Defending champions Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) were handed meetings with Barcelona, Manchester City, and Aston Villa among their eight matches in the league phase of this season’s Champions League.
PSG, who beat Arsenal on penalties in Budapest in May to retain the trophy, will play Barcelona, Roma, Turkish champions Galatasaray, and Slovan Bratislava of Slovakia at home.
PSG will travel to England twice to face City and Villa. They beat both teams on the way to winning their first Champions League title in 2025 and also defeated the latter in the UEFA Super Cup in Austria earlier this month.
The French champions will also go to Spain to play Villarreal and Italy to take on a Como side coached by Cesc Fabregas.
PSG are aiming to become European champions for a third straight year, something only the Real Madrid of 2016 to 2018 have achieved in the last 50 years.
The first matches in this season’s league phase will be played between Tuesday, September 8, and Thursday, September 10, with the final games in late January.
UEFA is expected to announce the full fixture schedule on Saturday.
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Last season’s runners-up Arsenal, the Premier League champions, will notably host Real Madrid, Borussia Dortmund, and Lille as well as Sabah, the club from Azerbaijan who came through four two-legged qualifying ties to reach the league phase for the first time.
Arsenal have a tough list of away ties against Bayern Munich, Real Betis, Napoli, and Slavia Prague.
This is the third season since the introduction of the new format for the Champions League, with 36 teams now all pooled together in one giant league and each playing games against eight different opponents.
This season’s final will be played at the Metropolitano Stadium in Madrid on June 5, 2027.
