PSG to face Bayern and Barcelona in Champions League opening stage

MONACO: Champions League holders Paris St Germain will play Bayern Munich and Barcelona in this season’s league phase while record 15-times winners Real Madrid will face Manchester City and Liverpool after Thursday’s draw set up some blockbuster encounters.

PSG will also meet Premier League sides Tottenham Hotspur and Newcastle United along with Atalanta and Bayer Leverkusen in the new league phase format which started last season, where each club plays eight games — four at home and four on the road.

Real Madrid will play Manchester City again for a fifth consecutive season and make a trip to Liverpool in what will be a homecoming for Trent Alexander-Arnold, the English fullback who left Anfield to join Real in the close season.

Real also take on Juventus at home while they have a long flight to Eastern Europe in store when they take on Kazakhstan side Kairat Almaty, who stunned Celtic in the playoffs to qualify for the first time.

Last season’s league phase table toppers Liverpool will also face Inter Milan, Atletico Madrid and Eintracht Frankfurt, while Bayern play Chelsea, Arsenal and Club Brugge.

Pep Guardiola’s City host Dortmund, Leverkusen and Napoli while they make two trips to Spain to face Real and Villarreal.

Last season’s runners-up Inter Milan host Liverpool and Arsenal, and the Italian side will travel to Borussia Dortmund and Atletico Madrid.

Barcelona, LaLiga champions and last year’s semi-finalists, host PSG and face away games at Chelsea and Newcastle.

Arsenal, semi-finalists last season, also play Atletico Madrid and Club Brugge but their biggest opponents are Bayern, who they have faced 14 times in the competition. They have also failed to beat the German side in the last five encounters.

SIX ENGLISH CLUBS

The Premier League has the most representatives with six clubs after last season’s top five — Liverpool, Arsenal, City, Chelsea and Newcastle — qualified along with Europa League winners Tottenham.

Spurs will play Borussia Dortmund and Villarreal as well as PSG while Serie A champions Napoli face Chelsea, Man City, Frankfurt and Benfica.

Newcastle returned to the Champions League but have a tough path to the knockout phase after they were placed in pot four, drawing Barca, PSG, Benfica and Leverkusen among the teams they will face.

The league phase gets underway with the 36 teams playing on eight matchdays between September 16 and January 28. The knockout phase begins in February while the final will be played on May 30 at the Puskas Arena in Budapest.

Chelsea were honoured with a special award for becoming the first club to win the Champions League, the Europa League, the Conference League, the Super Cup and the now-defunct UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup.

Former Sweden striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic was named the winner of the UEFA President’s Award.