Football News

The Catalans, like every other team, will have to face eight different opponents, with four home and four away games.

In this new edition of the Champions League, the traditional draw process for determining matchups, both in the group stage and knockout rounds, has been replaced. The new format introduces an automated system that combines a small manual element – extracting balls corresponding to each team – with a fully digital process. A software program will randomly determine the opponents each team will face.

Barça await UCL opponents

The 36 participants are divided into four pots, with nine teams per pot. Each team will face two opponents from its own pot, as well as two opponents from each of the other three pots. In total, each team will play eight matches against eight different opponents, with four home games and four away games. With this new format, it’s possible to face very strong teams right from the start, something that wasn’t typical in the previous format. The aforementioned software will also decide the order of the matches and the stadiums where they will be played.

As in previous years, teams from the same country cannot face each other in this initial phase, meaning Barcelona will avoid playing against Real Madrid, Atlético Madrid, and Girona. Potential opponents for Hansi Flick’s side from each pot are as follows:

Pot 1: Manchester City, Bayern Munich, PSG, Liverpool, Inter Milan, Borussia Dortmund, RB Leipzig.

Pot 2: Bayer Leverkusen, Atalanta, Juventus, Benfica, Arsenal, Club Brugge, Shakhtar Donetsk, AC Milan.

Pot 3: Feyenoord, Sporting CP, PSV, Dinamo Zagreb, Salzburg, Crvena Zvezda, Young Boys, Celtic.

Pot 4: Slovan Bratislava, Monaco, Sparta Prague, Aston Villa, Bologna, Stuttgart, Sturm Graz, Brest.

The process will begin with a ball from Pot 1 being physically drawn at random and opened in the familiar manner to display the name of the team drawn. Then it gets more automated.

Once we have the complete draw – which you’ll be able to follow live right here on AS USA – UEFA have confirmed that they will then determine which games will take place on which days, likely ensuring plenty of excitement throughout the league phase. The 2024/25 Champions League draw takes place in Monaco today at 12 p.m. ET / 9:00 a.m PT.