The 2024-25 UEFA Champions League’s newly established league phase is set.
UEFA revealed the league phase schedule on Thursday in Switzerland with all 32 teams learning their schedules. Reigning UCL holders Real Madrid earned a road trip to Liverpool and a home clash with Borussia Dortmund while several other top European clubs received intriguing ties of their own.
Each team will play eight matches (four at home, four away) respectively in the league phase, being paired with four additional opponents. The top eight ranked teams will receive a bye to the Round of 16, while the teams ranked from ninth to 24th will contest the knockout phase play-offs (9th-16th seeded for draw).
Teams ranked from 25th-36th are eliminated from all competitions, with no access to the UEFA Europa League.
2022-23 winners Manchester City hosts Inter Milan in a rematch of that season’s final, while also traveling to Paris Saint-Germain and Juventus.
Bayern Munich and Barcelona will rekindle their rivalry with a showdown at the Camp Nou. Julian Nagelsmann’s squad also hosts PSG, Benfica, and Aston Villa as part of their eight league matches.
Liverpool faces a trip to AC Milan, in addition to hosting Real Madrid. Atletico Madrid faces a trip to PSG as well, while Arsenal travels to Inter Milan and Atalanta.
The U.S. men’s national team will be well represented as 11 players get set to feature in Europe’s top club competition. Christian Pulisic, Yunus Musah, Weston McKennie, Timothy Weah, Gio Reyna, Ricardo Pepi, Malik Tillman, Sergino Dest, Richie Ledezma, Cameron Carter-Vickers, and Folarin Balogun are all slated to be part of their respective squads.
League phase play begins on September 16-17.
A full breakdown of the schedules for all 32 clubs can be found on the UEFA website here.
Here is a list of the league phase schedules for each American player:
Christian Pulisic, Yunus Musah: vs. Liverpool, at Real Madrid, vs. Club Brugge, at Bayer Leverkusen, vs. Red Star Belgrade, at Dinamo Zagreb, vs. Girona, at Slovan Bratislava.
Tim Weah, Weston McKennie: vs. Manchester City, at RB Leipzig, vs. Benfica, at Club Brugge, vs. PSV, at Lille, vs. Stuttgart, at Aston Villa.
Malik Tillman, Ricardo Pepi, Sergino Dest, Richie Ledezma: vs. Liverpool, at PSG, vs. Shakhtar Donetsk, at Juventus, vs. Sporting Lisbon, at Red Star Belgrade, vs. Girona, at Stade Brest.
Gio Reyna: vs. Barcelona, at Real Madrid, vs. Shakhtar Donetsk, at Club Brugge, vs. Celtic, at Dinamo Zagreb, vs. Sturm Graz, at Bologna.
Folarin Balogun: vs. Barcelona, at Inter Milan, vs. Benfica, at Arsenal, vs. Red Star Belgrade, at Dinamo Zagreb, vs. Aston Villa, at Bologna.
Cameron Carter-Vickers: vs. RB Leipzig, at Borussia Dortmund, vs. Club Brugge, at Atalanta, vs. Young Boys, at Dinamo Zagreb, vs. Slovan Bratislava, at Aston Villa.
This is going to be a weird format. Going to take time to get used to it.
Maybe the Leagues Cup will adopt something close to this. The whole breaking for a month from regular season just doesn’t do it for me.