- PSG Draw Barcelona and Manchester City
- Real Madrid Face Arsenal and Inter
- Bayern Munich and Liverpool Also Face Tough Tests
- Five Premier League Clubs and Five From LaLiga
- How the 2026/27 Champions League League Phase Works
- When Does the Champions League League Phase Start?
- Champions League Final Returns to Madrid
Paris Saint-Germain will begin their Champions League title defence against a demanding league-phase schedule after being drawn against Barcelona and Manchester City in Monaco on Thursday.
The reigning European champions will host Barcelona and Manchester City, while also facing Roma, Aston Villa, Galatasaray, Villarreal, Slovan Bratislava and Como. The draw gives Luis Enrique’s side two immediate tests against fellow European heavyweights and leaves little room for complacency across the eight-match phase.
PSG retained the European title last season after beating Arsenal on penalties in the final, following a 1-1 draw. They now enter the 2026/27 competition as the team everyone else will be trying to knock off the summit.
PSG Draw Barcelona and Manchester City
The meeting with Barcelona stands out as one of the headline fixtures of the league phase. PSG will welcome the Spanish champions to Paris before travelling to Manchester City, giving the holders two of the competition’s biggest clubs as early examinations of their credentials.
Manchester City will also have to negotiate a difficult schedule. Pep Guardiola’s side will travel to PSG and Barcelona, while their other opponents include Sporting CP, Napoli, AEK Athens, Porto, RB Leipzig and Lens. The combination of elite opposition and demanding away fixtures makes City’s route through the league phase particularly intriguing.
Barcelona, meanwhile, have home matches against Manchester City, Aston Villa, Feyenoord and Como. Their away assignments include PSG, Sporting CP, Galatasaray and Sabah.
Real Madrid Face Arsenal and Inter
Real Madrid have also been handed a pair of heavyweight fixtures. The 15-time European champions will host Inter Milan and travel to Arsenal, with PSV Eindhoven, Roma, RB Leipzig, Shakhtar Donetsk, LASK and AEK Athens completing their schedule.
The Madrid-Arsenal meeting carries added significance after the Spanish club appointed Jose Mourinho for a second spell as head coach in June. Mourinho previously led Inter to the Champions League title in 2010 before moving to Real Madrid, making the meeting with Inter another significant storyline in the draw.
Arsenal will face Madrid at home but must also travel to Bayern Munich. Their other opponents are Borussia Dortmund, Lille, Real Betis, Napoli, Slavia Prague and debutants Sabah.
Bayern Munich and Liverpool Also Face Tough Tests
Bayern Munich’s most prominent fixtures include a home meeting with Arsenal and away trips to Atletico Madrid and Manchester United. The German giants will also play Real Betis, Borussia Dortmund, Lille, Slavia Prague and Viking.
Liverpool, under new manager Andoni Iraola, will meet Inter and Atletico Madrid among their eight opponents. The English club will host Atletico, Porto, Villarreal and Lens, while their away games include Inter, Club Brugge, Fenerbahce and LASK.
Manchester United will return to Europe’s premier club competition after a two-season absence. Their schedule includes home matches against Bayern Munich and Roma, while Atletico Madrid, Sporting CP, Villarreal and Como await away from home. Leipzig and Sabah complete their league-phase opponents.
Five Premier League Clubs and Five From LaLiga
The Premier League and LaLiga are the best-represented domestic competitions in this season’s Champions League, with five clubs each.
England’s representatives are Arsenal, Manchester City, Manchester United, Aston Villa and Liverpool. Spain’s five are Barcelona, Real Madrid, Villarreal, Atletico Madrid and Real Betis.
Aston Villa have been handed meetings with PSG and Barcelona, while Atletico face Bayern Munich, Manchester United and Liverpool. Villarreal will play PSG, Manchester United, Napoli and Liverpool, ensuring several clubs from Europe’s major leagues have difficult league-phase schedules.
How the 2026/27 Champions League League Phase Works
The Champions League continues with the 36-team league-phase format introduced in the 2024/25 season. Each club plays eight matches against eight different opponents, with four games at home and four away.
The opponents are drawn from four seeding pots, with each team receiving two opponents from every pot. Clubs cannot face another team from the same national association and can meet no more than two clubs from any other individual association.
After eight matchdays, the top eight teams in the standings advance directly to the round of 16. Teams finishing from ninth to 24th enter the knockout phase play-offs, while those finishing 25th or lower are eliminated from the competition.
When Does the Champions League League Phase Start?
The first league-phase matches will be played from September 8 to 10, 2026. The remaining matchdays will take place in October, November, December and January, with the final league-phase games scheduled for January 27, 2027. UEFA is due to confirm the individual match dates and kick-off times by Saturday, August 29.
The knockout phase play-offs begin in February, followed by the round of 16 in March. The quarter-finals are scheduled for April, with the semi-finals taking place across late April and early May.
Champions League Final Returns to Madrid
The 2026/27 Champions League campaign will conclude at Atletico Madrid’s Estadio Metropolitano on Saturday, June 5, 2027. It will be the second Champions League final staged at the stadium, which previously hosted Liverpool’s 2-0 victory over Tottenham in 2019.
For PSG, the road to Madrid begins with perhaps the toughest possible test of their credentials. Barcelona and Manchester City will provide immediate opportunities to measure the holders against two of Europe’s strongest sides, while the league-phase format leaves eight matches in which every point can influence the route into the knockout rounds.
The draw has therefore delivered more than a collection of attractive fixtures. It has established an early test of whether PSG can remain at the top of European football while giving Barcelona, Manchester City, Real Madrid, Arsenal, Bayern Munich and Liverpool their own demanding routes towards the final.
