MONACO (AP) — Paris Saint-Germain was handed a tough start to the defense of its Champions League title when the draw was made Thursday with no opponent from any of the lower-ranked nations.
PSG was drawn against Bayern Munich and Barcelona from the pot of top-ranked teams, while Tottenham came from the pot of third-seeded teams in a repeat of their tight Super Cup game two weeks ago. And the French champion was paired with arguably the two toughest opponents from the lowest-ranked teams: Newcastle and Athletic Bilbao.
Bayer Leverkusen, Atalanta and Portuguese champion Sporting Lisbon complete the title holder's slate of eight games in the 36-team league phase.
“It’s always difficult," said PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaïfi, whose team stumbled to 15th place in the single-standings league last season before surging to its first Champions League title. "We forgot last season, we think about this season.”
Madrid and Liverpool again
Real Madrid also got a challenging draw, including a long-haul trip to play Kairat Almaty of Kazakhstan — 6,420 kilometers (4,000 miles) from the Spanish capital, which is the furthest east the Champions League has ever gone.
Record 15-time champion Madrid got two English opponents from the pot of highest-ranked teams. Madrid will host Manchester City, which it beat in the knockout playoffs last season, and 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.
Liverpool fans will welcome Trent Alexander-Arnold back to Anfield with Madrid which he joined in June, and have away trips to the vibrant stadiums of Inter Milan, Eintracht Frankfurt, Marseille and Galatasaray.
“That is, I am sure, a fixture that the whole world will be looking at,” Liverpool coach Arne Slot said about another Madrid challenge.
Rematches and reunions
Bayern Munich will have rematches of two recent finals — at home to 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 favorite 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.
Kairat also will host Club Brugge, Olympiakos and Pafos. The team also must travel four time zones west to play at Arsenal and Sporting Lisbon.
Bodo/Glimt also will host Juventus, Tottenham and Monaco
Qarabag in Azerbaijan is another long-haul trip east to Baku for Chelsea, Eintracht, Ajax and Copenhagen.
League format
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.
Four newcomers to the main stage of the Champions League are: Bodo/Glimt, Kairat Almaty, Russian-owned Pafos and Belgian champion Union Saint-Gilloise.
Games in Bodo and Almaty shape to be the longest-ever trips for visiting teams, and their home games in January among the coldest in competition history. Bodo plays on a heated artificial turf field.
The computerized draw gave each team two opponents drawn from each of the four seeding pots. Teams are seeded based on their ranking over five seasons of results in UEFA competitions.
Retired great Zlatan Ibrahimovic former Ballon d’Or winner Kaka picked each team out of its draw pot and pushed a button to reveal the slate of opponents.
Games start on Sept. 16 and the final league phase matchday is Jan. 28. On that Wednesday evening, all 36 teams play in 18 games kicking off at the same time.
The top eight teams in the final standings advance to the round of 16 in March. Joining them will be winners of eight knockout playoffs, featuring teams ranked ninth to 24th, scheduled in February. The bottom 12 teams are eliminated.
Prize money
UEFA has allocated 2.47 billion euros ($2.88 billion) in prize money for the 36 teams.
The lowest-ranked team, Kairat, is guaranteed at least 20 million euros ($23 million) from UEFA. High-ranked teams Real Madrid and PSG will get at least 60 million euros ($69 million). Teams earn more for each win and draw, then for advancing through the knockout rounds.
The title winner should receive about 150 million euros ($175 million) in prize money.
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Graham Dunbar, The Associated Press
