PSG, Champions defender champion.
Photo: EFE – Franck Fife / Pool
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The Paris Saint-Germain, current champion, and Real Madrid, team with a record of titles in the tournament (15), will have complicated paths in the Champions League phase, according to the raffle held this Thursday in Monaco, where FC Barcelona was more fortunate.
For the second year, an automated computer system was revealing the roadmaps of each team, with the former Brazilian soccer player Kaká by clicking the button to trigger it in the case of the main favorites, the members of the 1 of the serial heads.
From mid-September at the end of January, for eight days, the 36 teams of the Single Group will determine a joint classification in which the first eight will directly access the round of 16 and the teams between the ninth and the twenty-up they will have to face in a play-off to look for that same goal.
No relaxation for the PSG
Azar was not benevolent with the title defender, the PSG, who will have a real path of obstacles in those eight days, without any that allows a theoretical relaxation.
Last year the Parisians avoided premature elimination on the last day and this course will have uncomfortable exits to the FC Barcelona fields, the Bayer Leverkusen, the Portuguese champion Sporting of Lisbon and the Athletic Club of Bilbao.
In the Park of the Princes there will also be visitors with Pedigrí: Bayern de Munich, Newcastle, Atalanta and Tottenham, those last two the two most recent victors in the Europa League.
None of the ashroud theorists of Cups 3 and 4 was for Luis Enrique's team.
Face and cross for the great Spaniards
The eternal rivals Real Madrid and Barcelona had unequal luck, with more hardness for the former.
White will have to see two great English such as Liverpool, with which they already played in the league last season, and Manchester City, which they eliminated in the access play-off to access to the round of 16.
This is historic such as Juventus and Benfica, two French Ligue 1 teams (Marseille and Monaco) and two displacements to the lands of Olympiakos and the distant Kairat Almaty Kazajo.
For Barça, the PSG of his former coach Luis Enrique and the world champion Chelsea will be the two great obstacles. The rest of adversaries (Eintracht, Bruges, Olympiakos, Slavia Prague, Copenhagen, Newcastle) seem more affordable.
Atlético de Madrid will have to visit two great English (Liverpool and Arsenal) in that league, while Athletic will be local to its strongest rivals (PSG and Arsenal), just as it will happen to Villarreal (Manchester City and Juventus).
Bruyne will return to Etihad
Among the duels that this automated raffle held some loaded of special significance.
The Naples will have for example that visiting Manchester City, which will mean the return of Belgian Kevin de Bruyne to Etihad Stadium, the stadium where he got his greatest successes, to visit a club he left in June after ten seasons.
The raffle also gave a curious confrontation between the Kaira Almath Kazajo and the Pafos Chipriot, two of the new faces and considered the ashlinders of the tournament after getting his classification this week by surprise.
Among the greats, Real Madrid will be the only one who has to travel to Kazakhstan to visit Kaira Almity, on a long trip of 6,500 kilometers.
New hour for the final
The final of the competition will take place at the Puskas Arena in Budapest on May 30, 2026 and the main novelty will be the schedule, since it will go from the 21h00 local at 6:00 p.m.
The objective, according to the governing instance of European football, is “to improve the experience of the game days and benefit fans, teams and host cities.”
It is also intended to offer “better access to public transport, especially after the game, and a safer return from the stadium” for fans.
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