The draw for the league part of the UEFA Champions League was made in Monaco on Friday with PSG handed a tricky defence.
Printed On 28 Aug 2025
Champions League holders Paris Saint-Germain will play Bayern Munich and Barcelona on this season’s league part and report 15-times winners Actual Madrid will face Manchester Metropolis and Liverpool.
PSG’s best opponents, in concept, within the league part will probably be fixtures towards England’s Newcastle United and Spain’s Athletic Bilbao.
Tottenham, the Europa League champion, additionally will play PSG in a repeat of their Super Cup game two weeks in the past. PSG’s eight-game schedule is accomplished by Bayer Leverkusen, Atalanta and Sporting Lisbon.
Actual Madrid additionally acquired a difficult draw, together with a visit far east to play Kairat Almaty of Kazakhstan – 6,420 kilometres (4,000 miles) from the Spanish capital.
Madrid acquired two English opponents from the pot of highest-ranked groups, internet hosting Manchester Metropolis, which it beat within the knockout playoffs final season, and a return to Liverpool after losing 2-0 at Anfield within the league part final 12 months.
Madrid additionally will face Juventus in a repeat of its 2017 ultimate win, and two French opponents, Marseille and Monaco – the place famous person ahead Kylian Mbappe began his profession.
Liverpool followers will welcome Trent Alexander-Arnold back to Anfield with Madrid, and have away journeys to the colourful stadiums of Inter Milan, Eintracht Frankfurt, Marseille and Galatasaray.
Bayern Munich could have rematches of two latest finals – at house to FIFA Club World Cup winners Chelsea the place the German champion misplaced the 2012 title recreation on house turf, and away to PSG, which it beat within the 2020 ultimate. Bayern additionally will go to Cyprus to face Pafos.
Manchester Metropolis will journey north of the Arctic Circle to face Bodo/Glimt of Norway, and host former fan favorite Kevin De Bruyne along with his new membership Napoli.
Inter Milan, which lost two of the last three finals, will host the highest two groups within the Premier League final season, Liverpool and Arsenal. Inter beat Arsenal on the San Siro final season.
Kairat additionally will host Membership Brugge, Olympiakos and Pafos. The staff additionally should journey 4 time zones west to play at Arsenal and Sporting Lisbon.
Bodo/Glimt additionally will host Juventus, Tottenham and Monaco.
Qarabag in Azerbaijan is one other long-haul journey east to Baku for Chelsea, Eintracht, Ajax and Copenhagen.
What would be the subsequent identify on the trophy? ✒️#UCLdraw pic.twitter.com/4b1CIsXsES
— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) August 28, 2025
That is the second season of the league part format with 36 teams playing eight different opponents on a weighted schedule by January, and ranked in a single-standings desk.
4 newcomers to the primary stage of the Champions League are: Bodo/Glimt, Kairat Almaty, Russian-owned Pafos and Belgian champion Union Saint-Gilloise.
Video games in Bodo and Almaty form to be the longest-ever journeys for visiting groups, and their house video games in January among the many coldest in competitors historical past. Bodo performs on a heated synthetic turf area.
The computerised draw gave every staff two opponents drawn from every of the 4 seeding pots. Groups are seeded based mostly on their rating over 5 seasons of ends in UEFA competitions.
Retired nice Zlatan Ibrahimovic picked every staff out of its draw pot and former Ballon d’Or winner Kaka pushed a button to disclose the slate of opponents.
Video games begin on September 16, and the ultimate league part matchday is January 28. On that Wednesday night, all 36 groups play in 18 video games kicking off on the similar time.
The highest eight groups within the ultimate standings advance to the spherical of 16 in March. Becoming a member of them will probably be winners of eight knockout playoffs, that includes groups ranked ninth to twenty fourth, scheduled in February. The underside 12 groups are eradicated.
