There was no summer break for some teams in Europe as the continent's top competition resumed, and now we're headed to the group stage
With Europe's top leagues having recently kicked off, the Champions League was in the distance as a future challenge for the biggest clubs, but those further down the European football pyramid have been in action since June.
The first qualifying round of the 2017-18 Champions League began less than a month after Real Madrid beat Juventus in the previous campaign's final, and soon enough the big hitters will be back in the competition in the group stage.
Full Champions League odds
The various rounds and routes to the tournament proper can be somewhat confusing and complex.
Fortunately, Goal has your complete guide to every round, featuring fully updated draws, scores and qualified teams and an explanation of how each stage works.
GROUP STAGE SEEDINGS
Pot 1 Pot 2. Pot 3 Pot 4
Real Madrid Barcelona Napoli Celtic
Bayern Munich Atletico Madrid Tottenham Feyenoord
Chelsea P.S.G Basel Maribor
Juventus. Dortmund Olympiacos. Leipzig
Benfica Sevilla Anderlecht. CSKA Moscow
Monaco Man City Roma Sporting CP
Spartak Moscow Porto Besiktas Qarabag
Shakhtar Donetsk Man United. Liverpool APOEL
The 32 teams that qualified for the Champions League group stage are split into four pots of eight teams each for the group-stage draw, with each group containing one team from each pot.
Pot 1 contains the holders of the Champions League and the champions of the top-seven leagues in Europe, as ranked by their coefficient. This year, Madrid are European and Spanish champions so the champion from the eighth-ranked league - Shakhtar Donetsk - also go into Pot 1.