Champions League draw in full as Liverpool handed nightmare fixtures and Arsenal, Man City and Aston Villa learn fate
LIVERPOOL have been handed a nightmare draw for this season’s Champions League.
But Arsenal, on the other hand, have been handed a doozy.
The Gunners and the Reds – along with Aston Villa and Manchester City – learned their fates for the 2024/25 instalment of Europe‘s elite club competition on Thursday evening.
EPAThe draw for the 2024/25 Champions League draw has taken place[/caption]
APCristiano Ronaldo played a big role in Arsenal, Aston Villa, Liverpool and Manchester City learning their fates for this year’s instalment of the competition[/caption]
And Liverpool fans will be cursing the supercomputer for handing them arguably the toughest draw of the competition.
Arne Slots troops face tough trips to, Italy, Germany Spain and the Netherlands to take on Serie A, La Liga, Eredivisie and Bundesliga outfits, AC Milan, Girona, PSV Eindhoven and RB Leipzig.
The Reds will welcome Bayer Leverkusen, Real Madrid, Lille and Bologna to Anfield.
Arsenal have been given a considerably easier draw in comparison to the Merseysiders.
The Gunners face a tough trip to Italy to take on AC Milan and Atalanta and will also be on the road for their clashes with Girona and Sporting Lisbon.
The supercomputer has handed Mikel Arteta’s troops home games against Shakhtar Donetsk, GNK Dinamo, Monaco and Paris Saint-Germain.
Premier League champions Manchester City, meanwhile, face away days to Juventus, Sporting Lisbon, Slovan Bratislava and Paris Saint-Germain.
The 2022/23 winners will host Inter Milan, Club Brugge, Feyenoord and Sparta Prague at the Etihad.
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Aston Villa will be on the road against RB Leipzig, Club Brugge, Young Boys and Monaco.
Bayern Munich, Juventus Bologna and Celtic will be the Villans’ opposition at Villa Park.
The 2024/25 instalment of the tournament kicks off the new format for Europe‘s elite club competition – which now features 36 teams instead of 32.
The well-known group stage format has been replaced by a SINGLE league format in which teams will play eight fixtures.
Each side will face two teams from the four-seeded pots.
In the new format, teams will play four games at home and four away.
The top eight teams will automatically secure qualification for the last 16, while the ninth to 24th-placed sides will take part in a two-legged playoff.
Teams who finished in 25th place and below will be eliminated from the tournament and WON’T drop into the Europa League.
Arsenal reached the quarter-finals of the tournament last season but were dumped out by Bayern Munich 3-2 on aggregate.
Manchester City, meanwhile, were also dumped out at the quarter-final stage.
The Premier League champions were eliminated by last season’s tournament winners Real Madrid on penalties after drawing 4-4 on aggregate.
Aston Villa and Liverpool, meanwhile, weren’t in Europe’s elite club competition last season.
Villa, who won the old European Cup in 1982, reached the semis of the Europa Conference League last season.
Unai Emery‘s troops, who sealed UCL qualification with a fourth-placed Premier League finish, were eliminated from the Conference League by Greek giants Olympiacos
Six-time winners Liverpool played in the Europa League last season and were jettisoned out of the competition at the quarter-final stage by tournament winners Atalanta.
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