The Champions League group stage draw has set the stage for several high-profile matchups, with two-time defending champion Paris Saint-Germain scheduled to face both Barcelona and Manchester City. The draw, revealed on Thursday, includes 36 teams competing in the main phase of the tournament.
PSG will host Manchester City and make a trip to Barcelona. The French champion also faces Aston Villa, with whom they recently competed in a Super Cup match, and Champions League newcomer Como, coached by Cesc Fabregas. This marks an eight-game slate that is set to begin in two weeks.
Other notable fixtures include Real Madrid hosting Inter Milan and making two trips to London to play Arsenal and Shakhtar Donetsk. Shakhtar Donetsk will play its home games at Stamford Bridge, the former home of Real Madrid's coach José Mourinho during his successful spells with Chelsea.
Barcelona is set to host two English clubs, Manchester City and Europa League winner Aston Villa, as well as Como. Their schedule also includes a long trip to Azerbaijan to face debutant Sabah.
Arsenal, last year's beaten finalist, will host Real Madrid, Borussia Dortmund, and Sabah, while traveling to face Bayern Munich. Bayern Munich will also face Manchester United and two Norwegian teams, Bodø/Glimt and Viking. Bayern's home games will be played in Munich, while Atletico Madrid's Metropolitano Stadium, the venue for next May's final, will host Bayern.
Liverpool has been drawn against Inter Milan and Fenerbahce, with a trip to Atletico Madrid, against whom Liverpool secured a 3-2 victory at Anfield last September.
Atletico Madrid will also compete against the two Norwegian teams. Along with Dortmund, Lille, and newcomer LASK, Atletico will travel to play Bodø/Glimt, whose artificial turf stadium is located inside the Arctic Circle. One team is scheduled to play in Bodø/Glimt in January.
Sabah, the Azerbaijani champion, will host Dortmund, Napoli, and Slavia Prague. Fans traveling from Azerbaijan will face long journeys to England to see their team play Arsenal and Manchester United.
Como's schedule includes a second trip to Spain to play Real Betis in addition to Barcelona. They will also host PSG and Manchester United at their stadium.
Four teams are making their Champions League debut this season: Como from Italy, coached by Cesc Fabregas; LASK of Austria; Viking from Norway; and Azerbaijani champion Sabah, founded in 2017. Sabah's coach, Valdas Dambrauskas, gained attention for funding his coaching studies in England with prize money from a Lithuanian television quiz show.
Another new development this season is the presence of an African coach leading a team into the main phase. Yaya Touré, a former player for Manchester City and Barcelona, guided Slovakian champion Slovan Bratislava through its qualifying playoff. Slovan Bratislava will face PSG and Inter Milan.
UEFA's draw software assigned eight opponents to each team, resulting in four home and four away games. Teams were paired with two opponents from each of the four seeding pots, with seeding determined by European performance over the last five years. Teams from the same country could not be drawn against each other.
The first round of matches is scheduled for September 8-10, with the initial six rounds concluding in December. The league phase will resume in January, with the final round of matches on January 27.
The top eight teams in the final standings will automatically advance to the round of 16 in March. Teams ranked ninth through 24th will enter a knockout playoff round in February to determine the remaining eight spots in the round of 16. Teams finishing 25th to 36th will be eliminated.
The 36 participating teams will share approximately 2.5 billion euros ($2.9 billion) in prize money.