Paris Saint-Germain have been handed a tough start to the defense of their Champions League trophy, with Thursday’s 36-team league phase draw assigning them a home clash with coach Luis Enrique’s former side Barcelona as well as trips to 2023 winners Manchester City and Europa League holders Aston Villa.
PSG have won three straight visits to Barcelona — including a 2-1 win in the league phase last October — since imploding in the famous 6-1 loss in March 2017 that is known as the “Remontada” game.
The French champions also visit Champions League newcomers Como, coached by Cesc Fàbregas, in an eight-game slate that starts in two weeks’ time.
Last year’s beaten finalists Arsenal also face an unenviable league phase schedule, up against record 15-time winners Real Madrid along with German duo Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund.
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In other standout matchups revealed in Thursday’s draw in Monaco, Manchester United — on their return to the competition after a two-year absence — face a rematch of their famous 1999 final triumph against Bayern.
After returning to Real Madrid this summer, coach José Mourinho will be faced with another familiar opponent in Inter Milan, the club he led to Champions League glory in 2010 before departing for his first spell at the Bernabéu.
Madrid will make two trips to London, at Arsenal and against Shakhtar Donetsk. Ukraine’s champions are playing home games at Stamford Bridge, where Mourinho was beloved by Chelsea fans in a pair of title-winning spells there.
Barcelona will host two English clubs — Man City and Villa plus their former player Fàbregas with Como. A long trip to Azerbaijan awaits to face debutant Sabah in Baku.
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Liverpool got trips to Inter Milan and Fenerbahce in what looked one of the more favorable slates of eight games. Atlético Madrid will again come to Anfield where Liverpool won 3-2 last September.
Atlético also will play both Norwegian teams and are one of four teams heading inside the Arctic Circle to play on Bodo/Glimt’s artificial turf. Dortmund, Lille and newcomer LASK also will travel to the remote fishing town, and one team must make the trip in January.
There were four debutantes in the draw: Como from Italy; LASK of Austria; Viking from Norway; and Azerbaijani champion Sabah, who were founded only in 2017.
Como have a second trip to Spain, to play Real Betis as well as Barcelona, and will welcome PSG and Man United to their picture-postcard lakeside stadium home.
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Sabah also will host Dortmund, Napoli and Slavia Prague. Fans also have two long trips from Azerbaijan to England to face Arsenal and Man United.
UEFA’s draw software allocated eight opponents to each team — four home games, four away — with two opponents taken from each seeding pot. Seeding was decided by ranking a team’s European results over the past five years. Teams were prevented from being paired with an opponent from their own country.
The first round of games is played Sept. 8-10 with the first six rounds played through December. The league phase resumes in January with the eighth and final round on Jan. 27.
The full match schedule for each team will be revealed on Saturday.
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The top eight teams in the final standings go direct to the round of 16 in March. Teams placed ninth to 24th enter the knockout playoffs in February to decide the other eight teams in the round of 16. Teams placed 25th to 36th are eliminated.
The 36 teams will share prize money of about €2.5 billion ($2.9 billion)
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
