“Soccer and our lives are managed by reminiscences,” Cristiano Ronaldo stated on the Champions league attract Monaco. The UEFA would hope that the brand new format of the league would produce loads of these as after months of buildup, UCL dived headfirst into unchartered territory because the acquainted group stage of the match was relegated to the pages of the previous and changed with a swanky league mannequin consisting of 36 groups.
With a pc deciding the draw, changing the sooner custom of the names of the groups being picked from glass bowls manually, the Champions League went all digital for the brand new season.
And as promised by UEFA, the brand new format did throw up some mouthwatering clashes from the get go together with large names like Actual Madrid taking over Liverpool, Manchester Metropolis dealing with off towards Juventus and Bayern Munich locking horns with Barcelona.
🚨🏆 Champions League full draw. pic.twitter.com/PdifbQf71T
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) August 29, 2024
Defending champions Actual Madrid will tackle Liverpool, Borussia Dortmund and AC Milan whereas Manchester Metropolis shall be taking part in huge names like Inter Milan, Paris Saint Germain and Juventus. Bayern Munich, in the meantime, will face PSG and Barcelona whereas PSG can even tackle Arsenal. Dortmund, final season’s finalists have each Actual and Barca to deal with whereas Liverpool should face Bayer Leverkusen in addition to AC Milan along with the conflict with Actual Madrid. Arsenal, in the meantime, must tackle PSG and Inter Milan.
Who among the many huge groups has the simpler draw?
Among the many conventional huge groups, Juventus shall be proud of the way in which that the draw turned out with the Italian powerhouse having simply Manchester Metropolis at residence to fret about. Their different fixtures are with RB Leipzig (A), Benfica (H), Membership Brugge (A), PSV (H), Lille (A), Stuttgart (H) and Aston Villa (A).
Who among the many huge groups has the hardest draw?
Paris Saint Germain simply can’t appear to catch a break right here as after their famous person Kylian Mbappe bought transferred to Actual Madrid, the draw wasn’t of their favour as nicely with the Parisians having to tackle Manchester Metropolis and Atletico Madrid at residence after which face off with Bayern Munich and Arsenal away. Their remaining fixtures are PSV (H), Salzburg (A), Girona (H), Stuttgart (A).
Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen can even really feel short-changed by the draw with Xabi Alonso’s Invincibles dealing with powerful duties towards Inter and AC Milan at residence whereas travelling to face Liverpool and Atletico Madrid.
A bit of little bit of historical past
Fairly a number of groups within the preliminary part of matches have storied historical past behind their encounters. As Barcelona will get set to welcome Bayern Munich at residence, followers will immediately be reminded of that fateful conflict in 2020 when the Bavarians obliterated a Barca aspect with the likes of Lionel Messi and Luiz Suarez 8-2, a day that’s nonetheless seemed on in infamy among the many Catalan membership devoted. It hasn’t helped that within the UCL, Barca have simply 2 victories towards the Germans with Bayern profitable 10.
One other match which has a latest historical past within the Champions League is between Actual Madrid and Liverpool with the defending champions being the supply of quite a few heartbreaks for the Reds on this competitors. Within the 2021/22 and 2017/18 finals, Madrid snatched away the Merseysideiders’ desires of the trophy once they beat them 0-1 and 3-1 respectively. Within the 2022/23 season, Actual eradicated Liverpool from the Spherical of 16 with an mixture rating of 6-2 whereas within the 2020/21 quarters, the Spanish workforce once more ousted the English giants 3-1 on mixture. Actual can even play Dortmund which shall be a repeat of final 12 months’s ultimate.
One other conflict with a bit little bit of historical past to will probably be when Aston Villa play host to Bayern Munich, a workforce who that they had overwhelmed in 1982 to win the European Cup. That was earlier than the competitors was renamed the Champions League in 1992 and this would be the first time for the reason that rebrand that Villa shall be taking part in the match.
Potential banana-skin fixtures
This 12 months, groups shall be cautious of Girona who after an impressed run final season completed third within the La Liga. Within the UCL, they face off towards Liverpool and Arsenal in residence fixtures whereas taking over PSG and AC Milan away. Aston Villa are one other workforce to look out for, having completed fourth within the Premier League over conventional giants like Manchester United and Chelsea. Regardless that the Unai Emery workforce must face Bayern, Leipzig and Juventus, their in-form goalie Emiliano Martinez and striker Oliie Watkins may assist them pull the so-called rabbit out of the hat.