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
Here we go, Marchetti is on the stage in front of some tables! That must mean we’re about there and ready to start the proper draw.
He’s giving the history of the tournament - see a few posts earlier for the main points - and explaining why this new Champions League is going to be The Best One Ever.
A special congrats to Slovan Bratislava, Girona and Brest for their first-ever appearances, he says. Let’s go!
Champions League draw LIVE
This is, for Uefa, pretty good. Basically, their next video is a “movie” of a bunch of players - Rodri, Buffon, Luis Figo and others - complaining they don’t understand the changes, that the new format is a mess and it’s too complicated for everyone.
Ceferin is being ferried about playing some sort badass gangster president telling everyone that it’s all under control...and then Zlatan Ibrahimovic appears, giving it the big emotional scene and just saying it’s more of everything which is better. He almost finishes up with it being “like a Super L-” before Ceferin shushes him.
A nice touch of rare self-awarness, you might say....
Champions League draw LIVE
Next award is one going to the best all-time goalscorer in the Champions League.
And it’s Cristiano Ronaldo, of course.
Most seasons as top scorer, most goals in a single campaign and more goals overall. He did love hammering them in in this competition, didn’t he?
Now playing in the somewhat less-watched Saudi Pro League, Ronaldo picks up a silver ball stylised with the Champions League stars in recognition of his 140 goals in the competition.
Champions League draw LIVE
Right here we go....!
Well, in terms of the event, not the draw.
Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin is on stage and there are two awards to be presented tonight.
The president’s award is the imaginatively titled first one, given it’s chosen by Ceferin himself, and he has picked Italian goalkeeping legend Gigi Buffon.
Dramatic music overlayed on a Uefa-stylised video montage naturally gets us kicked off. Gigi does not drop the award, you’ll be delighted to hear.
Champions League draw LIVE: City, Liverpool, Arsenal, Villa learn fate
Ok we’re just about coming up to the start time...in truth, we can be a little uncertain about how long this is going to take.
Uefa events are famously and pointlessly long-winded at times, but the most recent draws haven’t been quite as excrutiatingly drawn-out as they were previously.
This time though there’s no manual “draw” as such, as it’s being done by computer - so presumably we’ll have lots of preamble, the big explainer of how it all works and then actually get down to business.
Champions League draw LIVE: Man City, Liverpool, Arsenal and Aston Villa learn fixtures ahead of new format
Quick run-down of where you’re looking for your favourite clubs:
From the Premier League - Man City (pot 1), Liverpool (pot 1), Arsenal (pot 2), Aston Villa (pot 4)
Scottish Premiership - Celtic (pot 3)
Selected European clubs - Real Madrid (1), PSG (1), Bayer Leverkusen (2), Juventus (2), AC Milan (2), PSV (3), Feyenoord (3), Monaco (4), Stuttgart (4)
What is the new Champions League format and how does the draw work?
Ok for the final time before the draw, here’s a reminder and all the details of how it will work...
Everything you need to know about the new Champions League format
Europe’s premier club competition has been expanded and revamped
Champions League draw LIVE
This is what they’ll all be playing for, at the Allianz Arena in Munich next year on 31 May.
Real Madrid have been the absolute dominant force in the Champions League era, six titles won since 2014 to take them to 15 European Cups overall.
Nobody else comes close - but can anybody stop them in year one of the new version?
AC Milan (seven), Bayern Munich, Liverpool (both six) and Barcelona (five) remain the closest clubs to the Spanish giants - but it’s a decade since their Catalan rivals won it, with only one new title each for Bayern and Liverpool in that time too.
Champions League enters a bold new era
Quick history catch-up, then. We know this is the first year that the Champions League is moving to the Swiss model of league phase, so it’s all new and brave and exciting.
But what was it like before the long-lasting group stage-into-knockouts?
The Champions League was rebranded (from the European Cup) in 92/93, and it changed a few times in the 30 years which followed - there were two group stages for a while (awful), and back in the first campaign there was actually a couple of knockout rounds to get through to the groups. Just two groups, the final eight as such, with first place in each quartet going on to meet in the final.
That was a holdover from the 91/92 European Cup - which was the first to have a group stage and the last of that name.
Prior to that in 90/91, it was a straight knockout from the round of 32 (Real Madrid beat OB from Denmark 10-1 on aggregate and Malmo knocked out Besiktas) through to the final itself (Red Star Belgrade beat Marseille on penalties).
Which teams have qualified?
England: Man City, Arsenal, Liverpool, Aston Villa
Spain: Real Madrid, Barcelona, Girona, Atletico Madrid
Germany: Leverkusen, Stuttgart, Bayern, Leipzig, Dortmund
Italy: Inter Milan, AC Milan, Bologna, Juventus
France: Paris Saint-Germain, Monaco, Brest
Netherlands: PSV Eindhoven, Feyenoord
Portugal: Sporting CP
Belgium: Club Brugge
Scotland: Celtic
Austria: Sturm Graz
Uefa Europa League winners: Atalanta
Champions League winner rebalancing: Shakhtar Donetsk
Europa League winner rebalancing: Benfica
Qualifiers: Young Boys, Dinamo Zagreb, Slovan Bratislava, Red Star Belgrade, Sparta Prague, Lille, Red Bull Salzburg
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