In the league stage of the redesigned Champions League, which saw its draw on Thursday, holders Real Madrid will play home to Borussia Dortmund and away to Liverpool in a rematch of the championship game from the previous year.
The best club tournament in Europe has a new format: instead of being divided into groups, all 36 teams are now combined into one league and will play eight games against eight different opponents.
In addition, Madrid—who won a record-tying 15th European Cup—will visit Atalanta and face AC Milan at home. Madrid just signed French sensation Kylian Mbappe.
Real defeated Atalanta, the Europa League champions from the previous season, in the Warsaw UEFA Super Cup earlier this month.
Notably, Liverpool—who returned to the Champions League after a one-season break—will play tournament newcomers Girona in addition to Milan.
The possibility of hosting German champions Bayer Leverkusen, who are led by former Liverpool player Xabi Alonso, would likely thrill Anfield supporters the most.
The 2023 winners of the league, Manchester City under Pep Guardiola, will face both Paris Saint-Germain and Juventus away from home and against Italian champions Inter Milan.
They did, however, also face more easy opponents, such as Slovan Bratislava, Club Brugge, and Sparta Prague, none of which had ever been in the actual Champions League of today.
There will be other notable matchups between Bayern Munich and PSG and Barcelona, as well as Arsenal and Inter and Paris.
The 36 teams who are competing in the Champions League are divided into four seeded pots of nine for the draw, up from the previous 32 teams.
Each team plays two opponents, one at home and one away, from each of the four pots. The first games are scheduled for September 17, 18, and 19.
Following the two additional matchdays in the new league phase in January, the top eight teams in the 36-team classification will move on to the round of 16.
The teams placed ninth through twenty-fourth will go to a play-off round, from which the eight remaining teams will advance to the round of sixteen.
As in the past, the lowest 12 clubs in the league phase will be eliminated completely; no clubs will automatically qualify for the Europa League.
36 clubs will now compete in the Europa League and the third-tier Conference League, whose drawings are on Friday. However, the latter tournament will only have six matchdays in the league round.
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