unsettle him while stooping to head the ball away from danger.

It was a masterful intervention.

Then when Los Blancos hacked the ball away following some desperate defending, Carvajal took it upon himself to turn the tide. First, he skipped past Thiago Alcantara before slipping the ball to Casemiro. He kept moving and received the ball close to the halfway line where he confidently drew three Liverpool players to him before sliding a pass back to Casemiro. The attention that Carvajal had drawn eked open space down Liverpool’s left, which Valverde strode into before supplying his assist.

Carvajal took risks in the buildup to the goal and committed at the right moments defensively. Going to the ground for a late block tackle on Mane could’ve backfired and released the Senegalese marksman, but Cavajal’s execution was immaculate.

It was a display that leaned greatly on his experience and confidence from a decade of European dominance. Simply put, it was a quintessential Real Madrid performance.

This season’s Champions League final, a rematch of the 2018 edition in which Real Madrid bested Liverpool, is finally here. Get ready for Saturday’s match with theScore’s comprehensive preview package.

The lowdown ?

• Who: Liverpool vs. Real Madrid
• When: Saturday, May 28 at 3:00 p.m. ET
• Where: Stade de France (Saint-Denis, France)
• Referee: Clement Turpin (France)

How to watch ?

• TV: CBS, Univision, TUDN (U.S.)
• Stream: Paramount+ and fuboTV (U.S.), DAZN (Canada)

The latest news ?

Analysis ?

Tactics, key questions, and a prediction in our in-depth preview.

“Past successes can be used for encouragement, but to claim Real Madrid’s journey to the Champions League final is thanks to an off-the-pitch force does the team and its coaching staff a disservice. There’s no fairy dust collecting on Los Blancos’ trophies – instead, their run is fueled by the excellence of three veterans awash with European experience … On the opposite end of the scale from the whimsical descriptions of Real Madrid, there can be a habit to oversimplify Liverpool’s achievements. There were no miracles as the Reds dispatched Inter Milan, Benfica, and Villarreal – just as we’d all expected – in the knockout rounds while showcasing their relentlessness in attack and imperious defending led by Virgil van Dijk.” Read more.

Further reading ?

Dive into some of the storylines surrounding the contest.

Injury updates ?

The latest on the lingering lineup questions.

Projected lineups ?

Liverpool (4-3-3): Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Konate, Van Dijk, Robertson; Henderson, Fabinho, Keita; Salah, Mane, Diaz

Real Madrid (4-3-3): Courtois; Carvajal, Militao, Alaba, Mendy; Casemiro, Kroos, Modric; Valverde, Benzema, Vinicius Jr.

The kit matchup ?

Path to the final ?

Liverpool

• Group stage: First place (Atletico Madrid, Porto, AC Milan)
• Round of 16: Beat Inter Milan (2-1 on aggregate)
• Quarterfinals: Beat Benfica (6-4 on aggregate)
• Semifinals: Beat Villarreal (5-2 on aggregate)

Real Madrid

• Group stage: First place (Inter Milan, Sheriff, Shakhtar Donetsk)
• Round of 16: Beat Paris Saint-Germain (3-2 on aggregate)
• Quarterfinals: Beat Chelsea (5-4 on aggregate AET)
• Semifinals: Beat Manchester City (6-5 on aggregate AET)

By the numbers ?

This season’s raw Champions League statistics for the two finalists

Looking into some advanced metrics …

Fun facts ?

Liverpool: Should the Reds win on Saturday and lift the coveted big-eared cup, they will finish the 2021-22 season with as many trophies (three) as losses in all competitions; Jurgen Klopp’s men, looking to complete a treble, have already claimed the FA Cup and League Cup. They lost only twice en route to a second-place finish in the Premier League and have only one defeat in this season’s Champions League.

Real Madrid: Los Blancos, looking for a record-extending 14th European Cup, will feature in the showpiece match of the competition for the 17th time. That’s six more than any other club in football history. The Spanish giants have emerged victorious each of the last seven times they’ve reached this stage of the tournament. Their last defeat? It came all the way back in 1981. Against Liverpool. In France.

What they’re saying ?

Jurgen Klopp: “First and foremost, they are a world-class team, a world-class club, and they know how to win football games. The core (of the teams that met in 2018), especially the midfield, is still there … There’s the feeling that we want to put things right, definitely, but it cannot be the main thought. If we go there (saying) like, ‘Revenge! Payback!’, all these kinds of things, it doesn’t work like that. That’s not us. We came here to the final in a different way. So, we have to play our way.”

Carlo Ancelotti: “Two great teams will face each other, and the one with more courage and personality will win at the end. (Liverpool have) a lot of quality together, with high intensity and good organization. They’re one of the best teams. (Klopp is) a great coach. I have a good relationship with him. (He’s) a great coach who brought some new things to football with the intensity and offensive pressure (of his teams). He’s doing a great job.”

It’s here. This Saturday, the globe’s attention turns to the Parisian suburbs, where Real Madrid and Liverpool meet in the Champions League final. Here’s a breakdown of the much-anticipated contest, along with a predicted outcome.

There’s a tendency to bow to the mysticism of Real Madrid. Rather than explaining their escape acts and their opponents’ collapses as part of an obvious pattern – a big team with tremendous players winning a game – some attribute their glories to intangible concepts.

Even their manager does it.

“If you have to say why,” Carlo Ancelotti said after Real Madrid downed Manchester City in dramatic fashion earlier in May, “it is the history of this club that helps us to keep going when it seems that we are gone.”

Past successes can be used for encouragement, but to claim Real Madrid’s journey to the Champions League final is thanks to an off-the-pitch force does the team and its coaching staff a disservice. There’s no fairy dust collecting on Los Blancos’ trophies – instead, their run is fueled by the excellence of three veterans awash with European experience.

Karim Benzema is the most dangerous striker on the planet. He’s already matched his former strike partner Cristiano Ronaldo for most goals (10) in a single season in the Champions League knockout rounds, and arguably no one’s ever been so clinical in front of goal in consecutive doubleheaders against foes of Paris Saint-Germain, Chelsea, and Manchester City’s strength.

Benzema notched late winning goals against each of Real Madrid’s knockout rivals to further underline his remarkable stamina at 34, but Liverpool will need to do more than subdue his firepower to conquer Europe for a seventh time. The Frenchman poses a constant threat with his ability to lure players from their defensive positions when he drops deep before releasing his fellow attackers into the space he pried open. From those positions, Benzema can instantly instigate attacks with a swift flick or nonchalant back pass.

The midfield protection from Fabinho – who missed Liverpool’s last three matches – will be crucial to hampering Benzema’s buildup play.

Fabinho and his midfield colleagues will also be occupied with Luka Modric, the 36-year-old who delicately dabs at the ball when he has possession but snaps and snarls when he doesn’t. Given his slight 5-foot-8 frame, the physicality of his game is regularly overlooked, but the Croatian playmaker’s willingness to hurl himself into aerial battles and plunge into tackles helped instill belief in his teammates before they battled back from seemingly irreparable scenarios in this Champions League campaign.

But his passing will always be one of his finest features, as his stunning assist for Rodrygo against Chelsea demonstrated. The Liverpool defense simply can’t shut off when the ball is under Modric’s spell.

Real Madrid’s third key veteran is Ancelotti. He may have succumbed to the habit of using history and wizardry to explain his side’s European pedigree, but consistency and the effectiveness of his substitutions are undoubtedly down to his management. Ancelotti, who turns 63 in June, stabilized a club that could’ve lost its way following the departures of Zinedine Zidane and Sergio Ramos within a six-week spell last summer. He became the first boss to win titles in each of Europe’s top five leagues when the team wrapped up La Liga in April.

A victory at the Stade de France would secure Ancelotti a record fourth European title as a coach. The Italian also collected the European Cup twice as a player.

On the opposite end of the scale from the whimsical descriptions of Real Madrid, there can be a habit to oversimplify Liverpool’s achievements. There were no miracles as the Reds dispatched Inter Milan, Benfica, and Villarreal – just as we’d all expected – in the knockout rounds while showcasing their relentlessness in attack and imperious defending led by Virgil van Dijk.

But what about the midfield?

The influence of Thiago Alcantara has grown exponentially this term, so it was a considerable boost when Jurgen Klopp said the Spaniard could play in this weekend’s showpiece. Thiago can take control of the midfield battle, wriggling free of the crowd before invariably making the right decision when he passes. His varied distribution is among the best in the game and helped him become a regular supplier of secondary assists at Bayern Munich. He can break lines with low, measured passes and lift balls over backlines for Liverpool’s attackers with equal quality.

With Thiago around, the onus isn’t primarily on Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson to furnish opportunities for the frontmen.

The focus on Alisson, Van Dijk, and the Mohamed Salah-led strikeforce can also detract attention from how excellently constructed Liverpool are. Their domestic and continental rivals have vulnerabilities – Real Madrid are shallow in their full-back slots – but the Merseyside club has at least two strong candidates for each position.

Real Madrid should be wary when Klopp starts to tinker on the sidelines. There is arguably no club in Europe whose replacements are so strong. Ibrahima Konate and Joel Matip are top-level defenders but offer different qualities for different scenarios. Harvey Elliott is one of the most exciting young talents in football and provides boundless energy and positivity as a No. 8. Roberto Firmino and Diogo Jota fit snugly into an attacking triumvirate but are vastly different to both one another and the players they’d replace.

This matchup is bound to be close, but if they resist the Spanish champions’ sorcery, Liverpool possess the depth and overall quality needed to eventually outmuscle Ancelotti’s men.

Prediction: Liverpool win after extra time