- Premier League sides have found out who they will face in Champions League
- This season marks the debut of a new league format in the UEFA competition
- LISTEN NOW: It’s All Kicking Off!, available wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes every Monday and Thursday
Premier League teams have found out who they will be facing in the revamped Champions League format for the 2024-25 campaign.
Unlike previous tournaments, UEFA have scrapped the group stage format for the competition and have increased total number of clubs participating from 32 to 36.
Instead of a traditional format of clubs being seperated into groups, participating clubs will instead now take part in a league format where they will play eight teams in a bid to earn their way into the knockout phase.
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.
Veterans of the Champions League in the form of Gianluigi Buffon and Cristiano Ronaldo were on hand to conduct the draw.
Premier League clubs found out who they will be facing in this season’s revamped Champions League
Gianluigi Buffon and Cristiano Ronaldo were on hand to draw fixtures for new league format
However, in another first AI technology was utilised to decide which seven teams the drawn club will take on. Five-time Ballon d’Or winner Ronaldo was thus relegated to pressing a themed button to kickstart the process.
The first team to be drawn from pot one in the new format were Manchester City, with Pep Guardiola’s side facing Inter Milan (H), PSG (A). Club Brugge (H), Juventus (A), Feyenoord (H), Sporting Lisbon (A), Sparta Prague (H) and Slovan Bratislava (A).
Liverpool meanwhile will take on Real Madrid (H), RB Leipzig (A), Bayer Leverkusen (H), AC Milan (A), Lille (H), PSV (A), Bologna (H), and Girona (A).
The only of the four English teams involved in this season’s competition never to have won the Champions League, Arsenal will no doubt be desperate to get their hands on the famous trophy come the final at the Allianz Arena in May.
In their bid to reach the latter stages Mikel Arteta’s Gunners will face the likes of PSG (H), Inter Milan (A), Shakhtar Donetsk (H), Atalanta (A), Dinamo Zagreb (H), Sporting Lisbon (A), Monaco (H) and Girona (A),
Meanwhile, Harry Kane is set to return to a Premier League ground as Aston Villa will host Bayern Munich at Villa Park.
Aston Villa have been drawn against three historical heavyweights of European football
In addition to the Bavarian club, Villa fans can also look forward to clashes with RB Leipzig (A), Juventus (H), Club Brugge (A), Celtic (H), Young Boys (A), Bologna (H), and Monaco (A).
It is important to note that 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.
