UEFA Champions League 2024/25 Draw Highlights: New Format Explained
Image Source: myKhel
Real Madrid will once again face the championship matches of all three previous Champions League victories, against Borussia Dortmund and Liverpool, in its eight-game schedule under the current structure of the premier tournament in European football. Following its championship game win over Dortmund last season, Madrid has significantly strengthened its star-studded squad by bringing in France’s Kylian Mbappe. Madrid has a record 15 European titles, with other final victories over Liverpool in 2022 and 2018. The dates for Madrid’s games against Dortmund and Liverpool will not be fixed until Saturday.
Manchester City will also play a Champions League final rematch at Inter Milan, which it beat to win the European title in 2023. Defending champion Madrid’s other opponents include trips to Atalanta—the Europa League champion that Madrid defeated in the UEFA Super Cup last month—and again to France to face Lille and newcomer Brest. In those three home matches will be seven-time European champion AC Milan, Salzburg, and Stuttgart. Among the more manageable home slates is Manchester City’s match with Club Brugge, Feyenoord, and Sparta Prague, balancing out the squad against PSG and Juventus away from home. The English champion will also travel to Bratislava to face Slovan.
Bayern will play at Aston Villa, the surprising winner of its 1982 European Cup Final, and will host Barcelona, which it routed 8-2 in the quarter-finals of the 2020 championship run. One of the big matchups in the expanded league pits Liverpool against Bayer Leverkusen, the German champion club managed by its former star midfielder Xabi Alonso. Leverkusen will travel away to take on Atletico Madrid while hosting city rivals Inter Milan and AC Milan. The new draw style, held at a concert hall with views over the sea in Monaco, featured star guests of honor, including football legends Gianluigi Buffon and Cristiano Ronaldo.
After Buffon had drawn every team’s ball from one of four bowls—seeded based on results in the previous five years of European club competitions—Ronaldo dramatically pressed a button to reveal how a computer program randomly selected two opponents from each of the four seeding pots. This is how UEFA, under pressure from powerful clubs desiring more predictable matchups and a greater variety of famous opponents, came up with the new structure.
In the new format starting with the 2024–2025 Champions League season, the competition now features 36 teams. The teams are divided into four pots of nine teams each. Teams will play four home games and four away games because they have been drawn into groups with eight teams, one from each pot. The eight best-placed teams after the 36-team league phase will automatically qualify for the knockout stage. The next 16 teams from the league standings will be paired against each other in two-leg playoff matches, with the winners proceeding to the round of sixteen. Teams from the ninth to sixteenth positions will be seeded, giving them the advantage of playing at home during the second leg of the encounter. There will also be nation protection in the league stage, but from the round of 16 onward, country protection will no longer apply. This means that where you finish in the table is important; the higher you are, the more favorable your knockout route will be, at least on paper. From the last 16 stage onward, the traditional format will apply in the competition.
UEFA will distribute a minimum of 2.5 billion euros ($2.8 billion) in prize money among the 36 teams, which is a 25 percent increase compared to the previous campaign.
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- Namrata Boruah, currently based in New Delhi, is an aspiring journalist with a keen interest in uncovering inside news and presenting the facts to the public. She is determined to build a career in journalism, driven by a passion for truth and transparency.
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