Champions League Draw... Fiery Matchups

Paris Saint-Germain, the winners of last season’s UEFA Champions League, will face Barcelona and Manchester City in the league phase this season, while Real Madrid will take on Inter Milan and Arsenal, following a draw on Thursday in Monaco that produced exciting matchups.

Real Madrid, the competition’s record 15-time champions, will begin their Champions League campaign by hosting Inter Milan before traveling to face Arsenal. They will also play against PSV Eindhoven, Baku’s Neftçi, Red Bull Leipzig, Shakhtar Donetsk, LASK, and AEK Athens.

José Mourinho, who returned to manage Real Madrid for a second spell in June, previously led Inter Milan to Champions League glory in 2010 before his move to the Santiago Bernabéu.

This season marks the third under the new Champions League format, which now features 36 teams in a single large league table. Each team plays eight different opponents, with four home and four away matches.

The top eight teams in the unified table qualify directly for the round of 16. Teams ranked between ninth and 24th enter a two-legged playoff round to determine the remaining knockout-stage participants, while the rest are eliminated.

Spain also has five clubs in the competition, including Real Betis, which returns to the Champions League after a 20-year absence.

The first matchday will take place between Tuesday, September 8, and Thursday, September 10.

The league phase concludes in late January, with the final scheduled for June 5, 2027, at the Metropolitano Stadium in Madrid, Spain.