Doug McIntyre
Football journalist
The return of the UEFA Champions League will see a dramatic change in the look of world football's most prestigious club competition this season.
The World Cup-style group stage format, which for decades has seen Europe's biggest names decide who advances to the tournament's knockout stages, has been scrapped. In the new 36-team table, clubs will play eight matches against eight different teams, rather than the familiar home and away matches against the three first-round teams.
But the draw still took place, taking place on Thursday at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco, and a slickly produced video aired ahead of the draw both explained and ridiculed the change.
“What was wrong with the old format?” asks former Inter Milan and Tottenham striker Robbie Keane, who is also joined in the footage by UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin and fellow former stars Gigi Buffon, Alessandro Del Piero, Luis Figo and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
“Fans can now watch a more competitive match so every game, every goal and every point counts,” Ibrahimovic said. “Fans will see that the best club competition in the world has gotten even better.”
The tournament's league phase will begin on September 17 and finish in January, with the finals scheduled for late 2025.
Here are three quick takeaways from Thursday's drawing.
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There will be plenty of finals rematches…
The first round will feature a repeat of five of the past seven Champions League finals, with three of those matches being the same. Defending champions Real Madrid, with 15 titles to their name – the most in Europe – will face Borussia Dortmund at home and Liverpool in England in what will likely be the highlight of the league. Real Madrid will also host AC Milan, the continent's second most successful club, with seven titles to their name.
Bayern Munich, who will host the 2025 final on May 31, will host Paris Saint-Germain and play Barcelona away, while Manchester City drew at home with Inter Milan, who beat them in the 2023 final to win the tournament for the first time. Pep Guardiola's Manchester City will also play away games against PSG and Juventus.
…and lots of other noteworthy games
Despite losing Kylian Mbappé to Madrid this summer, PSG still boasts the deepest squad in club football. Even without Mbappé, the Parisians are hoping to lift the Champions League trophy for the first time. However, the road to glory is full of obstacles, as Luis Enrigue's team will face some of the toughest opponents in the world. In addition to Bayern and Manchester City, PSG will also face Atlético Madrid, PSV Eindhoven (both at home) and Arsenal (London). PSG will face FC Salzburg of Austria, Girona of Spain and Stuttgart of Germany.
Liverpool welcome Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen to Anfield in what will be a home game for Leverkusen manager Xabi Alonso, who famously helped Liverpool win the Champions League in 2005 by beating AC Milan, the other formidable opponent Liverpool faced on Thursday. Barcelona are well placed to return to the knockout stages, despite tough matches against fellow former champions Bayern, Dortmund and Portuguese powerhouse Benfica.
Mixed outcomes for 11 Americans
Five U.S. men's national team players could feature in the first round match between Tim Weah and Weston McKennie of Juventus and PSV's Richie Ledesma, Ricardo Pepi and Malik Tillman. There was a chance that six players would play, but PSV's Sergino Dest is expected to be out until late January due to an ACL injury sustained last spring. Juventus will also travel to Aston Villa, the team McKennie rejected for a second move this summer. The fact that the match is in Birmingham adds to the intrigue.
AC Milan's Christian Pulisic and Yunus Musa will travel to Leverkusen and Real Madrid before facing Liverpool at San Siro.
Three other Americans are also in the Champions League this season. Folarin Balogun will make his debut in the tournament for Monaco, who will visit his former club Arsenal and also face Villa and Bologna.
Finally, Cameron Carter-Vickers' Celtic will also face Villa in what has already been dubbed the “Battle of Britain”, as well as Gio Reyna's Borussia Dortmund. The full fixture list will be announced on Saturday.
Doug McIntyre is a soccer reporter for FOX Sports. Prior to joining FOX Sports in 2021, he was a reporter for ESPN and Yahoo Sports, where he covered the U.S. Men's and Women's National Teams at FIFA World Cups on five continents. Follow him @Doug McIntyre.
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