THE dates for this season’s Champion League fixtures have been confirmed – with a major change to scheduling also being announced.
Europe‘s elite club competition – which was won by Real Madrid last season – returns next month.
Premier League quartet Arsenal, Aston Villa, Liverpool and Manchester City learned their fates for this season’s instalment of the competition, the first outing of the new 36-team league format, this week.
But for the first time in the modern era, there’s been a major change to the scheduling of games.
Due to the increased number of teams in the tournament, games will now be played on Tuesday, Wednesday and THURSDAY nights.
And Arsenal will be the first English team to play Champions League footie on a Thursday night.
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The Gunners will kick off their campaign away to last season’s Europa League winners Atalanta on Thursday, September 19.
Aston Villa and Liverpool will both be in action on Tuesday, September 17, travelling to Switzerland and Italy respectively to take on Young Boys and AC Milan.
Premier League champions Manchester City, meanwhile, will welcome Inter Milan to the Etihad the following night.
As well as their match with Atalanta, the Gunners will also be on the road for their clashes with Inter, Girona and Sporting Lisbon.
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Mikel Arteta’s troops will welcome Shakhtar Donetsk, GNK Dinamo, Monaco and Paris Saint-Germain to the Emirates.
In addition to their trip to Young Boys, Villa will be on the road against RB Leipzig, Club Brugge and Monaco.
Bayern Munich, Juventus Bologna and Celtic will be the 1982 tournament winners’ opposition at Villa Park.
Liverpool’s proverbial ‘Group of Death’ will also see them travel to Spain, the Netherlands and Germany to take on Girona, PSV Eindhoven and RB Leipzig.
Arne Slot’s lot will welcome Real Madrid, Bayer Leverkusen, Lille and Bologna at Anfield.
Manchester City, meanwhile, face away days to Juventus, Sporting Lisbon, Slovan Bratislava and Paris Saint-Germain.
The 2022/23 winners will also host Club Brugge, Feyenoord and Sparta Prague at the Etihad.
New Champions League format
Each club will play eight matches in the opening phase – against seeded opposition, in a system designed to ensure that teams play opponents of similar difficulty.
The top eight teams in the “final” table will automatically go through to the last 16, where they will be joined by the eight play-off winners of ties between the sides placed ninth to 24th in the table.
Despite there being just eight matches in the opening phase, European matches will be spread over 10 midweek slots.
The new Champions League format also sees the implication of two additional qualifying spots.
They will be awarded to the nations that are top of the “country coefficient” chart each season.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
