Arsenal will take on European giants PSG and Inter Milan in the brand new league phase of the Champions League.
Liverpool will host Real Madrid in a spectacular encounter and will take on RB Leipzig away from home. They will also host Bayer Leverkusen and travel to the San Siro to face AC Milan.
Manchester City face PSG and Juventus away from home as well as Inter Milan at home in their most eye-catching matches.
Aston Villa will host German giants Bayern Munich in a glamour tie at Villa Park and they also travel to RB Leipzig.
Each team will play four games at home and four games away for a total of eight fixtures, two more than under the previous format. These eight encounters will be with eight different opponents.
The league-phase calendar with the match dates and times will be released on Saturday.
Cristiano Ronaldo and Gianluigi Buffon – honoured with individual awards before the draw – were involved in the draw in Monaco on Thursday night.
This new era of the Champions League will see four more teams compete in the new league phase. Instead of 32 competing sides being divided into eight groups of four, all 36 teams in this year’s Champions League will form a single league.
The top eight sides in the league after the competition’s first phase will progress directly to the last-16. Teams placed ninth to 24th will have to negotiate a play-off round, while teams that finish 25th or lower will be eliminated from all European competition.
More to follow…
