“Football and our lives are managed by memories,” Cristiano Ronaldo said at the Champions league draw in Monaco. The UEFA would hope that the new format of the league would produce plenty of those as after months of buildup, UCL dived headfirst into unchartered territory as the familiar group stage of the tournament was relegated to the pages of the past and replaced with a swanky league model consisting of 36 teams.
With a computer deciding the draw, replacing the earlier tradition of the names of the teams being picked from glass bowls manually, the Champions League went all digital for the new season.
And as promised by UEFA, the new format did throw up some mouthwatering clashes from the get go with huge names like Real Madrid taking on Liverpool, Manchester City facing off against Juventus and Bayern Munich locking horns with Barcelona.
🚨🏆 Champions League complete draw. pic.twitter.com/PdifbQf71T
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) August 29, 2024
Defending champions Real Madrid will take on Liverpool, Borussia Dortmund and AC Milan while Manchester City will be playing big names like Inter Milan, Paris Saint Germain and Juventus. Bayern Munich, meanwhile, will face PSG and Barcelona while PSG will also take on Arsenal. Dortmund, last season’s finalists have both Real and Barca to contend with while Liverpool will have to face Bayer Leverkusen as well as AC Milan in addition to the clash with Real Madrid. Arsenal, meanwhile, have to take on PSG and Inter Milan.
Who among the big teams has the easier draw?
Among the traditional big teams, Juventus will be happy with the way that the draw turned out with the Italian powerhouse having just Manchester City at home to worry about. Their other fixtures are with RB Leipzig (A), Benfica (H), Club Brugge (A), PSV (H), Lille (A), Stuttgart (H) and Aston Villa (A).
Who among the big teams has the toughest draw?
Paris Saint Germain just can’t seem to catch a break here as after their superstar Kylian Mbappe got transferred to Real Madrid, the draw wasn’t in their favour as well with the Parisians having to take on Manchester City and Atletico Madrid at home and then face off with Bayern Munich and Arsenal away. Their remaining fixtures are PSV (H), Salzburg (A), Girona (H), Stuttgart (A).
Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen will also feel short-changed by the draw with Xabi Alonso’s Invincibles facing tough tasks against Inter and AC Milan at home while travelling to face Liverpool and Atletico Madrid.
A little bit of history
Quite a few teams in the initial phase of matches have storied history behind their encounters. As Barcelona gets set to welcome Bayern Munich at home, fans will instantly be reminded of that fateful clash in 2020 when the Bavarians obliterated a Barca side with the likes of Lionel Messi and Luiz Suarez 8-2, a day that is still looked on in infamy among the Catalan club faithful. It hasn’t helped that in the UCL, Barca have just 2 victories against the Germans with Bayern winning 10.
Another match which has a recent history in the Champions League is between Real Madrid and Liverpool with the defending champions being the source of numerous heartbreaks for the Reds in this competition. In the 2021/22 and 2017/18 finals, Madrid snatched away the Merseysideiders’ dreams of the trophy when they beat them 0-1 and 3-1 respectively. In the 2022/23 season, Real eliminated Liverpool from the Round of 16 with an aggregate score of 6-2 while in the 2020/21 quarters, the Spanish team again ousted the English giants 3-1 on aggregate. Real will also play Dortmund which will be a repeat of last year’s final.
Another clash with a little bit of history to it will be when Aston Villa play host to Bayern Munich, a team who they had beaten in 1982 to win the European Cup. That was before the competition was renamed the Champions League in 1992 and this will be the first time since the rebrand that Villa will be playing the tournament.
Potential banana-skin fixtures
This year, teams will be wary of Girona who after an inspired run last season finished third in the La Liga. In the UCL, they face off against Liverpool and Arsenal in home fixtures while taking on PSG and AC Milan away. Aston Villa are another team to look out for, having finished fourth in the Premier League over traditional giants like Manchester United and Chelsea. Even though the Unai Emery team have to face Bayern, Leipzig and Juventus, their in-form goalie Emiliano Martinez and striker Oliie Watkins might help them pull the so-called rabbit out of the hat.
