Champions League draw: Revamped format filled with marquee rematches for Europe’s leading clubs

The UEFA Champions League is back, and global soccer’s most prestigious club competition has a drastically different look this season.

Gone is the World Cup-style group stage format that for decades has determined which of Europe’s brand-name teams advance to the tournament’s knockout stage. In is a new 36-team table, in which each club plays eight games against eight different opponents instead of the familiar three first round foes home and away.

There’s still a draw, though, which took place on Thursday at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco. A slickly produced video that preceded the draw itself both explained and poked fun at the change.

“What was wrong with the old format?” asked former Inter Milan and Tottenham striker Robbie Keane, who was joined by UEFA president Aleksander Čeferin and fellow former stars Gigi Buffon, Alessandro Del Piero, Luis Figo, Zlatan Ibrahimović and others in the clip.

“Now the fans are getting more competitive games, so that every match, every goal, every point matters,” Ibrahimović said. “They’re about to see that the best club competition in the world just got better.”

The tournament’s league stage begins Sept. 17 and concludes in January, with the knockout rounds set to follow later in 2025.

Here are the three quick takeaways following Thursday’s draw.

Final rematches galore …

The first round features repeats of five of the last seven Champions League finals, including each of the last three. Defending champ a record 15-time European titlist, Real Madrid, will face Borussia Dortmund at home and Liverpool in England in perhaps the marquee match of the league phase. Real Madrid will also host the continent’s second most successful club in seven-time winner AC Milan.

Bayern Munich, host of the 2025 title game on May 31, will welcome Paris Saint-Germain and face Barcelona away. Meanwhile, Manchester City drew Inter Milan, which it beat in the 2023 final to win the competition for the first time, at home. Pep Guardiola’s side also got PSG and Juventus, both on the road.

… and lots of other high-profile games, too  

PSG lost Kylian Mbappé to Madrid over the summer, but they still boast one of the deepest rosters in all of club soccer. Even sans Mbappé, the Parisians are determined to hoist the Champions League trophy for the first time. But their path toward glory is littered with obstacles coming out of the draw, which saw Luis Enrigue’s team scheduled against a murderer’s row of all-world opponents. In addition to Bayern and Man City, PSG will also play Atlético Madrid and PSV Eindhoven (both at home) and Arsenal (in London). PSG rounds out its slate versus Austria’s FC Salzburg, Spain’s Girona and German side Stuttgart.

Liverpool will welcome Bundesliga champ Bayer Leverkusen to Anfield in a homecoming for Leverkusen manager Xabi Alonso. Alonso famously helped the Reds win the 2005 Champions League title over AC Milan — another foe Liverpool was paired with on Thursday. And Barcelona is well-positioned to return to the knockout stage despite tricky contests against fellow former champs Bayern, Dortmund and Portuguese titans Benfica.

A mixed bag for the 11 Americans

Five U.S. men’s national team players could feature in one first round match, when Tim Weah and Weston McKennie’s Juventus cross paths with Richie Ledezma, Ricardo Pepi and Malik Tillman of PSV. It could’ve been six, but PSV’s Sergino Dest is expected to be sidelined until late January with the ACL injury he suffered last spring. Juve will also travel to Aston Villa, which McKennie rejected a transfer two earlier this summer. That adds some extra intrigue, especially with that game in Birmingham.

AC Milan duo Christian Pulisic and Yunus Musah will make trips to Leverkusen and Real Madrid and also take on Liverpool at the San Siro.

Three other Americans are also participating in the Champions League this season: Folarin Balogun will make his tourney debut for Monaco, which visits his former club Arsenal and also plays Villa and Bologna.

Finally, Cameron Carter-Vickers’ Celtic also drew Villa, a match already being dubbed the “Battle of Britain,” and Gio Reyna’s Dortmund. The full match schedule will be announced on Saturday.

Doug McIntyre is a soccer reporter for FOX Sports. He was a staff writer with ESPN and Yahoo Sports before joining FOX Sports in 2021, and he has covered United States men’s and women’s national teams at FIFA World Cups on five continents. Follow him @ByDougMcIntyre.

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