Manchester City will try to win their second Champions League title. Pep Guardiola’s team last won the European title in 2023.
UEFA has announced a new draw system for the Champions League. The new league phase, which used to be called the group stage, will have 36 teams.
Teams will play eight games against eight different teams in the new format. This is different from the old model, where teams played three teams twice. Seeding in four pots, which is based on each club’s rating at the beginning of the season, will decide which eight teams they play.
Manchester City will be in the first pot. Then, each team will play two opponents from the other pot. One game will be at home, and the other will be away.
Also, UEFA says that teams can only play two teams from the same country in the league phase and can’t play teams from the same country during the knockout stage.
The new draw, which is set for August 29, will feature 36 teams being drawn by hand with real balls. For every team that is chosen by hand, software will pick eight opponents at random from each of the four pots.
People in the draw hall and on TV will be able to see these choices on screens. The software will also choose which games will be played at home and which will be played away.
The draw will start with Pot one, which will give each of the nine teams eight opponents one after the other. The process will keep going with the pots that are still left, going down in value, until each team has its eight opponents.
UEFA says that the software will make sure that the draw is completely random and follows the rules for how it should be done. It will also make sure that the draw can be finished for all teams without any problems.
There will be a finalized schedule list with match dates and times on Saturday, August 31. The teams will already know who their opponents are by the end of the draw. This is done so that teams from the UEFA Europa League and the UEFA Conference League don’t have to play in the same places at the same time.
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