|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
The draw for the 2026-27 Champions League league phase was held in Monaco on Thursday, pairing two-time defending champions Paris Saint-Germain with Barcelona and Manchester City. Real Madrid will face Arsenal and Inter among their eight opponents. The competition begins on September 8 and concludes with the final at the Estadio Metropolitano in Madrid on June 5.
Monaco: Thirty-six clubs, eight matches each, and one table. For the third season, Europe’s premier competition has no groups at all.
The draw at the Grimaldi Forum handed every side two opponents from each of the four pots, four matches at home and four away, with clubs from the same national association kept apart. The top eight in the final table go straight to the round of 16. Those finishing between ninth and 24th enter two-legged play-offs. The bottom twelve are out.
PSG Get the Hardest Road
Paris Saint-Germain are chasing a third consecutive European Cup, which would make them only the fourth club to manage it and the first since Real Madrid in 2018.
The draw has not made it straightforward. PSG host Barcelona, Roma, Galatasaray and Slovan Bratislava, and travel to Manchester City, Aston Villa, Villarreal and Como. Two fixtures against fellow Pot 1 sides is as demanding a set as the seeding allows.
Madrid, Arsenal and Inter
Real Madrid, fifteen-time winners, drew Arsenal and Inter from the top pot.
Both were themselves in Pot 1, alongside PSG, Bayern Munich, Liverpool, Manchester City, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid — the nine clubs seeded highest on coefficient, none of whom could avoid two fixtures against one another.
Nights That Will Not Come Again
The draw’s most striking outcomes belong to the smallest clubs in it.
Sabah, of Azerbaijan, will host Arsenal and Manchester United in the league phase, and travel to Barcelona and Borussia Dortmund. Viking, of Norway, welcome Bayern Munich and PSV Eindhoven to Stavanger.
For clubs at that level, these are once-in-a-generation fixtures, and the grounds hosting them are unaccustomed to visitors of this size.
The Pots
Pot 1: Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Liverpool, Inter Milan, Manchester City, Arsenal, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid
Pot 2: Borussia Dortmund, Roma, Sporting, Aston Villa, Porto, Manchester United, Club Brugge, Real Betis, PSV Eindhoven
Pot 3: Feyenoord, Lille, Bodo/Glimt, Napoli, RB Leipzig, Villarreal, Fenerbahce, Shakhtar Donetsk, Galatasaray
Pot 4: Slavia Praha, Slovan Bratislava, Stuttgart, AEK Athens, LASK, Como, Lens, Viking, Sabah
When It All Happens
Matchday one runs from September 8 to 10. The second matchday follows on October 13 and 14, the third on October 20 and 21, and the eighth and final round is scheduled for January 27.
UEFA has confirmed the matchday dates but not the individual fixtures. The full schedule, with kick-off times for every match, is expected before Saturday.
The final will be played on June 5, 2027 at the Estadio Metropolitano in Madrid.
Champions League 2026-27 league phase
Format: 36 clubs, one table, eight matches each · top eight to round of 16 · ninth to 24th into play-offs · bottom twelve eliminated
Real Madrid: Inter (H), Arsenal (A), Roma (A)
Arsenal: Real Madrid (H), Dortmund (A), Bayern Munich (A)
Barcelona: Man City (H), PSG (A)
Bayern Munich: Arsenal (H), Atletico Madrid (A), Man United (A)
Liverpool: Atletico Madrid (H), Inter (A)
Man City: PSG (H), Napoli (H), Barcelona (A)
Man United: Bayern Munich (H), Roma (H), Atletico Madrid (A)
Matchday 1: September 8-10, 2026
Matchday 8: January 27, 2027
Final: June 5, 2027, Estadio Metropolitano, Madrid
