Breaking: A new Champions League draw prediction has surfaced, with Arsenal facing a more formidable opponent who may force them out of the group stage.
The group stage draw for the UEFA Champions League is set to take place at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco on Thursday, August 29.
The 2024–25 season will adopt a 36-team single-group format in place of its current structure. This move makes the group stages last longer, but it also allows more teams to participate, which means there will be more thrilling matchups.
The 70th season of Europe’s top club competition is also the first with the new format. It has been around for 33 seasons since it was renamed the UEFA Champions League. The competition got underway on July 9, 2024, and will end on Saturday, May 31, 2025, with the final held in Munich, Germany.
Preview of the previous season
Real Madrid won their sixth championship in eleven years and the record fifteenth time overall in the previous campaign.
With three victories in a row, Los Blancos also established the record for the most flawless group-stage campaigns.
After winning the Champions League with AC Milan in 2003 and 2007 and Real Madrid in 2014, 2022, and 2024, Carlo Ancelotti’s record now stands at five. With three of these victories with Madrid, he also tied the record held by Zinedine Zidane (Madrid) and Bob Paisley (Liverpool) for the most titles won with a single team.
A youthful, resolute Borussia Dortmund team also defied the odds to defeat Paris Saint-Germain in the semifinals and Atletico Madrid in the quarterfinals to advance to the competition final, where they were ultimately defeated by Madrid.
The Premier League teams had somewhat uneven seasons; Arsenal and Manchester City both lost to Munich and Madrid in the quarterfinals, while Manchester United and Newcastle United were eliminated in the group stages.
The Champions League’s new “Swiss Model” structure
As stated earlier, the competition will now include 36 teams; however, the eight groups of four that were previously used will be replaced by a single league that will include all 36 teams. This does not imply that every squad will play every other team. Rather, the “Swiss Model,” which is commonly employed in chess competitions, will be employed. Each club will play eight games under this system, four of them at home and four away.
The Premier League teams had somewhat uneven seasons; Arsenal and Manchester City both lost to Munich and Madrid in the quarterfinals, while Manchester United and Newcastle United were eliminated in the group stages.
The Champions League’s new “Swiss Model” structure
As stated earlier, the competition will now include 36 teams; however, the eight groups of four that were previously used will be replaced by a single league that will include all 36 teams. This does not imply that every squad will play every other team. Rather, the “Swiss Model,” which is commonly employed in chess competitions, will be employed. Each club will play eight games under this system, four of them at home and four away.
The top eight teams in the league after this first round will automatically advance to the final 16. Teams that finish 25th or lower are eliminated from all European competitions for that season, while teams ranked ninth through 24th will compete for the remaining spots in a play-off round.
Based on their club coefficients at the beginning of the season, the 36 teams will be split into four pots. Madrid, the reigning champions, and other elite teams with high UEFA coefficients will be in Pot 1.
Clubs from the same nation are normally not drawn against one another, but if a nation enters the competition with four or more teams, there’s a chance those teams may play one another in a single match.
These modifications will result in a considerable increase in the number of games played in the UEFA Champions League. Although there are 125 games in this season, there will be 189 games in the following season, making it the biggest European competition to date.
The 2024–25 knockout phase format
Under the new league format, the outcomes of each game will determine the overall standings, with a win worth three points and a draw worth one.
The clubs placing ninth through twenty-four will compete in a two-leg knockout play-off to guarantee a spot in the round of sixteen, while the top eight teams in the league will automatically advance to the round of sixteen. Teams that place 25th or lower will not be allowed to participate in the UEFA Europa League and will be eliminated from the competition.
The new format guarantees that there will be something to play for until the last night of the league phase, with all teams ranked in a single league.
Teams ranked 9–16 will receive a seed in the knockout play-offs, and they will play teams ranked 17–24. The higher-ranked teams will usually host the home leg of the match. The top eight finishers, who will be seeded in this round, will face off against the eight winners of these play-offs in the round of 16.
