UEFA Champions League draw as it happened - 36 clubs discover their league phase opponents

UEFA held the opening day of their ‘season kick-off event’ in Monaco on Thursday, with the headline event being the league phase draw for the UEFA Champions League. Liverpool, Manchester City, Arsenal, Chelsea, Newcastle and Tottenham Hotspur were among the 36 clubs in the draw to learn their opponents. You can watch the UEFA Champions League live on TNT Sports and discovery+.

18:30 – The big stories from the Champions League draw

Liverpool will host Real Madrid at Anfield in the Champions League league phase this season, meaning a return to Merseyside for Trent Alexander-Arnold just months after his departure from the club.

Chelsea play Barcelona in a fascinating match-up and face some tricky away trips to Bayern Munich, Atalanta, Napoli and Qarabag.

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Man City will make the long journey to face Bodo/Glimt, who have dauntingly good home record, and also face Real Madrid and Italian champions Napoli in a tricky list of opponents.

Arsenal will host debutant’s Kairat Almaty from Kazakhstan at the Emirates, and will also welcome Harry Kane back to Bayern Munich when they play Bayern at home.

Spurs face three intriguing rematches, with away trips to Super Cup opponents PSG, Europa League semi-finalists Bodo/Glimt, and UEL quarter-final opponents Frankfurt on the horizon.

And Newcastle play arguably the best two teams in Europe among their eight opponents, having drawn both PSG and Barcelona out of Pot 1.

Elsewhere, defending champions PSG have an extremely tough set of fixtures, while last year’s beaten finalists Inter Milan will play two Premier League opponents in Liverpool and Arsenal.

18:20 – The English clubs learn their opponents

The full fixture list for the league phase will be confirmed on Saturday, and all six Premier League clubs now know their eight opponents in the league phase of the UEFA Champions League.

Here are those match-ups:

Chelsea: Barcelona (home), Bayern Munich (away), Benfica (home), Atalanta (away), Ajax (home), Napoli (away), Pafos (home) and Qarabag (away).

Liverpool: Real Madrid (home), Inter Milan (away), Atletico Madrid (home), Eintracht Frankfurt (away), PSV Eindhoven (home), Marseille (away), Qarabag (home) and Galatasaray (away).

Manchester City: Borussia Dortmund (home), Real Madrid (away), Bayer Leverkusen (home), Villarreal (away), Napoli (home), Bodo/Glimt (away), Galatasaray (home) and Monaco (away).

Arsenal: Bayern Munich (home), Inter Milan (away), Atletico Madrid (home), Club Brugge (away), Olympiacos (home), Slavia Prague (away), Kairat Almaty (home) and Athletic Bilbao (away).

Tottenham: Borussia Dortmund (home), Paris St-Germain (away), Villarreal (home), Eintracht Frankfurt (away), Slavia Prague (home), Bodo/Glimt (away) Copenhagen (home) and Monaco (away).

Newcastle: Barcelona (home), Paris St-Germain (away), Benfica (home), Bayer Leverkusen (away), PSV Eindhoven (home), Marseille (away), Athletic Bilbao (home) and Union SG (away).

18:15 - Watch the Champions League live on TNT Sports

You can stream the UEFA Champions League, the Premier League, Men’s and Women’s FA Cup, UEFA Europa League, UEFA Conference League and more on TNT Sports and discovery+

The 2025/26 football season on TNT Sports is coming: This is Not Normal

Video credit: TNT Sports

The best ways to watch….

• Have TNT Sports via discovery+ Premium, EE, Sky or Virgin Media TV, with the best viewing experience you will be able to enjoy all of the action and build-up programming on TNT Sports 1 or TNT Sports Ultimate.  
• Have access to discovery+ basic account with EE TV, Sky, Prime Video, you can log in or, if you haven’t already, activate your discovery+ account to enjoy all three finals for no extra cost. Prime Video customers with a discovery+ Basic subscription will also be able to watch all three finals on the Prime Video app.
• Are new to TNT Sports and discovery+.  Viewers without discovery+ simply need to download the app on their mobile device, web or access via their TV, register their details online, kick back and enjoy the game for free. No subscription required. You can find out how to access the app and register here.
• Have Virgin Media TV, all customers in the UK can watch on channel 527

18:10 – And that’s a wrap

And with that the UEFA Champions League draw for the league phase is wrapped up and the show comes to an end. There will be another show on the stage in Monaco tomorrow at midday, when the draws for the Europa League and Conference League will be held simultaneously, and you can follow that right here on TNT Sports of course.

18:05 – Newcastle learn their full list of opponents

Newcastle’s list of opponents has slowly become clear as the draw has progressed, and their final set of eight is as follows:

Barcelona, PSG, Bayern Leverkusen, Benfica, Marsile, PSV, Athletic Club, Union SG.

18:00 – Pot 4 get their turn

We’re almost there. The fourth and final pot are name-checked, including three Champions League debutants and the final English club Newcastle United.

17:55 – Tottenham get their turn

Spurs discover the remainder of their opponents, having already been drawn to play away against defending champions PSG, the side who beat them in the Super Cup earlier this month.

Their list of eight fixtures includes another away trip to Bodo – a rematch after that Europa League semi-final last season.

These are Spurs’ opponents: Borussia Dortmund (home), Paris St-Germain (away), Villarreal (home), Eintracht Frankfurt (away), Slavia Prague (home), Bodo/Glimt (away) Copenhagen (home) and Monaco (away).

17:50 – Trent set for a return to Anfield

The eagle-eyed amongst you will have noticed that Liverpool were drawn against Real Madrid, with that game to take place at Anfield. That will mean an early return to Merseyside for Trent Alexander-Arnold. That’ll be spicy.

17:50 – We move on to Pot 3

We’re rattling through the draw now and Kaka has a short reminiscing session about his time with that legendary AC Milan side of the noughties before Pot 3’s clubs are revealed.

Europa League champions Tottenham Hotspur are among this group.

17:45 – Arsenal’s opponents revealed

We’re on to Pot 2 and Arsenal’s name soon comes out.

You'd imagine they will be pretty happy with their list of fixtures all told.

The Gunners will face Bayern Munich (home), Inter Milan (away), Atletico Madrid (away), Club Brugge (home), Olympiacos (away), Slavia Prague (home), Kairat Almaty (away) and Athletic Bilbao (home).

17:40 – Man City are the final Pot 1 team

The last team drawn out of Pot 1 are Manchester City, with the UEFA computer listing their opponents.

Those opponents are: Borussia Dortmund (home), Real Madrid (away), Bayer Leverkusen (home), Villarreal (away), Napoli (home), Bodo/Glimt (away), Galatasaray (home) and Monaco (away).

17:39 – Defending champions PSG get their turn

Paris Saint-Germain are the eighth club out of Pot 1, and their fixtures include matches against two English teams – Tottenham and Newcastle United.

PSG's opponents are: Bayern Munich (home), Barcelona (away), Atalanta (home), Bayer Leverkusen (away), Tottenham Hotspur (home), Sporting (away), Newcastle United (home) and Athletic Club (away).

17:37 – Liverpool come out of the pot

Zlatan shows the name Liverpool, and we already know they will play Real Madrid and Inter.

There remaining six opponents are selected by the automated computer: Real Madrid (home), Inter Milan (away), Atletico Madrid (home), Eintracht Frankfurt (away), PSV Eindhoven (home), Marseille (away), Qarabag (home) and Galatasaray (away).

17:34 – Real Madrid up next

The most successful club in European history are third up. Real Madrid will play two English clubs in Manchester City and Liverpool, and they also face a long away trip to Kairat Almaty – the easternmost club in the Champions League.

17:32 – Chelsea’s fixtures are second up

The first English club to be drawn are Chelsea, and we already know they will play Bayern Munich.

The automated computer lists their full set of eight fixtures: Barcelona (home), Bayern Munich (away), Benfica (home), Atalanta (away), Ajax (home), Napoli (away), Pafos (home) and Qarabag (away).

17:30 – Bayern Munich are the first team out

The first ball pulled out by Zlatan Ibrahimovic contains the name Bayern Munich.

They will play Chelsea, defending champions PSG and Arsenal in a fascinating list of fixtures.

17:30 – A key detail

The order of the opponents listed for each team isn’t the order in which the fixtures will come, and we won’t find out those details today. The full schedule will be published by UEFA on Saturday.

We do know when the matchdays will be though.

• Matchday 1: 16–18 September 2025
• Matchday 2: 30 September–1 October 2025
• Matchday 3: 21/22 October 2025
• Matchday 4: 4/5 November 2025
• Matchday 5: 25/26 November 2025
• Matchday 6: 9/10 December 2025
• Matchday 7: 20/21 January 2026
• Matchday 8: 28 January 2026

17:25 – A reminder of the pots

Each team will be drawn out of the pots, starting with pot 1, with automated software selecting opponents for each team.

Every club will play two games against opponents from each pot, with a home and away fixture. They cannot play teams from their own country, and a maximum of two clubs from any other single country.

Pot 1: Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid, Manchester City, Bayern Munich, Liverpool, Inter Milan, Chelsea, Borussia Dortmund, Barcelona.

Pot 2: Arsenal, Bayer Leverkusen, Atletico Madrid, Benfica, Atalanta, Villarreal, Juventus, Eintracht Frankfurt, Club Brugge.

Pot 3: Tottenham, PSV, Ajax, Napoli, Sporting, Olympiacos, Slavia Prague, Bodo/Glimt, Marseille

Pot 4: Copenhagen, Monaco, Galatasaray, Union Saint-Gilloise, Qarabag, Athletic Club, Newcastle, Pafos, Kairat.

17:20 – Introducing the UEFA President’s Award winner

Ah, so that explains the slightly bizarre video feature, Zlatan Ibrahimovic is the latest recipient of the UEFA President’s Award. He receives the trophy on stage in Monaco and gives a speech looking back at his successful career – one that saw him score more than 500 goals across club and international matches.

He picks out a favourite goal, scored past the winner of last year’s President’s Award, Gianluigi Buffon.

Zlatan will stick around to help with the award, and he’s going to get another legendary player on stage alongside him, with Kaka introduced to the crowd.

We’re almost there folks, the draw is incoming.

17:15 – Fabrizio Romano pops up… yep, that’s right

We’re into that stage of the show where the draw hasn’t started yet and we’re getting all sorts of video packages played on the big screens, including a joke feature lampooning Ibrahimovic for his role last year’s explainer video about the new league format. Zlatan features again, so does Fabrizio Romano, for some reason.

Essentially UEFA are seemingly trying to explain the structure of the competition in a way that isn’t overly dry.

If you’re so inclined, tune in to TNT Sports 1 to watch the entertainment. Otherwise the draw itself shouldn’t be far away.

17:10 – Chelsea’s historic achievement recognised

The first big announcement of the evening is the presentation of an award to Chelsea, for sweeping every single available UEFA’s men’s club competition thanks to their victory in the Conference League last season.

UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin heaps praise on Chelsea’s extraordinary achievement:

"It’s impossible almost to win all of our competitions. I don’t think it will happen again soon, maybe ever."

Jason Gannon, Chelsea COO, takes to the stage to receive the award and give a short speech.

Chelsea receive award for completing 'almost impossible' UEFA feat

Video credit: TNT Sports

17:05 – Here we go… THE CHAAAAMPIONS!

The show begins in Monaco with a full-length and live rendition of the UEFA Champions League anthem, complete with a live choir (the Nice Opera Choir to be precise) on the stage at the Grimaldi Forum and accompanied by clips of huge moments throughout the history of the competition. What an absolute belter of a tune, unreal.

Presenters Reshmin Chowdhury and Pedro Pinto take to the stage to begin the formalities.

17:00 - Watch the UEFA Champions League league phase draw on TNT Sports

The show is getting underway and you can watch the Champions League league phase draw LIVE on TNT Sports 1 and stream it on discovery+.

16:50 - Who is in which pot?

The four pots were confirmed last night after the conclusion of the qualifying phase, with three Champions League debutants – Pafos, Karat and Bodo/Glimt – among those to make it through.

Pot 1: Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid, Manchester City, Bayern Munich, Liverpool, Inter Milan, Chelsea, Borussia Dortmund, Barcelona.

Pot 2: Arsenal, Bayer Leverkusen, Atletico Madrid, Benfica, Atalanta, Villarreal, Juventus, Eintracht Frankfurt, Club Brugge.

Pot 3: Tottenham, PSV, Ajax, Napoli, Sporting, Olympiacos, Slavia Prague, Bodo/Glimt, Marseille

Pot 4: Copenhagen, Monaco, Galatasaray, Union Saint-Gilloise, Qarabag, Athletic Club, Newcastle, Pafos, Kairat.

The reason that Newcastle are ranked in Pot 4, below Tottenham, is not a judgement on the merit of their fifth-placed Premier League finish, but is based purely on the two clubs’ respective co-efficients.

All clubs are allocated pots based on that metric, with the exception of the defending champions, who automatically are placed in Pot 1.

16:40 - So, how exactly does the draw work?

Brace yourself, this could sound quite complicated, but it’s not as convoluted in reality.

The 36 teams have been split into four points of nine, with positions in those pots based on their UEFA club coefficients. The one exception is Paris Saint-Germain, who take the top spot in Pot 1 based on being the defending champions.

Starting with pot one, each team will be draw individually and allocated eight opponents for the league phase, with that selection occurring via automated software.

Those eight fixtures will see each team play a total of two clubs from each pot, with a home and away fixture per pot.

No team can draw an opponent from their own league.

And no team can draw more than two clubs from any other country. So, for example, were Arsenal to draw both Real Madrid and Barcelona from Pot 1, then they would not be allowed to face Atletico Madrid, Villarreal or Athletic Club in their remaining fixtures.

If you’re struggling to follow, then check out this video, which also maps out the slightly contrasting draw structure for the Conference League, which is coming up tomorrow:

16:30 – Your half-hour warning

The league phase draw for the Champions League is just half an hour away.

If you can, tune in to TNT Sports 1 and discovery+ to watch the ceremony live, or failing that, we’ll have the key information right here, just hit refresh at the top of the page.

16:20 - You can watch the Champions League live on TNT Sports

Remember that this competition will be live on TNT Sports and discovery+ throughout the season, starting with today’s draw, with the broadcast starting at 17:00 BST.

The best ways to watch….

• Have TNT Sports via discovery+ Premium, EE, Sky or Virgin Media TV, with the best viewing experience you will be able to enjoy all of the action and build-up programming on TNT Sports 1 or TNT Sports Ultimate.  
• Have access to discovery+ basic account with EE TV, Sky, Prime Video, you can log in or, if you haven’t already, activate your discovery+ account to enjoy all three finals for no extra cost. Prime Video customers with a discovery+ Basic subscription will also be able to watch all three finals on the Prime Video app.
• Are new to TNT Sports and discovery+.  Viewers without discovery+ simply need to download the app on their mobile device, web or access via their TV, register their details online, kick back and enjoy the game for free. No subscription required. You can find out how to access the app and register here.
• Have Virgin Media TV, all customers in the UK can watch on channel 527

16:10 - Where is the Champions League final this season?

The Puskás Aréna in Budapest, Hungary, will host the final of the 2025/26 Champions League on May 30. The ground has hosted a major European final before – the Europa League in 2023 – but this will be the first time that Hungary has hosted the final of the top men’s club competition.

Interestingly, UEFA have confirmed that the match itself will be played three hours earlier than is traditional, with kick-off at 18:00 local time, 17:00 UK time. UEFA say that this change is to "enhance the overall matchday experience".

16:00 - When are the UEFA Champions League knockout stages?

Time flies when you’re having fun, and before we know it, the league phase will be over, and we will be looking ahead to the knockout stages.

The knockout phase play-offs will return this year after their debut in last season’s competition, with the draw on January 30 and the first leg penciled in for February 17 and 18.

The second legs will get underway on February 24 and 25, with the winners progressing to the round of 16.

The draw for the knockout stage will be held on February 27, with the route mapped for each club, and the round of 16 will start on March 10 and 11, with the second legs kicking off on March 17 and 18.

The excitement won’t stop there, though. On April 7 and 8, the first legs of the quarter-finals will commence, with the second legs scheduled for April 14 and 15.

April 28 and 29 will then see the semi-finals start, with the second legs set for the following month on May 5 and 6.

The winners of those two mouth-watering matches will then meet in the Champions League final on May 30.

15:50 - When are the league phase matches?

We’ll find out the eight fixtures for each club later on, and then those will be split across eight matchdays, six this year and then the final two at the back-end of January.

These are the dates for your calendar:

• Matchday 1: 16–18 September 2025
• Matchday 2: 30 September–1 October 2025
• Matchday 3: 21/22 October 2025
• Matchday 4: 4/5 November 2025
• Matchday 5: 25/26 November 2025
• Matchday 6: 9/10 December 2025
• Matchday 7: 20/21 January 2026
• Matchday 8: 28 January 2026

15:50 - Looking ahead to the Champions League calendar

We’ll come back to the minutiae of the draw itself a little bit later on, but for now let’s look ahead to what lies in store for the teams involved in the Champions League.

15:40 - What clubs are involved?

There are 36 clubs in the Champions League league phase in total, including SIX from the Premier League – Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester City, Chelsea, Newcastle and Tottenham Hotspur. England were handed an additional qualification spot based on the strength of their coefficient (something that will happen to the top-ranked leagues across Europe each season) and then bagged a further additional spot when Spurs won the Europa League.

A total of 29 clubs qualified automatically, with the final seven places determined by qualifying, which concluded last night.

15:30 - The league phase format returns

Last season saw UEFA introduce their league phase format for their men’s club competitions, and that set-up looks to be here to stay. So that means the initial phase of the Champions League will see 36 teams compete in one league, with each team playing eight matches to determine the final standings.

The top eight progress automatically to the knockout stages, while the next 16 in the standings progress to an additional play-off round.

As we saw last year, it’s not actually as complicated as the draw process makes it sound, and seemed to throw up some pretty decent matches compared to the group format.

15:20 - What do UEFA have planned for us today?

UEFA typically host their draw for this stage of the Champions League in Monaco, and this season is no different, with the impressive Grimaldi Forum hosting a two-day event that they like to call the ‘season kick-off’. The usual faces will be involved no doubt, in what tends to be a pretty slick operation in truth, with the UCL draw being the headline event today.

Prior to the draw itself it is expected that we will discover the identity of the latest winner of the UEFA President’s Award, which is something akin to a special achievements award, and typically sees the winner then get involved with the draw itself. Buffon won it last year and, if you’re so inclined then you can learn more about it thanks to this handy graphic on the subject.

15:10 - How to watch the UEFA Champions League league phase draw?

If this live blog isn’t quite sufficient for you, then the key thing to know is that you can watch the Champions League league phase draw LIVE on TNT Sports 1 and stream it on discovery+.

The show starts at 17:00 BST time, with the draw occurring at some point in the hour following that (exactly when has not been confirmed by the top dogs at UEFA HQ).

This link will take you right to that feed if you want to watch it on discovery+.

15:00 - Hello and welcome

Good afternoon all, welcome to Champions League draw day! A little bit later on, the 36 clubs who have qualified for Europe’s top men’s club competition will discover their league phase fixtures, and we’ll bring you the updates right here.

- - -

Stream the Premier League, men’s and women’s FA Cup, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, UEFA Conference League and more on TNT Sports and discovery+

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