The newly restructured Champions League format begins today with the draw for the new league stage, which takes the place of the traditional group stage.
English teams Arsenal, Manchester City, Liverpool, and Aston Villa, who return after 41 years, are among the 36 clubs discovering their opponents for matches running through to the end of January.
This format is a significant change from the previous one, as each team will now face eight different opponents in single matches, with four games at home and four away. The aim is to climb the league standings, secure a top-eight finish, and earn a seeding for the knockout stage, thereby avoiding the two-legged play-off round.
The draw will be conducted by a computer, as there were concerns that manually selecting could have taken up to four hours, though this doesn’t guarantee a quick and straightforward event this evening.
