FILE - The trophy is placed on display for the photographers before the soccer Champions League draw in Istanbul, Turkey, Thursday, Aug. 26, 2021.
(AP Photo/Emrah Gurel, File) The Champions League has its 36-team field, its four seeding pots and, following Thursday's draw in Monaco, a complete set of league-phase opponents. This season's draw has produced several heavyweight meetings, including Arsenal hosting Real Madrid and travelling to Bayern Munich, Liverpool welcoming Atlético Madrid before heading to Inter Milan, and Manchester City being paired with defending champions Paris Saint-Germain and Barcelona.
Manchester United's return to Europe's elite also brings a blockbuster reunion with Bayern Munich at Old Trafford, while Aston Villa have been handed a particularly glamorous reward for winning the Europa League. With every team facing eight different opponents, here is how the new Champions League campaign has been put together.
How the Champions League league phase worksThe 36 clubs are divided into four pots according to their UEFA coefficient rankings and results in European competition over the previous five years. Each club is then drawn against two teams from each pot, giving every side eight league-phase matches in total.
The schedule is split evenly between home and away fixtures, so every club will play four matches at home and four away. Across the entire league phase, that produces 144 matches.
The format also determines what happens after those eight games. The top eight teams in the standings advance directly to the round of 16, while teams finishing from ninth through 24th enter the knockout-phase play-offs.
The remaining sides are eliminated. There are also important restrictions on the draw.
The five Premier League clubs cannot be drawn against one another during the league phase, while UEFA has introduced a further condition preventing the same fixture from being repeated with the same home team for three consecutive seasons. That means Liverpool cannot host Real Madrid again, while Inter Milan cannot host Arsenal again, after those fixtures were played with the same home teams in the previous two seasons.
Four pots packed with Europe’s biggest clubs for the 2026-27 Champions League season/ UEFAPot 1: The European heavyweightsThe first pot contains the defending champions and some of the biggest names in European football, giving the teams drawn from the lower pots the possibility of facing some formidable opposition. Paris Saint-GermainBayern MunichReal MadridLiverpoolInter MilanManchester CityArsenalBarcelonaAtlético MadridParis Saint-Germain enter as the two-time defending European champions, having beaten Arsenal in last season's final.
