Tottenham Champions League group: Best and worst possible scenarios from the draw

Mauricio Pochettino's side will discover their three opponents during Thursday's group stage draw

Tottenham crashed out at the group stage last season after facing Monaco, Bayer Leverkusen and CSKA Moscow (Getty Images)

Tottenham Hotspur return to the Champions League looking to improve on their very disappointing exit in last season's group stage.

Mauricio Pochettino has spoken of wanting to win a "real trophy" this season - not an FA or Carabao Cup - and knows his side must hit the ground running in their temporary Wembley home if they are to stand a chance.

Last year they came up against a young Monaco side who would go all the way to the semi-final, faced a tough German outfit and made a long journey over to Russia - and this year could be remarkably similar.

Spurs will discover the three teams they are due to face in the Champions League group stage in the draw which takes place in Monaco at 5pm BST on Thursday afternoon.

Each of the 32 teams will be divided into four pots and then drawn into eight different groups – comprising of one team from each pot.

We already know the composition of Pot 1 – with current holders Real Madrid being grouped alongside the champions of the other top seven leagues in Europe based on Uefa’s coefficient rankings.

In England’s case, that means Premier League champions Chelsea are in Pot 1, while Manchester United and Manchester City are placed in Pot 2. Tottenham will be in Pot 3 alongside Liverpool, should they qualify, while Celtic will be in Pot 4.

By assuming the top seeds from each play-off tie reach the group stage, we have a good idea of the best and worst possible scenarios for each of the British clubs in the draw.

Here are Tottenham’s worst case scenarios:

• Real Madrid 
• PSG
• Tottenham
• RB Leipzig

Because Spurs are in Pot 3, they will draw one team from each of Pots 1 and 2 which contain the highest-ranked teams in Europe.

That means they could face a horrible group with the likes of current holders Real Madrid (Pot 1), the super-rich PSG (Pot 2) and Bundesliga runners-up RB Leipzig from Pot 4.

• Juventus
• Barcelona
• Tottenham
• Feyenoord

Should Spurs avoid Real Madrid from Pot 1 - and draw last season's runners-up Juventus instead - that would open up Spanish sides Barcelona and Atletico from Pot 2.

• Bayern Munich 
• Atletico
• Tottenham
• Sporting

They could also draw Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich from Pot 1 and the likes of Portuguese side Sporting, Russian side CSKA Moscow or Dutch champions Feyenoord from Pot 4.

Here are Tottenham's best case scenarios:

• Spartak
• Porto
• Tottenham
• Apoel

The lowest ranked sides in Pot 1 (according to Uefa club coefficient rankings) are Russian champions Spartak Moscow and Ukrainian champions Shakhtar Donetsk.

• Shakhtar
• Sevilla
• Tottenham
• Maribor

Of teams in Pot 2, Sevilla appear to be the weakest although they are notoriously difficult to beat in Europe.

• Benfica
• Dortmund
• Tottenham
• Qarabag

Pochettino will be eyeing up the likes of Slovenian side Maribor, the Azeri team Qarabag and Cypriot champions Apoel Nicosia from Pot 4.