After the 2024/25 Champions League draw ended, difficult situations appeared for teams like Liverpool or PSG.
UEFA conducted the Champions League draw in a new format. Starting from the 2024/25 season, 36 clubs will participate in a new round (called the League phase, formerly the group stage) of the Champions League, giving 4 more teams the opportunity to participate in Europe’s top club tournament.
With the new format, teams will play 8 matches (4 home, 4 away) against 8 different teams, instead of 2 matches against 3 teams as before. The new format will provide fans with more balanced and competitive matches at all levels throughout this period.
To determine the eight opponents, the teams are divided into four pots based on their club coefficients at the start of the season (the only exception being the reigning Champions League winners, who always top pot 1). Each team is then drawn against two opponents in each pot – one home and one away.
The 36 teams are drawn manually using physical balls. For each manually drawn team, special software randomly draws 8 opponents into 4 brackets, which are displayed on screens in the draw room and on television. The software also decides which matches will be played at home and away.
The draw will start from the first pot, assigning 8 opponents to all 9 teams (one team at a time) and continue with the remaining pots in descending order until all teams know their 8 opponents. The software will ensure complete randomness within the framework of the predetermined drawing conditions.
Although the draw has been made, the fixtures have yet to be confirmed. UEFA will announce the fixtures on Saturday, with matches set to begin the week of September 16.
After 8 rounds of matches, the final Champions League 2024/25 rankings are determined. The top 8 teams will qualify directly for the round of 16 (round of 16) and become the seeded groups.
And the draw has been quite an interesting one. There have been some very exciting matches, especially involving some of England’s top teams.
Man City face an intriguing clash with PSG, as well as a trip to Juventus, while Liverpool face Xabi Alonso’s Bayern Leverkusen.
The teams ranked 9th to 16th will be paired with the teams ranked 17th to 24th, they will play a play-off round with 2 home and away matches, the 8 winners will qualify for the Champions League round of 16. The teams ranked 25th to 36th will be eliminated from the tournament and will not play in the Europa League as before.
From the round of 16, the competition format is the same as before. Teams will be drawn into pairs and play two home and away matches. The final will be played at a neutral venue chosen by UEFA in advance. The final will be played on Saturday, while the remaining matches will be played in the middle of the week.