Champions League 2017-18: Qualifying rounds & teams explained

With the 2016-17 season nearly complete across Europe, only a few clubs are still fighting to book their place in next season's Champions League.

The route to next season's final in Kiev will be much longer for some clubs than others, with the first qualifying round kicking off as early as June - a full two-and-a-half months before the group stage begins in September.

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The draw for the first and second qualifying rounds will be made on June 19. In each qualifying round and the play-off round, teams are divided into seeded and unseeded groups based on their UEFA club coefficient, a kind of rating of their past performances.

Seeded and unseeded teams are then drawn against each other in two-legged, home-and-away ties to advance to the next round leading into the group stage. Here is your complete guide to the teams that have qualified for each stage thus far.

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FIRST QUALIFYING ROUND

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The champions of Europe's smallest 10 leagues play in the first qualifying round, with the five winners progressing to the second qualifying round.

The draw for this round and the second qualifying round will be made on June 19, with the first legs being played on June 27 and 28 and the second legs following on July 4 and 5.

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SECOND QUALIFYING ROUND

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Twenty-nine more teams - again, all champions of their respective leagues - enter in the second qualifying round. The five teams progressing from the first qualifying round make for 34 teams in total and 17 ties.

The draw for this round will be made at the same time as the first qualifying round, on June 19, with the teams progressing from the previous round to be confirmed once those ties have been played. The first legs will be played on July 11 and 12 and the second legs on July 18 and 19.

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THIRD QUALIFYING ROUND

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The third qualifying round is split into two sections: the champions route and the league route. The draw for both sections will be made on July 14, with the first legs taking place on July 25 and 26 and the second legs following on August 1 and 2.

In the champions route, three more league champions (from Greece, the Czech Republic and Romania for 2017-18) join the 17 winners in the second qualifying round, making a total of 20 teams and 10 ties.

In the league route, 10 teams that are not domestic champions but have finished in Champions League qualifying positions in their respective leagues face each other in five ties.

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PLAY-OFF ROUND

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The play-off round, the final round before the group stage, is also split into the champions route and the league route. The draw for both sections will be made on August 4, with the first legs taking place on August 15 and 16 and the second legs following on August 22 and 23.

There are no new teams added to the champions route; the 10 winners from that section in the third qualifying round are drawn against each other in another five ties, with the five winners advancing to the group stage.

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Five more teams are added to the league route, and join the five teams that progressed from that section in the third qualifying round. They play across 10 ties, and like the champions route the five winners advance to the group stage.

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GROUP STAGE

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The group stage is made up of five teams from the champions route, five teams from the league route and 22 new teams that enter the competition at this stage. The draw will be made on August 24 in Monaco, with the first matches taking place on September 12 and 13.

The draw is seeded via four pots of eight teams each. Pot 1 includes the Champions League holders and league winners of the top seven countries according to UEFA's coefficients. As next season's holders (Real Madrid or Juventus) will also be a top-seven league winner, a Pot 1 place is passed on to the eighth-ranked country, Ukraine.

Pots 2, 3 and 4 are decided based on the ranking of teams by their club coefficients.

So far, 22 teams have booked their place in the group stage, with the full lineup of direct qualification spots below. Teams to have confirmed their place in a particular pot are marked with the number of that pot - for example, (2) indicates Pot 2.

*Manchester United qualified for the Champions League group stage as winners of the Europa League. England will therefore have five Champions League entrants next season, with four already confirmed in the group stage.