The draw for this season’s Champions League league phase has handed us matches against Inter Milan, Paris Saint-Germain, Atalanta, Shakhtar Donetsk, Dinamo Zagreb, Sporting Lisbon, Monaco and Girona.
The new 36-team format of the competition means we will no longer play all these opponents home and away, and so we’ll be hosting PSG, Shakhtar, Zagreb and Monaco at Emirates Stadium, while trips to Milan, Atalanta, Lisbon and Girona will be in our near future.
The exact order of matches, dates and kick-off times will be announced on Saturday.
What we do know is that the competition will begin in September and run until January 2025, with the following matchweeks:
Matchday 1: September 17–19, 2024
Matchday 2: October 1/2, 2024
Matchday 3: October 22/23, 2024
Matchday 4: November 5/6, 2024
Matchday 5: November 26/27, 2024
Matchday 6: December 10/11, 2024
Matchday 7: January 21/22, 2025
Matchday 8: January 29 2025
How the new format works
Following the expansion of the competition to 36 teams, instead of a traditional group stage, all teams will instead compete against each other in a single table. Clubs will play eight matches against eight different teams, split evenly between home and away games.
The top eight sides in the league will qualify automatically for the round of 16, while those that finish 25th or lower will be eliminated from all European competition.
The teams finishing in 9th to 24th place will compete in a two-legged play-off to secure their path to the last 16 of the Champions League. Those who finish between 9th and 16th will be seeded, and face one of the teams who finished 17th to 24th, with the second leg at the seeded team’s ground.
The eight play-off winners will then face one of the seeded top-eight finishers in the round of 16, when the competition returns to its traditional two-legged knockout method, albeit with a set bracket, meaning clubs will be able to plot out their potential paths to the final.
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