Liverpool will face Champions League holders Real Madrid on their return to the competition following the draw for the new-look format.
Manchester City and Arsenal both play last season’s semi-finalists Paris St-Germain in their fixtures, while Aston Villa take on Scottish champions Celtic.
Each team plays eight fixtures in the ‘league phase’, with this year’s men’s tournament seeing a radical change, including the end of a group stage.
Cristiano Ronaldo
The high-tech draw took place in Monaco on Thursday, with Portugal forward Cristiano Ronaldo pressing the all-important button to make a computer algorithm determine the fixtures.
Teams cannot play another from the same country in the league phase so there is no potential for derbies, but the new system does ensure a number of exciting matches between top sides.
Manchester City
Premier League champions City were the first team pulled out by legendary Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, with Cristiano Ronaldo then pressing a button to trigger a computer generated schedule of opponents.
Pep Guardiola’s side will also face the likes of Inter Milan, who they beat in the 2023 final, Juventus, Sporting Lisbon and Sparta Prague.
Real Madrid
Champions Real Madrid play Borussia Dortmund in a repeat of last year’s final. Real – who beat Dortmund 2-0 at Wembley to lift the 2023-24 trophy – also play Italian sides AC Milan and Atalanta.
Aside from the Spanish defending champions, Arne Slot’s Liverpool will face clubs including former star Xabi Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen, along with Leipzig and AC Milan – in the 20th anniversary of their epic 2005 final. Alonso had been viewed as the frontrunner to replace Jurgen Klopp.
Arsenal
Like Liverpool, Arsenal will also play new boys Girona, along with PSG, Inter Milan and Monaco. Elsewhere, Unai Emery’s Villa, appearing in the tournament for the first time since 1982-3, were handed a stunning return.
They will entertain Juventus, who knocked them out in that campaign, and German giants Bayern Munich. Celtic will head south to Villa Park for a battle of Britain while the Spaniard’s side will travel to Leipzig, Bruges, Young Boys and Monaco.
Paris St-Germain
French champions Paris St-Germain face Bayern Munich in a repeat of the 2020 final they lost, and also take on Atletico Madrid.
Barcelona, meanwhile, have drawn both Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund from pot one.
While the draw provided each team with their opponents for the league stage, the order in which the teams were drawn will not necessarily correspond with the order the games will be played.
A full schedule including the dates of all fixtures is set to be announced on Saturday.
Unlike previous iterations of the competition, teams will no longer filter into the Europa League, with only the 16 highest-ranked teams progressing. Teams from the same nation also cannot to drawn against each other during the initial league phase.
How does the new format work?
The expanded 36-team tournament sees each team play eight games – four at home and four away – in the league system, against two opponents from each of the four seeding pots.
Teams who finish in the top eight will qualify automatically for the last 16, while those who place ninth to 24th will compete in a two-legged knockout play-off for the chance to join them.
Whoever finishes 25th or lower will be eliminated and will not be entered into the Europa League.
The number of matches in the new format will increase from 125 to 189.
Each team will play a minimum of eight games – instead of six – and a maximum of 17.
Champions League action begins on 17-19 September, and with the increased number of fixtures, the league phase runs until 29 January rather than finishing before Christmas.
Credit: bbc.com
