The UEFA Champions League kicks off this week with a model new format and an expanded variety of groups and video games.
Actual Madrid took dwelling final 12 months’s title after beating Borussia Dortmund 2-0 at Wembley, however the subject is broad open because the 2024-25 competitors begins.
As an alternative of enjoying six “group” video games towards the identical three groups, this 12 months’s Champions League opponents will play eight “league” video games towards quite a lot of groups from throughout the continent. Whereas each workforce’s “league” setup appears to be like totally different, every one has been adjusted for issue and may seize the identical variety of top-tier (Manchester Metropolis, Bayern Munich) and lower-tier (Sturm Graz, Slovan Bratislava) opponents.
Groups will obtain three factors for every win, one level for every draw and nil factors for every loss within the “league” part. As soon as all eight matchdays have been performed, the eight groups with probably the most factors will qualify for the knockout spherical. The following 16 will battle one another in a two-legged playoff, with the winners advancing and the losers getting eradicated from the competitors.
By the point March rolls round, the Champions League could have whittled itself down from 36 groups to only 16, and its conventional knockout part will start.
