Champions League Showdowns

Champions League holders Paris Saint-Germain will play Bayern Munich and Barcelona in this season’s league phase and record 15-times winners Real Madrid will face Manchester City and Liverpool.

Real Madrid also got a challenging draw, including a trip far east to play Kairat Almaty of Kazakhstan – 6,420 kilometres (4,000 miles) from the Spanish capital.

Madrid got two English opponents from the pot of highest-ranked teams, hosting Manchester City, which it beat in the knockout playoffs last season, and a return to Liverpool after losing 2-0 at Anfield in the league phase last year.

Madrid also will face Juventus in a repeat of its 2017 final win, and two French opponents, Marseille and Monaco – where superstar forward Kylian Mbappe started his career.

Bayern Munich will have rematches of two recent finals – at home to FIFA Club World Cup winners Chelsea where the German champion lost the 2012 title game on home turf, and away to PSG, which it beat in the 2020 final. Bayern also will go to Cyprus to face Pafos.

Manchester City will travel north of the Arctic Circle to face Bodo/Glimt of Norway, and host former fan favourite Kevin De Bruyne with his new club Napoli.

Inter Milan, which lost two of the last three finals, will host the top two teams in the Premier League last season, Liverpool and Arsenal. Inter beat Arsenal at the San Siro last season.

This is the second season of the league phase format with 36 teams playing eight different opponents on a weighted schedule through January, and ranked in a single-standings table.

Source: Al Jazeera and news agencies