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.
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.
