Champions League draw LIVE: Man City, Liverpool, Arsenal and Aston Villa learn fixtures ahead of new format
The draw for the new-look, 36-team league phase was held at a special ceremony in Monte Carlo
A new era of the Champions League arrives as the draw is held for the inaugural 36-team format.
The old group stage is out, with a new-look league phase arriving to bring what Uefa hope will be a more exciting first stage of the competition. As usual, teams cannot face opponents from their country, but there are some blockbuster ties as for the first time clubs can face rivals from the same pot - meaning that Liverpool have been paired with Real Madrid while Manchester City will face two Italian giants, among others. Meanwhile, Aston Villa face Celtic in a classic battle of Britain.
Follow all the reaction from the Champions League draw in our live blog below:
Champions League draw LIVE
On we go with Club Brugge:
Dortmund h, Man City a, Juventus h, AC Milan a, Sporting CP h, Celtic a, Aston Villa h, Sturm Graz a.
Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen:
Inter Milan h, Liverpool a, AC Milan h, Atletico Madrid a, RB Salzburg h, Feyenoord a, Sparta Praha h, Brest a.
And a third English side out - it’s Arsenal.
Their games: PSG h, Inter Milan a, Shakhtar h, Atalanta a, Dinamo h, Sporting CP a, Monaco h, Girona a.
Champions League draw LIVE
First out are Atletico Madrid.
Fixtures: RB Leipzig h, PSG a, Bayer Leverkusen h, Benfica a, Lille h, RB Salzburg a, Slovan Bratislava h, Sparta Praha a.
Next it’s Atalanta the reigning Europa League champions, now in the Champions League.
Fixtures; Real Madrid h, Barcelona a, Arsenal h, Shakhtar a, Celtic h, Young Boys a, Sturm Graz h, Stuttgart a.
Champions League draw LIVE
As a colleague points out while the ‘pot 2’ montage of teams are being played, Uefa could absolutely do all of this with a single push of the button. The software could automate it instantly.
This is all...ceremony. A bit of an event, doing it team by team. On we go with the second batch of nine teams!
Champions League draw LIVE
PSG are the last pot 1 team out and they’ll play:
Man City h, Bayern Munich a, Atletico Madrid h, Arsenal a, PSV h, Salzburg a, Girona h, Stuttgart a.
Three or four cracking games there.
Champions League draw LIVE
Real Madrid the current champions are out next.
Their fixtures: Dortmund h, Liverpool a, AC Milan h, Atalanta a, Salzburg h, Lille a, Stuttgart h, Brest a.
And next out is Liverpool - we already have a couple of their games.
The Reds’ games: Real Madrid h, Leipzig a, Bayer Leverkusen h, AC Milan a, Lille h, PSV a, Bologna h, Girona a.
An interesting mix for Arne Slot’s side!
Champions League draw LIVE
Borussia Dortmund are out next.
They’ll play: Barcelona h, Real Madrid a, Shakhtar h, Brugge a, Celtic h, Dinamo a, Sturm Graz h, Bologna a.
Barcelona are next out from Buffon.
They face: Bayern h, Dortmund a, Atalanta h, Benfica a, Young boys h, Red Star a, Brest h, Monaco a.
Champions League draw LIVE
So Villa will wait until the end in pot four, but they already know one opponent there in Bayern Munich. On we go.
RB Leipzig are next out and they will face:
Inter Milan a, Liverpool h, Juventus h, Atletico Madrid a, Sporting CP h, Celtic a, Aston Villa h, Sturm Graz a.
A first match for Liverpool there too, a trip to Germany.
Champions League draw LIVE
Next up Inter Milan:
Their fixtures - Leipzig h, Man City a, Arsenal h, Leverkusen a, Red Star h, Young Boys a, Monaco h, Sparta Praha a.
Bayern Munich:
They will play - PSG h, Barcelona a, Benfica h, Shakhtar a, Dinamo h, Feyenoord a, Slovan Bratislava h, Aston Villa a.
Champions League draw LIVE
Here we go! Buffon drawing the teams, Ronaldo...pressing a button.
First out is Manchester City.
Let’s see how long it takes after some big button-pushing...about five seconds.
Inter Milan (h) and PSG (a); Brugge (h) and Juventus (a); Feyenoord (h) and Sporting (a);; Sparta Praha (h) and Bratislava (a) are their opponents!
Champions League draw LIVE
Another video for the explainer. Here are the highlights for the final time.
Four pots - the holders and top eight in coefficient rankings in pot 1, then down the list.
Each team is drawn out in turn (pot 1 teams first, then two and so on) and software automatically assigns random, eligible teams for them to face.
No team from the same association in the fixtures, and a maximium of two from other associations.
The software draws eight opponents, two from each pot, automatically makes four of them home and four away games.
The software also makes sure every club left in can still get a full round of fixtures at every turn.
Match calendar with order of games will be released on Saturday.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments