New format UCL sees Real Madrid rematched against former finalists Dortmund and Liverpool in opening League phase

August 29 – UEFA ushered in a new era of club football with its all-new, expanded, rebranded and reformatted Champions League in Monaco tonight at a draw that will see champions Real Madrid face Dortmund in a repeat of last year’s final in the League phase.

Real Madrid will also face Liverpool who they beat 1-0 in the final in 2022. Liverpool were their second opponents drawn from the nine top ranked teams grouped in pot 1.

All the pre-draw preamble was about a historic night for the UEFA Champions League as the competition dropped its old format of eight groups of four qualifying the top two teams to the round of 16.

Instead UEFA has opted for a League format to qualify teams for the last 16. Clubs will play  eight different teams in the league phase, four at home and four away. The match-ups were generated via a computer algorithm with Italian goalkeeping legend Gianluigi Buffon drawing the balls for the clubs and Portugal’s goal machine Cristiano Ronaldo pressing the computer button to generate the fixtures.

Pedro Pinto, Aleksander Ceferin, UEFA President and Reshmin Chowdhury, open the UEFA Champions League 2024/25 Group Stage Draw at the Grimaldi Forum Monaco

Teams from the same country could not be drawn against each other in the league stage, and there were a maximum of two opponents from any other federation, as each team was drawn against two opponents from each of the four pots.

The result is a more competitive first stage format where every fixture will have a bearing on the final league position and the ranking for fixtures in the last 16.

Inevitably some teams look to have a harder opening round than others.

As well as Real Madrid, Liverpool have to face Germany’s RB Leipzig and 2023/24 sensations Bayer Leverkusen, add in AC Milan away from home and it doesn’t look like they have much margin for error.

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Source link : https://www.insideworldfootball.com/2024/08/29/new-format-ucl-sees-real-madrid-rematched-former-finalists-dortmund-liverpool-opening-league-phase/

Author : Paul Nicholson

Publish date : 2024-08-29 19:02:28

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