August 29 – UEFA ushered in a new era of club football with its all-new, expanded, rebranded and reformatted Champions League in Monaco tonight at a draw that will see champions Real Madrid face Dortmund in a repeat of last year’s final in the League phase.
Real Madrid will also face Liverpool who they beat 1-0 in the final in 2022. Liverpool were their second opponents drawn from the nine top ranked teams grouped in pot 1.
All the pre-draw preamble was about a historic night for the UEFA Champions League as the competition dropped its old format of eight groups of four qualifying the top two teams to the round of 16.
Instead UEFA has opted for a League format to qualify teams for the last 16. Clubs will play eight different teams in the league phase, four at home and four away. The match-ups were generated via a computer algorithm with Italian goalkeeping legend Gianluigi Buffon drawing the balls for the clubs and Portugal’s goal machine Cristiano Ronaldo pressing the computer button to generate the fixtures.
Teams from the same country could not be drawn against each other in the league stage, and there were a maximum of two opponents from any other federation, as each team was drawn against two opponents from each of the four pots.
The result is a more competitive first stage format where every fixture will have a bearing on the final league position and the ranking for fixtures in the last 16.
Inevitably some teams look to have a harder opening round than others.
As well as Real Madrid, Liverpool have to face Germany’s RB Leipzig and 2023/24 sensations Bayer Leverkusen, add in AC Milan away from home and it doesn’t look like they have much margin for error.
Manchester City face Inter Milan at home but have away fixtures against PSG and Juventus.
Celtic look to have a more manageable workload and will fancy their chances of making the last 16 with their most notable opponents being Dortmund. They also face Aston Villa in an all-British affair.
In contrast Bayer Leverkusen will find few friendly faces with Inter and AC Milan at home, and away trips to Liverpool and Atletico Madrid.
As befits the ushering in of a new, bigger and better era, UEFA turned the draw into an event with UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin presenting the president’s award to Italy’s most capped goalkeeper (176) Buffon, as well as a special award to Cristiano Ronaldo.
They both stayed on to help with the draw and the banter. Ronaldo (five Champions League wins and 140 goals, including 17 in one season) looked like he felt at home. His record speaks for itself and his reception could not have been warmer.
Ceferin, who often cuts a surly demeanour, used it to full effect in a comical video sketch that had former legends struggling to understand the complicated draw mechanics before Zlatan Abramovich stepped in to dominate
It was a bit of much-needed light relief as everyone wrestled with the permutations of the computer algorithm.
The preamble is over, now the real show can begin. First matches kick off September 17, the calendar of ties will be announced this weekend.
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