Rangers in pot three for group draw

RANGERS will come out of pot three for today's Champions League group stage draw in Monaco, and can expect a highly difficult assignment to qualify as they go head-to-head with some daunting rivals.

Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal will all be among the top seeds - but could all still find themselves facing Real Madrid in the group stage.

The English trio are among eight clubs in the top pot meaning they will avoid the likes of champions Inter Milan, Barcelona and beaten finalists Bayern Munich. However Real Madrid are only in the second pot of eight clubs and would provide stiff opposition in the group phase, as would Valencia and Werder Bremen.

Likely pots for Champions League draw:

Pot one: Inter Milan, Barcelona, Man Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal, Bayern Munich, AC Milan, Lyon.

Pot two: Werder Bremen, Real Madrid, Roma, Shakhtar Donetsk, Benfica, Valencia, Marseille, Zenit St Petersburg*.

Pot three: Panathinaikos, Tottenham*, Rangers, Ajax*, Schalke, Basle, Braga, FC Copenhagen*.

Pot four: Spartak Moscow, Hapoel Tel Aviv, Sparta Prague*, FC Twente, Rubin Kazan, CFR Cluj, Partizan Belgrade, Bursaspor.

(*Depending on last night's results)