Champions League league phase draw: PSG handed tough start, Real Madrid face Liverpool | Football News

The Champions League group phase draw concluded on Thursday (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

Paris Saint-Germain’s defense of their Champions League crown will begin with a demanding schedule after Thursday’s draw in Monaco placed them alongside Bayern Munich and Barcelona. The French champions, who lifted the trophy for the first time last season, will also face Tottenham, Bayer Leverkusen, Atalanta and Sporting Lisbon, while their relatively ‘easier’ fixtures on paper come against Newcastle United and Athletic Bilbao. Tottenham, who qualified as Europa League winners, will meet PSG again in a repeat of their Super Cup clash earlier this month. Record 15-time champions Real Madrid were also handed a challenging path. Their draw includes a trip of more than 6,000 kilometers to Kazakhstan to play Kairat Almaty, as well as reunions with English heavyweights Liverpool and Manchester City. Madrid will also face Juventus in a repeat of the 2017 final, alongside two French clubs, Marseille and Monaco.PSG matches

Barcelona matches

Real Madrid matches

Manchester City matches

Bayern Munich

Liverpool

Liverpool’s schedule includes home games against Madrid and Arsenal, plus away trips to Inter Milan, Eintracht Frankfurt, Marseille and Galatasaray. Bayern Munich, meanwhile, will relive two recent finals: at home against Chelsea, recalling the 2012 defeat in Munich, and away to PSG, whom they beat in the 2020 final. Bayern will also travel to Cyprus to take on debutants Pafos. Manchester City’s fixtures include an Arctic Circle trip to Norway to face Bodo/Glimt, while also hosting Napoli and their former star Kevin De Bruyne, who joined the Italian champions in the summer. Inter Milan, runners-up in two of the last three finals, are set for blockbuster home ties with Liverpool and Arsenal at the San Siro. Elsewhere, Qarabağ of Azerbaijan welcome Chelsea, Eintracht Frankfurt, Ajax and Copenhagen to Baku. Bodo/Glimt will host Juventus, Tottenham and Monaco, while Kairat face journeys both east and west, including away matches at Arsenal and Sporting Lisbon. This season marks the second edition of the revamped 36-team league phase. Each team plays eight matches against eight different opponents, with fixtures split evenly between home and away. The top eight finishers will qualify directly for the round of 16, while teams placed between ninth and 24th will contest play-offs in February for the remaining spots. The bottom 12 teams are eliminated. Games begin on September 16 and conclude with a full slate of 18 simultaneous fixtures on January 28. The knockout rounds begin in March, leading to the final at Budapest’s Puskas Arena on May 30.

Former stars Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Kaka conducted Thursday’s draw, selecting the balls and revealing the slate of opponents. With marquee clashes set across Europe and beyond, this season’s Champions League promises a mix of tradition, long-haul journeys, and historic firsts for newcomers Bodo/Glimt, Kairat Almaty, Union Saint-Gilloise and Pafos.