For the primary time, six groups are within the pots for the draw happening this week. Right here is the whole lot it’s essential to know:
When is the Champions League draw?
The draw for the second season of the competitors’s 36-team single league format takes place on Aug 28 at 5pm BST in Monaco.
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What’s the “Swiss mannequin”?
The Swiss mannequin was launched final season with a boast from Uefa that it might assure extra significant video games and much fewer dead-rubber fixtures. As a substitute of teams, there’s now only one league previous to the latter levels. Fixtures are determined by groups being cut up into 4 pots of 9 positioned in particular pots based mostly on their very own Uefa coefficient.
No crew is ready to face a crew from its personal nation till the knockout levels, and may play a most of two matches in opposition to groups from the identical nation.
How does it work?
The draw is made up of 27 groups that certified through league positions, the winners of final season’s Champions League and Europa League, and the seven groups that progressed out of qualifying.
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The 36 collaborating groups will likely be cut up into 4 pots based mostly on their particular person coefficient rating, with PSG, as title-holders, the automated high seed in Pot 1. One bodily ball will likely be drawn earlier than the automated software program – already in use final 12 months – attracts eight opponents for them.
watch on TV and streaming ?
The draw will likely be broadcast by Uefa and TNT Sports activities 1 who will each provide free dwell streaming on their respective web sites and YouTube channels.
Which UK groups are in for 2025/26?
No Scottish crew made it by means of qualifying however there will likely be a bumper six English groups this 12 months, due to Tottenham Hostpur’s Europa League triumph and the Premier League’s beneficial coefficient rating. Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester Metropolis and Newcastle United are the opposite English sides within the draw.
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When are the fixtures?
The primary matchweek takes place between Sept 16 and 18, and league fixtures proceed each two or three weeks till January 28.
The highest eight groups within the 36-strong league go straight by means of to the Spherical of 16 whereas the groups ending in locations 9 to 16 play these ending from seventeenth to twenty fourth in a two-leg knockout spherical on Feb 17/18 and 24/25 to undergo to the final 16. The underside 12 groups are eradicated on the finish of the league part.
The R16 is held on March 10/11 and 17/18, the quarter-finals on April 7/8 and 14/15 and the semi-finals onApril 28/29 and Might 5/6.
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Uefa will finalise and publish the league part fixture checklist with match dates and kick-off instances no later than Saturday, Aug 30.
When is the ultimate?
The Puskas Enviornment in Budapest, Hungary, which holds 67,000, hosts the ultimate on Might 30 2026. The stadium additionally hosted the Europa League ultimate in 2023, received by Sevilla, however this would be the first time that the ultimate of Europe’s premier membership competitors will likely be held in Hungary.
Uefa chosen the Puskas Enviornment in Budapest because the host venue for the 2023 Europa League ultimate – Getty Pictures/Bernadett Szabo
Who’s during which pot?
Pot 1: Paris St-Germain (holders), Actual Madrid, Manchester Metropolis, Liverpool, Bayern Munich, Inter Milan, Barcelona, Chelsea and Borussia Dortmund.
Pot 2: Arsenal, Bayer Leverkusen Atlético Madrid, Atalanta, Villarreal, Juventus, Eintracht Frankfurt, + two extra groups but to be determined.
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Pot 3: Tottenham (Europa League winners), PSV Eindhoven, Ajax, Napoli, Sporting CP, Olympiacos, Slavia Prague, Marseille and Bodo/Glimt.
Pot 4: Monaco, Galatasaray, Union Saint-Gilloise, Athletic Bilbao, Newcastle, Kairat, Pafos + two groups but to be determined.
Who’re favourites to win?
PSG are 5/1 to defend their title, adopted within the betting markets by Liverpool at 13/2, Barcelona at 7/1, Actual Madrid 13/2, Arsenal 8/1 and Manchester Metropolis on 9/1. As for the opposite three English golf equipment, Chelsea are rated 14/1 probabilities, Newcastle 18/1 and Tottenham 33/1.