“Die Meister. Dieesten. Les Grandes Équipes. The champions.” The national anthem goes out and again Monaco becomes the center of European football. Today, Thursday 28 August 2025, at 12 o'clock, Real Madrid teaches his first eight opponents on their way to a desired 16th Champions League crown.
With the new format that was introduced last season, almost anything is possible in front of the Xabi Alonso side. The only certainty is that Madrid will avoid the other four Spanish clubs in this opening phase. Furthermore, with 31 potential opponents, the combinations are almost endless. Balls are drawn one by one before a computer randomly determines the matchups.
Madrid, currently top of the UEFA ranking, will be sown again. But unlike in the past, this no longer means that avoiding the other teams in pot 1. They will be guaranteed to be confronted with two of the next seven: PSG, Manchester City, Bayern, Liverpool, Inter, Chelsea and Dortmund. One will come to the Bernabéu and Madrid will travel to the other person's stadium. The last place in pot 1 is Barcelona, although a Clásico cannot happen at this stage due to the limitation of the country.
In Pot 2 the men from Alonso Atlético and Villarreal avoid, but Arsenal, Leverkusen, Benfica, Atalanta, Juventus, Eintracht Frankfurt or Club Brugge were able to meet. Again, two rivals come from this group – one at home, one road.
Van Pot 3 are each of the nine teams possible opponents: Tottenham, PSV, Ajax, Napoli, Sporting Lisbon, Olympiacos, Slavia Prague, Bodo/Glimt and Marseille. Madrid is also linked to two of them.
And finally, Pot 4-including Athletic-de Kampioenen against Copenhagen, Monaco, Galatasaray, Union Saint-Gilloise, Qarabag, Newcastle, Pafos or Kairat Almaty could place. Again, one draw at the Bernabéu and one road.
The opponents will be announced this afternoon, but the schedule and competition times will only be announced on Friday evening or Saturday morning.
The new competition phase format means that the top eight teams in the general classification continue directly to the round of 16. Clubs that end 9th to 24th go in a play-off round, while those from 25 to 36th are downright eliminated-without Safetet in the Europa League.