Champions League 2023/24: Dates for your diary

Barça will be one of the top seeded teams in the draw for the 2023/24 Champions League as champions of la Liga. That will help to ensure a hopefully easier route for the Catalans, who failed to make it past the group stage in the last two editions. On Monaco this Thursday, we'll be finding out which three teams will be sharing a group with the five-time winners of the coveted trophy.

The dates

The group stage starts on September 19 and ends on December 13. Then on December 18, the draw will be made for the first knockout round.

The first legs of the round of 18 are being played from February 13 to 21, and the returns are happening on March 5 to 13.

Hopefully Barça will still be involved when the draw is made for the quarter finals onwards on March 15.

Grand final in June

The quarter finals will be played from April 9 to 17, while the semi final dates run from April 30 to May 8.

Wembley Stadium, London, is the venue for the grand final, which is taking place on June 1. Barça have already won the trophy twice at that venue, once in the old stadium (against Sampdoria in 1992) and once in the new one (against Man United in 2011).

How nice it would be to win there a third time. But there's a long road to get down between now and then, and plenty of difficult hurdles that will stand in the way.