More giant clashes in the Champions League – Haaland meets PSG
Manchester City were drawn as the first team in the Champions League draw in Monaco. Erling Braut Haaland’s side will face Paris Saint-Germain away from home, among others.
For the first time, the Champions League will be played as a league, rather than a group stage, so each team will face eight different opponents. The 36 clubs are seeded across four tiers, and they will face two teams from each tier – one away and one at home.
All 36 teams end up in one league, rather than the familiar group stage with eight pools of four teams each. The teams finishing 1st to 8th in the league advance directly to the round of 16. The teams ranked 9th to 24th end up in a play-off for eight places in the round of 16, where the teams ranked 9th to 16th meet the teams ranked 17th to 24th. The teams ranked 25th to 36th are eliminated from the tournament and also do not get a place in the Europa League.
In Thursday’s draw, the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) also introduced a new “supercomputer” that does the drawing. It’s not the end of the classic bowls and marbles game, but the computer calculates who each team will face according to instructions from the person drawing the teams.
Norwegian Duel
City have Inter (h), PSG (b), Bruges (h), Juventus (b), Feyenoord (h), Sporting (b), Sparta Prague (h) and Slovan Bratislava (b). That means Haaland could face Hugo Vetlesen (Bruges) and Markus Solbakken (Sparta Prague) in the league phase, among others.
Defending champions Real Madrid are naturally also in the top seeded tier. The Spanish powerhouse will face Borussia Dortmund (h), Liverpool (b), Milan (h), Atalanta (b), Salzburg (h), Lille (b), Stuttgart (h) and Brest (b).
Martin Ødegaard and Arsenal await PSG (h), Inter (b), Shakhtar Donetsk (h), Atalanta (b), Dinamo Zagreb (h), Sporting (b), Monaco (h) and Girona (b).
Bodø/Glimt were eliminated by a narrow margin by Røde Stjerne in the final qualifying round. The Serbian team will face Barcelona and Inter, among others.
More big games
Other items include Liverpool’s away games against Antonio Nusa and RB Leipzig, Barcelona – Bayern Munich and Liverpool – Real Madrid.
UEFA said the schedule, along with the dates and times of the matches, would be announced on Saturday.
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