24/25 UCL Draw: Real Madrid to face Dortmund, Liverpool in new-look Champions League format
30th August 2024
Every team will play eight games against eight different opponents in the new Champions League format.
- The number of clubs in the Champions League has increased from 32 in the past, with the 36 participants split into four seeded pots of nine for the draw.
- All 36 clubs have also been pooled together into one league rather than split into groups.
- Every team will face two clubs from each of the four pots, one at home and one away.
The draw for the league stage of the new-look UEFA Champions
League took place on Thursday, throwing up a series of heavyweight fixtures
including a trip for holders Real Madrid to Liverpool and a repeat of last
season's final between the Spanish giants and Borussia Dortmund.
Every team will play eight games against eight different
opponents in the new format of Europe's elite club competition, with all 36
clubs now pooled together into one league rather than split into groups.
Madrid, who have signed France superstar Kylian Mbappe since
winning a record-extending 15th European Cup, will also notably play AC Milan
at home and will go to Atalanta.
Real beat last season's Europa League winners Atalanta in
the UEFA Super Cup in Warsaw earlier this month.
Liverpool, who are back in the Champions League after a
one-season absence, will also notably meet Milan and take on tournament
debutants Girona.
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However, supporters of the Anfield club will perhaps be most
excited about the prospect of hosting German champions Bayer Leverkusen,
coached by former Liverpool midfielder Xabi Alonso.
"There will be a lot of focus on the fixture against
Real Madrid at Anfield, and rightly so because they are the holders of the
competition, but at the same time there is so much quality among our other
opponents that we will spread our attention evenly and take each game as it
comes," said Liverpool manager Arne Slot.
Pep Guardiola's Manchester City, winners of the competition
in 2023, will play at home to Italian champions Inter Milan and go to both
Paris Saint-Germain and Juventus.
However, they were also handed more comfortable opponents
including Club Brugge, Sparta Prague and Slovan Bratislava, who have never
played in the modern Champions League proper.
Other standout head-to-heads will include Bayern Munich
against both PSG and Barcelona, and Arsenal against Inter and Paris.
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"It is the best competition in the world with the best
clubs in the world. With the new format it will be harder but that is what we
like," said PSG's Qatari president, Nasser al-Khelaifi.
The number of clubs in the Champions League has increased
from 32 in the past, with the 36 participants split into four seeded pots of
nine for the draw.
While in the past the draw was entirely conducted by hand,
this time had to be different to avoid the process lasting several hours.
Each team was drawn out by former Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi
Buffon on the stage in Monaco, before Cristiano Ronaldo pressed a button to
activate the computer which revealed all eight of their opponents.
Every team will face two clubs from each of the four pots,
one at home and one away. The first matches will be played on September 17, 18
and 19.
Aston Villa were handed plum ties at home to Bayern Munich
and Juventus as they enter the modern Champions League for the first time.
Villa beat Bayern in the final when they won the European
Cup in 1982, and then lost to Juve in the following season's quarter-finals.
The English side will also host Celtic, while the Scottish
champions can also look forward to trips to Dortmund and Atalata.
Among the new faces are French club Brest, who have never
played in any European competition before and were handed games against both
Madrid and Barcelona.
Girona's first foray into the competition will see them host
Liverpool, Arsenal and go to PSG and AC Milan.
UEFA have said the specific dates for fixtures will be
revealed on Saturday.
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The two extra matchdays in the new league phase will take
place in January, at the end of which the top eight clubs in the 36-team
classification will advance directly to the last 16.
Those ranked between ninth and 24th place will go through to
play a play-off round from which will emerge the remaining eight sides
advancing to the last 16.
The bottom 12 in the league phase will be eliminated
altogether, with no clubs parachuting down into the Europa League as in the
past.
The financial rewards in the Champions League are greater
than before with the total pot rising by about 25 percent to almost 2.5 billion
euros ($2.79 billion). The winners of the competition can pocket over 86
million euros just in prize money.
The Europa League and third-tier Conference League, the draws for which take place on Friday, will also now feature 36 clubs, although the latter competition will involve only six matchdays in the league phase.
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