Liverpool-Real Madrid, Barcelona-Bayern and City-Inter, duels in the ‘Champions’

Mónaco. The new Champions League format will debut with a first phase featuring duels between several of Europe’s most powerful clubs, with Liverpool-Real Madrid, Barcelona-Bayern and City-Inter as some of the tournament’s main duels.

The most prestigious club tournament is launching a new competition system, with 36 participating teams (four more than under the old format) and in which each of them will play against eight rivals, according to the draw made this Thursday in Monaco.

The 36 clubs will fight to be as high as possible in a unified ranking table and be able to qualify for the round of 16, according to the so-called ‘Swiss system’, often used in chess tournaments.

Replay of the last final

Thus, Real Madrid, current champion of the Championswill play at the Santiago Bernabéu against Borussia Dortmund (in a repeat of the last final at Wembley), Milan, Salzburg and Stuttgart and will face Liverpool, Atalanta, Lille and Brest away from home.

Another of the big favourites for the title, Manchester City, will host Inter, Club Brugge, Feyenoord and Sparta Prague and will visit Paris SG, Juventus, Sporting de Portugal and Slovan Bratislava.

The other giant of Spanish football, FC Barcelona, ​​will play at home against Bayern Munich, Atalanta, Young Boys and Brest and away against Dortmund, Benfica, Red Star and Monaco.

In a draw that is fairly favourable to Spanish teams, Atlético will play in Madrid against Leipzig, Bayer Leverkusen, Lille and Slovan and will visit PSG, Benfica, Salzburg and Sparta Prague.

The team with the least luck was Girona, which in its first participation in the top European club competition, will have several prestigious rivals: Liverpool, Arsenal, Feyenoord and Slovan Bratislava will visit Montilivi, while the Catalan team will play away against PSG, Milan, PSV and Sturm Graz.

Other European football giants have had mixed luck: Bayern will only have PSG and Barça as main rivals (the others are Benfica, Shakhtar, Dinamo Zagreb, Feyenoord, Slovan Bratislava and Aston Villa), the French champion will have a much more difficult time, playing against Manchester City, Bayern, Atlético, Arsenal, PSV, Salzburg, Girona and Stuttgart.

Reaction to the threat of the Super League

The new format was conceived at a time when the shadow of an independent Super League loomed over European football.

With the first phase extended from six to eight rounds, two dates will be played in January, when under the previous format it ended in December.

The number of matches has increased from 96 in the old group stage to 144 in the new one.

The eight teams with the highest points from the 36 participating clubs will secure their ticket to the round of 16, after which the format of the competition will remain the same as before.

But there will be a round of play-off in which the teams that finish between 9th and 24th place will have to face a double-match elimination round from which the other eight teams will advance to the round of 16.

The last 12 teams in the standings will be eliminated, with no chance of moving on to Europe’s second-largest competition, the Europa League, as was the case in the past.

UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin used the draw to present a trophy to Portuguese striker Cristiano Ronaldo, now at Al Nassr in Saudi Arabia, as the competition’s all-time top scorer.